Electric Safety Tips

General Info

Stay away from elec­tri­cal equip­ment, which includes poles, guy wires, sub­sta­tions, under­ground trans­form­ers, and trucks work­ing on lines.

When you see Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive crews with trucks and equip­ment along road­sides, slow down and pro­ceed slow­ly with care.

Downed Power Line Safety

If a pow­er line falls, stay away from it! Report the downed line to 911 imme­di­ate­ly.

Call us at 800–421-2343, imme­di­ate­ly if you see a downed line. Don’t touch it! You should always assume a downed wire is live.

Overhead Power Line Safety

Call us to trim trees near pow­er lines.

Call the Util­i­ties Pro­tec­tion Coun­cil (UPC) by dial­ing 811 before work­ing near over­head pow­er lines.

Nev­er allow pool clean­ing equip­ment to touch pow­er lines near the pool area.

Don’t build or con­struct any­thing under over­head pow­er lines.

Keep lad­ders, anten­nas and poles away from pow­er lines.

If you have a swim­ming pool, make sure that over­head wiring does not pass over the pool and is safe­ly away from the pool area.

Keep kites, toys, drones, and oth­er fly­ing objects away from over­head pow­er lines.

Underground Power Line Safety

Don’t dig near under­ground lines with­out call­ing Geor­gia Util­i­ties Pro­tec­tion Cen­ter at 800–282-7411. This free ser­vice will noti­fy CEC to locate the lines so you can dig safe­ly.

Do not plant trees/shrubbery or place obstruc­tions with­in 10 feet of green trans­former box­es or beneath over­head elec­tri­cal lines.

Water Safety

When boat­ing, launch your boat before rais­ing the sail. Always look for pow­er lines around the boat land­ings and lake cross­ings.

Elec­tric­i­ty and water are a dan­ger­ous com­bi­na­tion. Be sure out­lets near sinks, tubs, pools, and oth­er sources of water are wired with ground fault cir­cuit inter­rupters.

Don’t let boat anten­nas, sail masts or fish­ing poles come into con­tact with over­head pow­er lines.

Nev­er run exten­sion cords out­side after a heavy rain. Even though the rain has stopped, the ground may still be wet, and any­thing wet will con­duct elec­tric­i­ty.

Outdoor Safety

Util­i­ty poles are not places to attach signs. Nails and sta­ples can inter­fere with spe­cial climb­ing hooks used by line work­ers to climb poles and can also increase the risk of elec­tro­cu­tion.

The best place to be dur­ing a thun­der­storm is inside. When you see a storm approach­ing, seek shel­ter right away.

Make sure exten­sion cords you use out­doors are rat­ed for out­door use, in good con­di­tion (no cuts or frays), and plugged into prop­er­ly ground­ed out­lets.