A Week After Hurricane Matthew, Power Almost Back in Georgia

A week after Hurricane Matthew plowed its way up the Georgia coast, almost all Georgians in the impacted areas had power again Friday, even as some continued surveying the damage from the storm.

On Thursday, Georgia Power announced that 99 percent of the 338,000 customers who had their power knocked out by Matthew have had it restored.

By Friday morning, Georgia Power's outage map only showed 970 Georgians without service, most of them in the Savannah area.

"This was one of the strongest, most destructive hurricanes to hit the Georgia coast in more than a century and we're extremely proud of the tireless efforts of our men and women to get service restored to customers as soon as possible," said Paul Bowers, chairman, president and CEO of Georgia Power. "We want to thank our customers for their patience, as well as crews from Georgia Power, our sister operating companies and other assisting utilities, who have worked around the clock to restore power for hundreds of thousands of Coastal Georgia residents ahead of schedule."

About 5,000 Georgia Power employees, as well as crews volunteering from other states, were mobilized in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, which hit Georgia late last Friday as a Category 2 storm and wreaked havoc up and down the state's Atlantic coast.

Four people in Georgia were reported dead as a result of Matthew.

Meanwhile Friday, state and federal emergency officials were continuing to survey just how much damage was done in the state by the storm.

Among the hundreds of thousands of coastal Georgians who evacuated in advance of Matthew, many returned home to find damage to their property — from decimated docks along the coast to downed trees destroying roofs further inland.

Georgians needing help with Hurricane Matthew insurance claims were being urged Friday to contact the state Department of Insurance at 1-800-656-2298.

An estimate from Goldman Sachs suggests the storm may has done as much at $10 billion in total damage in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.

Photo by Jason Nielubowicz. Used with permission.