The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced an additional $5 million for Georgia on Tuesday. The funds are “to support disaster recovery in Georgia” stemming from Hurricane Helene, according to the news release.
Among the allocations is $1,000,000 for Excelsior EMC based in Metter, GA for emergency protective measures following Hurricane Helene. Excelsior EMC serves portions of eight counties in southeast Georgia, including Bryan, Bulloch, Candler, Effingham, Emanuel, Evans, Jenkins, and Tattnall.
The award follows a July announcement of $971,000 to Excelsior EMC by FEMA as well.
Hurricane Helene inflicted unprecedented financial damage on Georgia’s electric utility infrastructure, with utilities facing hundreds of millions of dollars in repair and rebuilding costs.
The storm destroyed or severely damaged thousands of utility assets across the state, including more than 11,800 power poles, over 1,500 miles of power lines, approximately 5,800 transformers, and numerous substations, requiring utilities to rebuild large portions of the electric grid rather than simply restore service.
Georgia Electric Membership Corporation reported catastrophic damage to the cooperative system as well, with more than 100 high-voltage transmission lines and over 60 substations knocked out, affecting dozens of local EMCs throughout South and Southeast Georgia.
Georgia Power alone has estimated approximately $800 million in storm-related restoration and infrastructure repair costs, with regulators later approving recovery of roughly $690 million of those costs through customer rates, while electric membership cooperatives and transmission providers also absorbed substantial restoration expenses through emergency repairs, mutual aid deployments, equipment replacement, and system hardening investments.
Collectively, Hurricane Helene left Georgia’s electric utilities facing one of the costliest infrastructure recovery efforts in state history, with financial impacts extending well beyond immediate restoration.
