The General Manager of Tri-County Electric Cooperative Luke Johnson says it cost the electric cooperative $380,000 to make repairs caused by the tornado and severe thunderstorm damage on Memorial Day weekend.
The loss included downed poles and lines caused mostly by extensive tree damage.
At the cooperatives annual meeting on Saturday, Johnson noted in the past such a storm would have caused a power outage that would take four to six days to restore. Due to new technology that helps to better track the locations of the outages, that time has been cut in half. Johnson says communications have improved on power restoration, but there are still uncertainties.
Tri-County Electric will seek Federal Emergency Management Agency Funds to help cover the costs, but it is far from certain if they will receive any government assistance to help offset the costs. Tri-County has been successful in getting FEMA funds to pay for part of a costly severe storm system that hit Washington County in July 2023.
