Georgia Power crews headed to Texas to help Hurricane Beryl victims

ATLANTA — Georgia Power crews are on the road to Texas to help restore power to the area affected by Hurricane Beryl.

Beryl made landfall there Monday morning, damaging homes and businesses, devastating parts of the state’s infrastructure, and leaving thousands in the dark.

Twenty vehicles with crews aboard headed towards Texas Monday evening.

[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]

Beryl was downgraded to a tropical storm later Monday, but left a big mess in its path.

Houston resident Shane Mecke and his neighbors lost power despite meeting miles away from the coast.

“I first lost power about 9 a.m. Just getting ready for work and everything went dark,” Mecke said. “You might hear some of the generators in the background. The majority of them I would say are without power.”

The Georgia Power crews are headed to Texas as part of a state-to-state mutual aid agreement between utility companies paying t forward.

“When we need assistants with additional crews, they come to us and vice versa,” Georgia Power CEM Marie Bertot said.

TRENDING STORIES:

• Dunwoody teen who died after emergency at school had fentanyl in her system, autopsy shows
• ‘While we looked, Julian didn’t’: Sister of man found dead says his boyfriend had bizarre reaction
• 1 dead, 5 injured after chain-reaction crash on I-285 in Dunwoody

Mecke and thousands of his Houston area neighbors were also hit by the powerful spring-time storm two months earlier.

Most of them lost power for up to a week in the Texas heat, so this support from Georgia Power can’t come quick enough.

“It feels good that crews from other states and other towns are willing to come out to help us get power back. I know it’s a lot of work for our crews here, so any help is greatly appreciated,” Mecke said.

Georgia Power officials want to make it clear that there are crews here in Georgia able to handle any issues in our state and if anything unexpected should come up there are agreements in place for other neighboring states to help us.

[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

IN OTHER NEWS:

Georgia could be holding onto cash that belongs to you… and you may not even realize it

©2024 Cox Media Group