One year after Hurricane Helene struck Georgia, the event continues to highlight the importance of severe weather preparedness for both Georgia Power and its customers. The hurricane made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm before moving into Georgia as a Category 2, resulting in significant damage across the state. According to FEMA, 53 counties were declared major disaster sites following the storm.
Georgia Power described Helene as the most destructive hurricane in its 140-year history, surpassing the combined impact of hurricanes Michael, Irma, and Matthew. In total, the company restored service to 1.5 million customer outages after the storm.
The company stated that it maintains constant monitoring of weather conditions and potential threats to its power grid. It anticipated severe damage from Helene more than a week before landfall and began early preparations by mobilizing additional staff from across the industry and pre-positioning restoration workers, equipment, and supplies near areas expected to be affected.
For Hurricane Helene, Georgia Power organized its largest restoration operation ever. More than 20,000 personnel—including every Georgia Power crew along with teams from over 35 partner companies in the U.S. and Canada—participated in efforts to restore power and rebuild infrastructure. Crews repaired or replaced more than 11,800 power poles, over 1,500 miles of power lines, upwards of 5,800 transformers, and cleared more than 3,200 trees impacting lines. In certain areas where damage was extensive, parts of the power grid had to be rebuilt entirely.
Despite widespread destruction caused by Hurricane Helene, Georgia Power reported that it restored electricity to 95% of affected customers within eight days. More than 523,000 customers had their service restored within the first two days following the storm.
To mark the anniversary of Hurricane Helene and discuss ongoing efforts related to severe weather response and recovery operations, Georgia Power has introduced a new podcast called Circuit Cast on Apple Podcasts. The inaugural episode features Walt Dukes, distribution manager for Georgia Power in Augusta: “In this episode I reflect on my experience managing restoration efforts during Hurricane Helene,” Dukes said.
