This year's hurricane season began June 1st and runs through November 30th. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) forecasters are calling for a "near-normal" year, with 10 to 16 named storms, of which four to eight could become hurricanes. But we know that no matter what blows our way, preparing for all emergencies and weather events is a year-round activity. Employees are consistently doing what they can to ensure our systems are in the best condition possible and that we have an adequate supply of materials to handle any situation, at any given time.

Electric
GUC's outage management system, called Responder, is a valuable asset during service interruptions. Responder simultaneously links to our Emergency Hotline, Geographic Information System (GIS), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), and Customer Care & Billing (CC&B). By tapping into multiple tools at once, Responder can automatically group together related customer calls, which makes managing the outages much easier.

One of the key benefits for customers is better communication. Through an outage map on our website, customers can see where we have outages and even report their outages online with just a few simple steps. Customers can also get this information through our Emergency Hotline, including a call-back option for updates.

Another responsibility of Electric is line clearing, an ongoing program to help minimize service interruptions. One thing that makes Pitt County a beautiful place to live is our trees. While they are lovely, trees have the potential to cause serious problems for our electric distribution system. Preventing those problems is why GUC has a year-round line clearing program that covers over 2,700 miles of distribution lines.

Line Clearing Crews work daily on trimming branches and trees that threaten overhead power lines. Their work is crucial because we cannot prevent strong winds and heavy rains from damaging our trees. What we can do is work hard to prevent as many trees as possible from causing widespread outages.

Crews work on a three-year cycle and are careful about how they do their job. They consider what species of tree they're working on, treating them differently based on how they grow. They also pay close attention to where each cut is made, making sure they trim to a natural sprout to keep the tree healthy and growing.

Water Resources
Water Resources crews monitor and maintain our distribution system so we can quickly make repairs should the need arise. The systems at the Water Treatment Plant are continuously monitored, and back-up systems are in place so that we're able to serve our customers no matter what weather situations arise. The Wastewater Treatment Plant also regularly monitors systems so they can function during any type of emergency.

Natural Gas
Similarly, the Gas Department inspects and maintains gas valves and has identified those critical for isolating sections of the system in the event of an emergency. Should our natural gas supply be cut off due to an emergency or if transportation became an issue, our Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant has more than a week's supply of gas in storage.

Inventory
Our warehouse, Stores, keeps enough inventory on hand for crews to have the supplies they need to make emergency repairs. They plan ahead so that once it's safe for workers to get out in the field to restore service, they have what is needed to get the job done. Our vehicles and equipment are kept in tip-top shape in the Garage as well.

Customer Communications
Communicating effectively with our customers is crucial during emergencies. We've used experience from past weather events to enhance the way we communicate to our customers during emergencies.

To tackle the issue of busy phone lines, we have an Emergency Hotline (1-855-767-2482) dedicated to helping us handle a large number of calls at one time. It's available 24/7 and is a fast way customers can report an outage, gas leak, water leak, or any other utility emergency.

GUC Alert is another communication tool that sends personalized voice messages, text messages, and emails to customers and employees about emergencies. Customers are automatically enrolled in this service.

We also share information online through our website and social media news feeds (Twitter and Facebook). With social media, customers have another avenue to communicate back to us. For more on how you can personally prepare for major storms, visit the Storm Central page of our website at guc.com.