Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative (CCEC) crews are assisting Rutherford EMC in restoring power lost during Hurricane Helene.

Helene brought heavy rainfall and strong winds to areas in central and western North Carolina after hitting the coast of Florida as a Category 4 hurricane. As of 10 a.m. Friday, more than 183,000 electric cooperative members were without power in central and western North Carolina.

Rutherford EMC serves over 67,000 members and owns and maintains approximately 7,000 miles of line in its ten-county service area in Western North Carolina. On Friday morning, 57,000 Rutherford EMC members were without power.

Answering the mutual aid call from CCEC are Director of Engineering Rex LaRowe, Line Supervisor Steve Smith and Linemen Earl Jones, Dowle Smith, Justin Williford, Greyson Millis, T.J. Ross, Hayden Crump, Cameron England, Kody Culpepper, and Gary Mann.

“Our crews are all-too familiar in restoring power after hurricanes and tropical storms, but these guys are eager to help out a sister co-op,” said Will Pittman, CCEC vice-president of operations. “We’ve had crews from North Carolina and surrounding states come to our aid during recent hurricanes, and it feels good to reciprocate.”

Power restoration teams from cooperatives in other less-affected parts of the state are joining local crews and working together until service is restored to all co-op members. Real-time outage information from electric cooperatives across the state is available on a Statewide Outage Map.