Storm Center

Storm Center

If you expe­ri­ence a pow­er out­age and have already checked your main break­er, please call Pow­er­Touch: 1–866-374‑1234, text OUTAGE to 352667*, use our mobile app, or log in to our Mem­ber Ser­vices por­tal.

*Your cell phone num­ber must be saved in your account to report by text.

outage-reporting

Outages

Stay informed on what’s hap­pen­ing right now, includ­ing cur­rent out­ages and YEC’s social media posts on storm events.

Lineworker safety demo

Safety Center

Storms are unpre­dictable, but you can fol­low sim­ple steps to keep your­self and your fam­i­ly safe, no mat­ter the sit­u­a­tion.

An emergency kit with a water bottle, flashlight, batteries, radio, candles, matches, canned food, and a first aid kit on a green blanket.

Emergency Supply Kit

Being pre­pared means being equipped with the prop­er sup­plies you may need in the event of an emer­gency or dis­as­ter.

Flooded Road

Flood Warnings

When a flood warn­ing is issued, remove or relo­cate all elec­tri­cal equip­ment to areas well above the esti­mat­ed flood height and more.

restoration

Power Restoration

Restor­ing pow­er after a major out­age involves so much more than sim­ply throw­ing a switch or remov­ing a tree from a line.

A person plugs an orange cord into a portable generator with multiple outlets, featuring a prominent red and black design.

Generator Safety

To pro­tect your­self, your neigh­bors, and YEC line per­son­nel, please fol­low our col­lec­tion of tips when using a back-up gen­er­a­tor.

A snowy forest scene with a fallen tree and a person walking in the background. The ground and trees are covered in snow.

Winter Storm Preparation

YEC is always pre­pared for win­ter storms. We’ve put togeth­er an exten­sive list of resources to make sure you are, too. 

A large tornado is descending from a dark stormy sky, touching the ground in an open field with wind turbines in the distance.

Tornado Awareness

After a tor­na­do or any severe storm, seri­ous injury can still occur to peo­ple caught in the after­math who aren’t con­scious of the safe­ty risks.

A pair of brown work boots, a white hard hat, and gloves sit on a table in a computer-equipped room.

Our Storm Plan

At every lev­el of York Elec­tric’s orga­ni­za­tion and ser­vice, we put safe­ty first for mem­bers, employ­ees, and the sys­tem.

A close-up image of packaging with the text "PERISHABLE KEEP REFRIGERATED" in blue font, indicating that the contents must be kept cool.

Keeping Food Safe

Did you know that a flood, fire, nation­al dis­as­ter, or the loss of pow­er from high winds, snow, or ice could jeop­ar­dize the safe­ty of your food?

A massive cyclone swirls over the ocean, nearing a desert coastline. Dense clouds indicate intense weather conditions approaching. No landmarks visible.

Hurricane Readiness

Before the hur­ri­cane arrives, be sure to pre­pare using our check­list and guid­ance on what to expect from unpre­dictable wind and rain.

A red incandescent light bulb glows brightly against a dark, reflective background, highlighting the intricate filament inside.

Blink or Outage?

Lights flick­er or quick pow­er out­age? This is known as a “blink,” it’s per­fect­ly nor­mal, and it means our elec­tri­cal equip­ment is work­ing.

uabb-device-phone

YEC’s app is ready for your mobile lifestyle

With our mobile app, you can access your account from any­where at any time. Pay your bill, report out­ages, mon­i­tor usage, and so much more. Down­load and get start­ed today.

Beware of Scams & Fraud Following Disastrous Weather Events

Red and white sign with an exclamation mark, displaying the text "Attention Please" in bold letters, indicating a warning or important notice.

Util­i­ty scams and fraud­u­lent schemes often arise after severe weath­er events. Scam­mers use phone calls, texts, emails, fake web­sites, and even door-to-door vis­its to try to steal from you.

First, please be aware of any­one pre­tend­ing to be a mem­ber ser­vices rep­re­sen­ta­tive from York Elec­tric who asks for your cred­it card infor­ma­tion, bank­ing details, or Social Secu­ri­ty num­ber via call, text, or email. Our strict pol­i­cy is to NEVER ask for per­son­al infor­ma­tion or pay­ment meth­ods over the phone or through texts or emails.

Here are the oth­er red flags that should tip you off to the “storm chas­er” scam:

Offers for quick repair ser­vices. Always ask for an ID or a busi­ness license. Con­tact your insur­ance com­pa­ny first to see what your pol­i­cy cov­ers. Get offers in writ­ing, but nev­er pay any­thing or sign any­thing – espe­cial­ly regard­ing the rights to your insur­ance mon­ey – with­out doing your due dili­gence and research­ing the com­pa­ny (the Bet­ter Busi­ness Bureau is a great place to start.) Most impor­tant­ly, do not suc­cumb to the num­ber one tool every scam­mer uses, pres­sure tac­tics.

