ATLANTA – Hundreds of Georgia Power employees are headed to the Washington, D.C., area and North Carolina to help restore widespread power outages from Hurricane Isabel.

Georgia Power committed 350 linemen, engineers and other technical support staff to Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) which serves customers in the District of Columbia and Maryland suburbs. An additional 120 employees are traveling to North Carolina today to assist Duke Energy.

Hurricane Isabel’s strong winds and rain left 490,000 PEPCO customers and more than 131,000 Duke Energy customers without power.

As a part of a reciprocal agreement, Georgia Power is called upon each year by various electric utility companies in the Southeast to help restore power after storms.

“We see this as a duty and a part of our commitment to customers,” said Phil Bell, who is leading Georgia Power’s efforts in Washington, D.C. “There have been times when Georgia Power has needed help from other companies, and they’ve been there for us. In times like these, we are eager to help and return the favor.”

Georgia Power crews are expected to be on assignment for at least a week or longer depending on the storm damage.