Idalia leaves nearly 100K customers without power in Georgia

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - Across the state, officials with Georgia Power said more than 96,000 people were left without power on Wednesday night.

Over 150,000 were out of power across the state around 5 p.m. Wednesday evening. In Florida, that number was more than 270,000.

Georgia Power Spokesperson Kelly Richardson said that in terms of the state as a whole, there still is not a full picture of how many will be impacted.

“This is still an evolving situation,” Richardson said. “The storm is still moving through Georgia as we speak. So it’s very likely those numbers could increase as we head through the rest of today. But we have crews that are ready to go on standby and are prepared to respond and begin restoration efforts as soon as it’s safe to do so.”

Nearly 40,000 residents in Valdosta were left in the dark. Closer to Tifton, workers worked to repair the power in about 13,000 homes.

By 5 p.m., that number was down to about 4,000.

Outside of those areas, the impact of Idalia is seen through outages spread all the way from Pelham to the Georgia coast.

“Stay as calm as you can and know that we will be working around the clock to get power restored as soon as it’s safe to do so,” Richardson said. “I assure you our crews are prepped and ready to go. And as soon as the storm moves out and it’s safe we’re gonna hit the ground running to get the power back on for our customers.”

Remember to never touch downed power lines, and never enter areas with debris or downed trees as power lines could be in the wreckage.

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Storm/Power Outage Reports

- Berrien County: 3,416 affected

- Brooks County: 857 affected

- Clinch County: 1,353 affected

- Coffee County: 1,553 affected

- Cook County: 766 affected

- Echols County: 669 affected

- Lanier County: 1,274 affected

- Lowndes County: 25,977 affected by major impacts and widespread outages

- Thomas County: 1,278 affected

- Tift County: 870 affected

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