Two area Electricity Management Cooperatives are getting a share of $13.1 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to mitigate costs of recovery from Hurricane Irma, which struck Georgia last September.
Walton EMC will receive about $1.2 million to reimburse the company for materials like transformers and poles. Jackson EMC, which serves over 200,000 customers in the area will receive about $3.1 million to repair damage to its system caused by the hurricane.
“We have 123,000 of our members that lost power,” said April Sorrow, an employee of Jackson EMC. “We’ve had to replace 186 poles and 117 transformers, so receiving this money back from FEMA offsets the costs that we’ve already incurred in order to restore power to our members.”
The grants are provided through FEMA’s Public Assistance program which reimburses eligible applicants up to 75 percent for actions taken in response to and recove
