59 hours after power restoration began, Flint Energies has restored about 27,000 members, leaving 3,619 to be served in the coming days.

“Several rested crews worked overnight to restore about 1500 members,” said Chief Operating Officer Ty Diamond. “The complete work crew restarted at 6 am this morning, including workers from other sister cooperatives from North Carolina, Missouri and Kentucky. Tennessee crews will be here today to join us in the battle,” he said. 

“Safety is the number one concern for our members and our linemen,” said Vice President of Cooperative Communications Marian McLemore. “Sadly, we have heard of injuries due to carbon monoxide from generators and we heard a lineman was injured at another Georgia cooperative yesterday. All our determined linemen will work steadily and safely toward the goal of full restoration.”

No circuit level outages remain for Flint Energies. There are now 329 separate locations which must be visited for restoration which means more trees to cut, more line to replace and reattach, and more fuses to replace, she added.

“Safe power restoration takes time,” she said. “Our goal is to restore power safely to the greatest number of people in the shortest time possible. Flint estimates it will be Monday before everyone is restored.”

The Porch Light – How You can Help Your Neighbor Who Is Still Out of Power

Many of you have been helping neighbors due their lack of power. There is another hint that may help Flint’s line crews in their work as they get down to the individual outages. If you have power and your neighbor does not, may we suggest that you turn on your porch light for the next couple of days.

The linemen may be able to more quickly find the localized outage and perhaps determine its cause if you can help them answer the question: “How many homes in this neighborhood are affected by this outage?” The porch light gives them a quick survey answer.

Hints for Those Who Retreated to Another Location Due to the Lack of Power

If you moved to a hotel, or to a family member’s home with power while waiting for your restoration, you may want to know when your house is restored. Today’s technology offers potential ways for members to check the status of their power if they are not in their home. Many folks have home automation and security systems that can be checked via your cell phone. When power and Wi-Fi return to your home, you should be able to connect again on your phone.

For the more traditional home which still has a landline, you may want to call your answering machine. If it answers, the power is restored.

We understand these solutions are not universal.

Reporting Outages

By phone--Flint’s phone system at 1-888-354-6836. The system works by matching the members’ caller ID number with the phone number in the Flint billing database. If the match does not occur automatically, the system will ask an agent to confirm the outage location.

By Smart phone app--Members can also use the Flint Energies app on their smart phone to report an outage (Some Android versions not available.)

Online at the website--You can also report your outage at www.flintenergies.com

Current Status

Options for Medical Priority Patients

Flint Energies cannot assure that electric power will always be available. If a member depends on life support, and the loss of electricity affects these life support systems, they must have a back-up plan. Flint will give critical care members priority when it begins restoring power at the tap-line and individual home stage of the restoration process, but that process will not begin until the circuit outages are handled. This stage of restoration has not yet started after the Irma damage. Caregivers of in-home critical care patients should always have an evacuation plan or a plan for how to handle extended outages in the event of a natural disaster or severe storm.