DUDLEY, N.C. – Tri-County EMC met this morning with crews and office personnel to activate our emergency response plan in preparation for Hurricane Florence. Our service territory is expected to receive flooding and high winds which could create hazardous situations with prolonged power outages.

Should outages occur as a result of Hurricane Florence, crews will begin responding as soon as conditions are clear and safe. If winds reach 40 miles per hour, the co-op will suspend restoration efforts.  Additional crews from sister co-ops in Alabama and Tennessee are en route to assist with outage restoration as well as local contract and right-of-way crews.

As a reminder, if members are without electricity and want to use a portable generator, make sure it is use in a well-ventilated area. Don't connect the generator to your home’s electrical panel or fuse boxes. It may cause electricity to feed back into the power lines, which can endanger linemen and damage electric service facilities.

Also, following a storm, debris can cover power lines that have fallen and even standing near downed lines can be dangerous. Report downed power lines to Tri-County EMC or call 911 immediately.

Tri-County EMC members are encouraged to charge their cell phones and keep the co-op’s outage number (919-735-2611 or 1-800-548-4869) accessible. When reporting an outage, please have your account or location number available.

Members may monitor the status of power outages via our outage map at https://outage.tcemc.com. Also follow us on Facebook @TriCountyEMC.

Tri-County Electric Membership Corporation is a member owned electric cooperative serving some 25,000 members in Wayne, Duplin and Lenoir counties in North Carolina