Solic­i­ta­tion of dona­tions in the names of well-known char­i­ties or “new” char­i­ties that are seem­ing­ly relat­ed specif­i­cal­ly to this dis­as­ter, as they are often fake. Inves­ti­gate the legit­i­ma­cy of any char­i­ty before hand­ing over a pen­ny, nev­er respond to unso­licit­ed requests via phone, text, or email, and nev­er click a link in an unso­licit­ed email mes­sage.

Scam­mers are imper­son­at­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives from insur­ance providers or gov­ern­ment agen­cies, like FEMA, offer­ing relief in exchange for pay­ment or request­ing per­son­al infor­ma­tion to ini­ti­ate the process.

Price-goug­ing for goods and ser­vices.

Offers of goods and ser­vices, requests for dona­tions, pleas from seem­ing­ly legit­i­mate com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions, and more that come to your atten­tion through social media should always be viewed sus­pi­cious­ly and vet­ted thor­ough­ly before even a “like,” much less any engage­ment.

Final­ly, when you do pay for legit­i­mate ser­vices or dona­tions, nev­er use cash, wire trans­fers, or mobile pay­ment apps and ser­vices. Cred­it cards or checks are the safest, most trace­able options.

We encour­age mem­bers to report sus­pect­ed scams to your coop­er­a­tive, local author­i­ties, and the Nation­al Cen­ter for Dis­as­ter Fraud at (866) 720‑5721 or online at www.justice.gov/DisasterComplaintForm.

Be vig­i­lant and also rest assured we’re watch­ing out for you.

Medical Equipment in an Emergency

If you have med­ical equip­ment nec­es­sary to sus­tain life or avoid severe med­ical com­pli­ca­tions, it is impor­tant to noti­fy YEC and fol­low the prop­er steps to be list­ed as a Spe­cial Needs Pri­or­i­ty Account. YEC urges mem­bers who are depen­dent on elec­tric­i­ty for med­ical rea­sons to have a dis­as­ter plan and make arrange­ments before a cri­sis to relo­cate to a place where those needs can be met. In the event of an out­age, always remem­ber to noti­fy your fam­i­ly and/or friends and call EMS, espe­cial­ly if your sit­u­a­tion is life-threat­en­ing.

The image is a reminder about using life-sustaining equipment powered by electricity, displaying text and an illustration of a green oxygen tank.

FAQ

c Expand All C Col­lapse All

Power Outage FAQ

YEC uses an auto­mat­ic phone answer­ing sys­tem to han­dle pow­er out­age reports. If your cor­rect phone num­ber is on file with our office, your phone call can be han­dled more effi­cient­ly. Hav­ing the cor­rect con­tact infor­ma­tion also allows us to make any fol­low-up calls to you about elec­tric ser­vice prob­lems. If your phone num­ber has changed since you signed up for your elec­tric ser­vice, please con­tact our mem­ber ser­vices depart­ment at 803–684‑4248.
Cat­e­go­ry: Pow­er Out­age FAQ

This depends on the amount of dam­age sus­tained and cur­rent con­di­tions. Field per­son­nel must com­plete a dam­age assess­ment before any reli­able esti­mate can be made.

Cat­e­go­ry: Pow­er Out­age FAQ

Some neigh­bor­hoods get elec­tric­i­ty from sev­er­al dif­fer­ent cir­cuits, so you may notice your lights are out, but your neigh­bors have pow­er. In such cas­es, the prob­lem could be orig­i­nat­ing from your house­’s elec­tric line, a par­tic­u­lar tap line, a main feed­er line, or at the sub­sta­tion. For us to deter­mine where the prob­lem orig­i­nates, it is extreme­ly impor­tant that you call 1–866–374‑1234 and report the out­age with your exact street address and cor­rect phone num­ber.

Cat­e­go­ry: Pow­er Out­age FAQ

This may be an inci­dence of par­tial pow­er. At this point, mem­bers should unplug large/major appli­ances such as refrig­er­a­tors, ovens, air con­di­tion­ers, etc., as this could cause a pow­er fluc­tu­a­tion and result in anoth­er out­age. Once lights are bright, indi­cat­ing full pow­er has been restored, it is safe to plug in major appli­ances.

Cat­e­go­ry: Pow­er Out­age FAQ

Many peo­ple think that the loud noise they heard was the sound of a trans­former explod­ing, due to light­ning or oth­er extreme con­di­tions. This was prob­a­bly not the case. The noise could have been a fuse blow­ing. YEC’s pow­er lines use fus­es in a sim­i­lar man­ner to the way you use fus­es in your home. These fus­es pro­tect parts of our dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem when severe weath­er strikes. The noise can be sub­stan­tial lead­ing many peo­ple to think some­thing has explod­ed. When report­ing an out­age, it is very help­ful when you tell us you heard a loud noise because it helps us iso­late the loca­tion of prob­lems on our lines.

