The best thing to say about Tropical Storm Debby is she wasn’t Idalia.

Although Monday’s storm took a track similar to the hurricane that swept the area last August, damage has been considerably less.

That’s not to understate the damage that there has been. Many people are still without power throughout the region. But even that is far less than where we were 11 months ago.

Danny Nichols, president and CEO of Colquitt EMC, posted a similar analysis to the company’s Facebook page Tuesday morning.

“After Hurricane Idalia, it took a little over a week to restore power to our members,” Nichols said. “Although Debby has followed the same path there is good news. The amount of damage is significantly less than Idalia.

“At our peak with Idalia, we had some 58,000 meters out of 72,000 meters without service. As I reported to you earlier with Debby, we had 42,000 out of 73,000 meters without service,” he said.

By 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Colquitt EMC’s outage map showed about 23,000 meters without service, most of them in the area around Valdosta.

Georgia Power’s outage map showed about 3,700 Lowndes County customers without power at that same time and smaller effects in multiple counties across South Georgia.

Outage numbers are down significantly from Monday evening.

It is one more reminder of how important the line crews are in the days following a big storm. And it isn’t just the local crews, either.

In his Facebook message, Nichols said his optimism about restoring power to Colquitt EMC’s customers came in part from the army of linemen coming into South Georgia to help. More than 250 contractors and 65-70 mutual aid personnel from other EMCs were expected to arrive Tuesday, he said. They will triple Colquitt EMC’s normal manpower.

Other linemen have been supporting Georgia Power’s crews.

We offer our thanks to the local energy providers and their crews. And to the crews coming from elsewhere: Please know that your help is appreciated by all of us.