Temperatures have warmed up this afternoon which helped contain outages but officials with Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation are closely monitoring weather conditions and possible outages tonight. More precipitation is expected between 8 p.m. and midnight and icing on power lines and trees may pose problems.

Line technicians have worked on sporadic power outages throughout the day due to heavy wet snow affecting power lines. Also reported have been trees falling on lines due to saturated grounds.

Currently without power are 77 members in Watauga County, 68 in Ashe County and one in Caldwell County. As crews work to restore the remaining outages from today, cooperative employees are on high alert status and ready to respond quickly this evening and tonight should conditions worsen. Crews have been called in for standby from sister cooperative Randolph Electric Membership Corporation to assist Blue Ridge line technicians if necessary.

Blue Ridge Electric members should report outages by calling the cooperative's Powerline at 1-800-448-2383. To view a live outage map, visit www.BlueRidgeEMC.com and click on the "outage map" link located on the bottom right hand side of the screen.

As a safety reminder, downed power lines could still be energized and therefore dangerous or even deadly. If members see a downed power line, report it immediately to the cooperative and stay far away from the downed line.

More safety and preparation information is available on the web site. Outage updates and other information is also available on Blue Ridge Electric's Facebook page.

Blue Ridge Electric serves some 73,000 members in Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, Wilkes, Avery and Alexander counties.