Cat­e­go­ry: Pow­er Out­age FAQ

You should first refer to your dis­as­ter plan and call your home health nurse and physi­cian. You should noti­fy your fam­i­ly and/or friends and call EMS espe­cial­ly if your sit­u­a­tion is life threat­en­ing. YEC reminds mem­bers who have extreme crit­i­cal health needs that require a con­tin­u­ous pow­er source dur­ing an out­age, to make arrange­ments before the cri­sis to relo­cate to a place where those needs can be met. Anoth­er option is to make per­son­al arrange­ments for a gen­er­a­tor to hook up to machines that have to be kept run­ning. Gen­er­a­tors should nev­er be hooked into a home or busi­ness’ elec­tric cir­cuit. Gen­er­a­tors should only be con­nect­ed direct­ly to crit­i­cal care machines or oth­er appli­ances.

Cat­e­go­ry: Pow­er Out­age FAQ

Check for water sat­u­ra­tion of your ceil­ings and light fit­tings inside and out­side. If wet, call us imme­di­ate­ly. If there is no obvi­ous dam­age to your light fit­tings, turn off all but one light. Check the light­ing cir­cuit’s fuse or cir­cuit break­er oper­a­tion at your switch­board. Turn off your main switch and replace the fuse. Turn the main switch again. If the fuse blows, call YEC.

Cat­e­go­ry: Pow­er Out­age FAQ

Lights being dim­mer than usu­al, hot plates slow to cook, and motors fail­ing to start are all indica­tive that there might be a prob­lem in the high volt­age sys­tem. If you observe any of these in your home, turn appli­ances off and unplug them. Leave a min­i­mum of lights on (such as a flu­o­res­cent) and call YEC.

Cat­e­go­ry: Pow­er Out­age FAQ

Dur­ing times of mul­ti­ple pow­er out­ages, YEC con­cen­trates our ini­tial restora­tion efforts in the areas and on the pow­er lines that restore elec­tric­i­ty to the great­est num­ber of peo­ple in the short­est peri­od of time. We place empha­sis on vital com­mu­ni­ty ser­vices, emer­gency ser­vices, and pub­lic safe­ty. Please be patient, and we will restore your elec­tric ser­vice as soon as we pos­si­bly can.

Cat­e­go­ry: Pow­er Out­age FAQ

Some smoke alarms are pow­ered by AC (alter­nat­ing cur­rent) and use a bat­tery back­up. When these units lose pow­er momen­tar­i­ly they may chirp sev­er­al times to inform you they are on back­up pow­er or are return­ing to main pow­er. For more infor­ma­tion, review the man­u­fac­tur­er’s doc­u­men­ta­tion on your type of alarm.

Cat­e­go­ry: Pow­er Out­age FAQ

In a major storm, assume you may be with­out pow­er for some time. Turn off elec­tric appli­ances (like an iron or stove) so you won’t cre­ate a safe­ty haz­ard when the pow­er is turned back on. Remem­ber to include air-con­di­­tion­ing among appli­ances you turn off. Nev­er report haz­ardous sit­u­a­tions by e‑mail. Always call the office at 1–866–374‑1234 so we can respond imme­di­ate­ly!

Cat­e­go­ry: Pow­er Out­age FAQ

If you receive a tin­gling sen­sa­tion from any elec­tri­cal appli­ances, turn off the elec­tric­i­ty imme­di­ate­ly. Do not make con­tact with or let any­one else near the sus­pect­ed appli­ance and call YEC.

Cat­e­go­ry: Pow­er Out­age FAQ

If you notice unusu­al peri­od­ic vari­a­tions in the nor­mal bright­ness of your lights – some­times very bright, some­times dull – call us. These are symp­toms of a poten­tial­ly haz­ardous sit­u­a­tion. Turn off all your motors and appli­ances, and leave a min­i­mum of lights on.

Cat­e­go­ry: Pow­er Out­age FAQ

Call 1–866–374‑1234. York Elec­tric encour­ages you to call our 24-hour ‘Pow­er­Touch’ out­age report­ing sys­tem so we can quick­ly locate where the prob­lem is occur­ring and send crews out right away. Any detailed infor­ma­tion you can sup­ply about the out­age is very ben­e­fi­cial in the trou­bleshoot­ing process. Note: Before report­ing the out­age, YEC rec­om­mends that you first check your main break­ers in your elec­tri­cal pan­el.

Cat­e­go­ry: Pow­er Out­age FAQ

Momen­tary out­ages occur when a dis­tur­bance on the line is detect­ed. These dis­tur­bances could be caused by a light­ning strike, a squir­rel or tree branch con­tact­ing the line, or a downed line or out­age in a near­by area, etc. If a fault or short cir­cuit occurs on a pow­er line, a device called a reclos­er opens to stop it and then quick­ly clos­es. This device allows pow­er to con­tin­ue flow­ing through the line with only a brief inter­rup­tion of ser­vice rather than caus­ing an extend­ed pow­er out­age. Although the process is quick and usu­al­ly tem­po­rary, it may cause your lights to blink. If the short cir­cuit con­tin­ues, the reclos­er will oper­ate or ‘trip’ three times before even­tu­al­ly stop­ping the flow of elec­tric­i­ty and caus­ing a pow­er out­age. This process pro­tects the lines from dam­age by cut­ting off pow­er to the affect­ed sec­tion of the line and iso­lat­ing the prob­lem until it can be repaired.

Cat­e­go­ry: Pow­er Out­age FAQ