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The mobile Command Center has meeting rooms and lounge areas. It serves as the main point to coordinate emergency responders in the field.
Credit: Amanda Andrews / GPB News
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Georgia Power hosts hurricane summit to prepare for storm season
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State agencies are preparing for what’s forecasted to be an active hurricane season and storm responders at Georgia Power are sharing their strategies at their annual Hurricane Summit.
Georgia Power held the summit Tuesday to demonstrate response tools and share strategies the company would be using in severe weather emergencies. The summit includes a tour of the storm center at Georgia Power headquarters and a look at the mobile command center in a simulated emergency response staging site.
Storm Center director Jason Stott said during a major weather event the center is busy.
“It's packed with people,” Stott said “You know, logistics, supply chain, you know, folks managing our vegetation management crews, contractors, safety, all those different departments really have a representative here in the storm center working together.”
Georgia Power supplies electricity to over 2 million residents in the state. After a storm, emergency response teams move into affected areas and establish a base camp with food, beds, showers and laundry to support crew members.
Georgia Power spokesman John Kraft said in addition to state and local partners, they also turn to neighboring states like Alabama and Mississippi for support during emergencies.
“We'll bring in, from our mutual assistance network, hundreds or thousands of workers from other utilities around the country that will flood in when we need them,” Kraft said. “So I think we had 5,000 workforce engaged, for that last hurricane season.”
Georgia Power also has response drones to survey damage and take pictures in situations where an area isn’t safe to send people on foot.
Lineman Malechi Eskin said the work on a response situation is hard, but he leans on his team.
“You build a bond with your coworkers, and they become family because you're with them 24/7 almost like 40 hours a week plus some,” he said. “We all look out for each other. We all make sure everything's safe, and it's fun to be out here and just working. We help out the community.”
Hurricane season in 2023 produced 19 named storms and one unnamed storm.
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