Thousands of Canoochee EMC customers, or members, were left in the dark after a violent storm pushed through the area Sunday evening. 

The storm brought strong winds, lightning and rain in a blast that knocked down power lines and caused damage in several parts of Canoochee EMC’s system.  As of 8 a.m. July 2, over 2,500 homes were still left without power, but by that evening all power had been restored.

The majority of the outages were in Bryan County in the areas of Ellabell and Pembroke.  Long County was also hit particularly hard.  Many other areas in Canoochee’s system were also affected, but not nearly to the same degree.

“We were fortunate that we have been preparing for such a storm by cutting as many trees from near the power lines as possible,” said Dusty James, Canoochee EMC Chief Executive Officer.

Right of Way trimming is a contentious subject for many members, but one of the biggest problems during any storm is debris falling on the power lines.  By trimming the lines, many outages are prevented before they happen.

Canoochee EMC is a member owned electric cooperative serving roughly 14,000 members in parts of nine Southeast Georgia Counties.