Are you ready for storm season?

By James Thomas, Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive Train­ing and Safe­ty Coor­di­na­tor

There’s some­thing spe­cial about this time of year on the Geor­gia coast. As spring rolls into sum­mer, it brings plen­ty of chances to get out on the boat, fire up the grill with friends, tend the gar­den and soak up a lit­tle extra sun­shine.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, spring and sum­mer can also cre­ate the per­fect con­di­tions for severe storms.

Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive crews are always pre­pared and stand­ing by to respond, should pow­er out­ages occur in our area. When severe storms cause pow­er dis­rup­tions, our line crews take all nec­es­sary pre­cau­tions before they get to work on any downed lines.

Though we do our best to respond quick­ly and restore pow­er as soon as pos­si­ble when out­ages hap­pen, I encour­age our mem­bers to also prac­tice safe­ty and pre­pared­ness.

The Fed­er­al Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency (FEMA) rec­om­mends the items below as a start­ing point for storm and dis­as­ter pre­pared­ness, but you can vis­it ready.gov or the Safe­ty Cen­ter on CoastalElectric.Coop for addi­tion­al resources.

• Stock your pantry with a three-day sup­ply of non­per­ish­able foods, includ­ing canned goods, ener­gy bars, peanut but­ter, pow­dered milk, instant cof­fee, water and oth­er essen­tials (e.g., dia­pers and toi­letries).
• Con­firm that you have ade­quate san­i­ta­tion and hygiene sup­plies, includ­ing tow­elettes, soap and hand san­i­tiz­er.
• Ensure your first-aid kit is stocked with pain reliev­ers, ban­dages and oth­er med­ical essen­tials, and make sure your pre­scrip­tions are cur­rent.
• Set aside basic house­hold items you will need, includ­ing flash­lights, bat­ter­ies, a man­u­al can open­er and a portable, bat­tery-pow­ered radio or TV.
• Orga­nize emer­gency sup­plies so they are eas­i­ly acces­si­ble in one loca­tion.

In the event of a pro­longed pow­er out­age, turn off major appli­ances, TVs, com­put­ers and oth­er sen­si­tive elec­tron­ics. This will help avert dam­age from poten­tial pow­er surges, as well as help pre­vent over­load­ing cir­cuits dur­ing pow­er restora­tion. That said, do leave one light on so you will know when pow­er is restored.

If you plan to use a portable gen­er­a­tor, make sure it’s rat­ed to han­dle the amount of pow­er you will need, and always review the manufacturer’s instruc­tions to oper­ate it safe­ly.

Nev­er run your gen­er­a­tor indoors or in your garage. Gen­er­a­tors should only be run in a well-ven­ti­lat­ed area. Gaso­line-pow­ered gen­er­a­tors pro­duce car­bon monox­ide and the fumes can be dead­ly with­out ade­quate ven­ti­la­tion.

Do not con­nect your pow­er gen­er­a­tor direct­ly to your home’s main fuse box or cir­cuit pan­el. This could cause “back­feed­ing,” send­ing pow­er back down the lines and cre­at­ing a severe elec­tro­cu­tion risk for linework­ers. The only safe way to con­nect a gen­er­a­tor to your home’s elec­tri­cal sys­tem is by hav­ing a licensed elec­tri­cian install a man­u­al trans­fer switch or an inter­lock kit.

Advance plan­ning for severe storms or oth­er emer­gen­cies can reduce stress and anx­i­ety caused by the weath­er event and lessen the impact of the storm’s effects. Sign up for local emer­gency alerts and warn­ings and fol­low us on Face­book for pow­er restora­tion updates.

If you expe­ri­ence an out­age, report it using the Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive app, vis­it­ing CoastalElectric.Coop/outages or call­ing (800) 421‑2343. All three of these chan­nels ensure your spe­cif­ic out­age gets added to our out­age man­age­ment sys­tem and that a line crew is dis­patched to help as soon as pos­si­ble.

Severe storms can some­times bring down pow­er lines. If you see a downed line, always assume it’s ener­gized and nev­er approach it. If flood­ing occurs, nev­er walk through areas where pow­er lines could be sub­merged.

Some­times after a storm, our mem­bers lend a hand to speed up restora­tion time by grab­bing their chain­saws and clear­ing trees before our line crews arrive. We’re grate­ful for that com­mu­ni­ty spir­it, but we’d like to offer a word of cau­tion: Avoid any tree that might be in con­tact with pow­er lines, even if you think the lines are dead! Get­ting ahead on storm cleanup is not worth the risk of los­ing a life.

At Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive, we hope for the best but plan for the worst. My hope is that the spring and sum­mer months bring pleas­ant weath­er and no severe storms, but we can nev­er out-hope Moth­er Nature.

Your friends at Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive will be pre­pared, no mat­ter the weath­er. We encour­age our mem­bers to plan ahead along­side us, because storm pre­pared­ness is always our best defense.