Local businesses Jackson EMC and Lawson Air Conditioning & Plumbing recap their efforts to maintain utility services through single-digit temperatures over the holiday weekend.
As temperatures in Northeast Georgia dipped close to zero over the Christmas weekend, many residents found themselves in a tenuous situation. Between frozen and bursting pipes to power outages, utility services throughout the region were inundated by calls and maintenance requests.
Power provider Jackson EMC set records for their power usage, reaching over 1,500 megawatts as crews worked around the clock to restore power to more than 23,000 members who were impacted. Director of Public Relations Wendy Jones said she is grateful to have such a strong team of technicians who were willing to put their own holidays on hold in order to restore power for the users.
“We really appreciate the hard work and long hours that are fully put in,” Jones said. “We appreciate the understanding of their families because they were with us, they weren't with their families.”
One of the major aspects that helped Jackson EMC manage power output was mindful customers. Jones said while they didn’t have to formally put out a notice for users to lessen their power consumption, many users did so on their own, which helped take enormous stress off the system. The 1,525-megawatt record was set during the coldest hours on the morning of December 24. In comparison, the previous record was set in July 2022, reaching 1,343 megawatts as a result of residents running their air conditioning units.
“Because of that we really do plan for those high demand periods, and we spent all last week preparing—and obviously before that—but especially last week preparing to be ready to roll to repair and replace equipment as needed,” Jones said. “And we did replace approximately 130 transformers within 48 hours this past weekend.”
Jones reported that morale was high during the service times while having so many power technicians on call. It was no easy task, leaving many workers tired and cold after long hours.
“Our number one priority is making sure folks have that power in their homes,” Jones said. “And we're a family here at Jackson EMC, and it is our responsibility to make sure that our member’s families are comfortable at home. So although it was hard work very long hours, lots of folks inside and outside—obviously, those of us that got to stay inside were much more comfortable than the crews that were outside. But again, they know that that is our number one priority. And like I said, everybody was willing to step up and get it done.”
Debbie Lawson Davis, the owner of Lawson Air Conditioning & Plumbing, said the holiday weekend was hectic, but made easier with the help of a strong, willing workforce. The company fielded over 230 calls throughout the weekend. Their phone service reportedly went down for 12 hours as well, and Davis estimated another 200 calls may have slipped by during that time.
“Some of those were no heat calls,” Davis said. “But so many of them were, I would say, our plumbing calls that could have been leaks or broken pipes or frozen, you know, we even had frozen wells, we had frozen pipes, we even had frozen lines on haters.”
Davis said they were forced to interrupt their own family holiday celebrations in order to help dispatch calls to those in need. Lawson AC & Plumbing had six technicians on call, responding to a combined 120 calls over a four-day period. Many of the technicians reported over 60 hours worked for the week, arriving at 4:00 a.m. to assist with flooding homes in some cases.
“We had some, you know, that we got up there, we assessed the problem, we got the water cut off, they had to call their insurance company,” Davis said. “Their insurance company said, ‘Don't do anything until we send an adjuster.’ So, you know, we had to pause on those and couldn't really get them repaired until the insurance company assessed what they needed to.”
With all hands on deck, Davis said they were able to help a lot of local residents over the holidays, which in some ways, was a reward in and of itself.
“They [technicians] were happy to help,” Davis said. “And of course, they got rewarded when they saw the customer satisfaction and knew that they made a difference for them. So I think it was rewarding beyond a financial reward for them. Pay Day today, but they knew that we're making a difference for those folks who relied on them to get them back their lives back into normal.”
Davis said one of the lessons they learned moving forward was how sensitive the supply chain can be. She was grateful they were able to eventually obtain all the materials and equipment they needed for both commercial and residential repairs, but there were some situations where small parts became unavailable or lagged in delivery. Davis plans to maintain a deeper inventory stock during extreme weather events in the future.
The Director of Water Resources for the City of Gainesville Linda MacGregor estimated over 1,000 customers experienced some form of a pipe break or leak at their homes. Even still, the main hub for water resources in Gainesville had breaks of its own over the holiday weekend as well.
MacGregor said getting through the extreme weather conditions was only made possible because of the on-call technicians and workers who were standing by to help.
“We actually have an amazing workforce of people that are willing to come in when they're on call,” MacGregor said. “They know they're on call over a holiday weekend. They don't always know what they're responding to when they get on the road to respond to the call. They're just really an amazing group of people who are willing to do what's necessary. And you know, day or night, rain and cold. They're just truly amazing. And this weekend was no different.”
MacGregor put an emphasis on customers’ ability to go online to the Gainesville City water website and view a portal that shows your water use in a detailed breakdown.
You can learn more about Jackson EMC and Lawson Air Conditioning & Plumbing by visiting their websites.
