Georgia Power Update: Most Service Back By Saturday

ATLANTA, GA — Georgia Power says it's ahead of its original schedule and hopes to have electricity flowing to almost everyone impacted by Hurricane Irma by Saturday night.

As of Friday morning, about 100,000 Georgians still were without electricity after Irma, which struck Florida as a Category 4 storm, then rolled through Georgia as a tropical storm on Monday.

According to Georgia Power's outage map, just over 56,000 customers still were without power Friday morning at 10:28 a.m. Georgia EMC, which represents the state's electricity cooperatives, reported another 45,000 customers without service.

Those numbers are way down from Monday when, at the storm's peak, nearly 1.5 million Georgians were without power due to the storm. Georgia Power had originally said 95% of all customers should have their power restored by Sunday night. That's with the exception of buildings that were too damaged by the storm to receive power. (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

But, late Thursday, the company reported that its crews were working ahead of that schedule and planned to have the same number of problems resolved by Saturday night instead. By 9 p.m., the company had restored power to 920,000 customers impacted by Irma.

Hurricane Irma In Georgia:

• Gov. Deal: Irma Damage 'Virtually Covered The Entire State'
• Hurricane Irma: Man Killed In Decatur House Fire Went Days Without Power
• Hurricane Irma: DeKalb Neighbors Free Woman In Labor Trapped By Storm

More than 8,000 Georgia Power personnel are working around the clock as part of the company's statewide restoration effort, it said in a news release.

Friday morning, most of the remaining outages were centered around Georgia's coastline, metro Atlanta and the Macon-Warner Robins area.

Glynn County, around Brunswick, still had more than 7,000 people without electricity. Hard-hit DeKalb County still had 4,611 people without power. Fulton County was down to just 740 impacted customers, Gwinnett County had a mere 687.

Also Friday, Georgia Power was warning customers to beware of scams associated with the storm's outages. The company is not offering speedier service for those who pay extra and is not refusing to turn on power for people who have past-due bills, the company said in a news release.

Photo via City of Hinesville Twitter