‘This Is an Unprecedented Situation’: Co-ops Pick Up the Pieces After Helene
PublishedSeptember 29, 2024
Author
Steven Johnson
Share
Currently Reading
‘This Is an Unprecedented Situation’: Co-ops Pick Up the Pieces After Helene
Crewmembers work in the hard-hit area of French Broad EMC in North Carolina. (Photo By: French Broad EMC)
Last Updated: Sept. 29, 12:30 p.m.
Thousands of electric cooperative lineworkers dug in for a third day of repairs following Hurricane Helene, as co-ops throughout the Southeast tempered positive reports of power restoration with somber expectations.
“This is an unprecedented situation,” said Josh Deaver, chief operating officer at Haywood EMC in Waynesville, North Carolina, where about 20,000 members were still without power as of early Sunday. “The flooding has made roads impassable, and it’s going to take us time and many logistical hurdles to overcome before we can evaluate the outages across the system and begin to make repairs.”
Mutual aid crews faced a Herculean task at other co-ops in North and South Carolina that showed Helene could be devastating even as a tropical storm as it weakened from the Category 4 status it logged upon slamming into Florida’s Big Bend late Thursday.
Rutherford EMC, headquartered in Forest City, North Carolina, had restored power to about one-third of its 76,000-plus meters by early Sunday. But General Manager Dirk Burleson said the hardest work remained.
“This storm has presented an unprecedented number of challenges,” he said. “We’ve never had a situation where we’ve faced such difficulty in reaching the areas of our system that need to be rebuilt and repaired.”
As of Sunday morning, much of the repair work was shifting north from Florida, where the number of outages had dipped to less than 87,000. Georgia co-ops had about 261,000 outages, with 235,000 in South Carolina and 150,700 in North Carolina.
Crews in Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative territory in Georgia worked into the night on Sept. 28. The co-op posted on its Facebook page that 1,100 workers—from SVEC, contractors and mutual aid crews—were simultaneously performing damage assessments and power restoration. (Photo Courtesy: Suwannee Valley EC)
Restoration work in high water continued in Cairo, Georgia-based Grady EMC territory on Sept. 29. (Photo Courtesy: Grady EMC)
The remnants of Helene caused damage even in Ohio. Lancaster-based South Central Power Co. saw nearly 30 broken poles as restoration work stretched over the weekend. (Photo Courtesy: South Central Power Co.)
In North Carolina, the rebuilding efforts from Hurricane Helene are often are from the ground up as crews replace broken poles and spans of line. (Photo Courtesy: North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives)
On Saturday, Sept. 28, pole replacement was the name of the day for hard-hit Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative in Florida. (Photo Courtesy: Suwannee Valley Electric)
Debris and downed structures litter roadways in the territory of Central Florida Electric Cooperative on Sept. 28. (Photo By: CFEC)
As of noon on Sept. 28, Jackson EMC had restored power to nearly all of its members. The Georgia co-op had more than 20,000 consumer-members without power after Hurricane Helene swept through its territory in the early morning hours of Sept. 27. The co-op’s lineworkers, along with mutual aid crews, replaced more than...
On Friday morning, Live Oak, Florida-based Suwannee Valley EC crews began working on restoration efforts. The co-op posted on its Facebook page that 99.9% of its service territory lost power and that nine of its 13 substations lost power. (Photo Courtesy: Suwannee Valley EC)
As of midday on Sept. 27, Jackson EMC crews were working to restore power to just more than 10,000 consumer-members across the co-op's service area, down from nearly 20,000 earlier in the day, according to a post on its Facebook page. (Photo Courtesy: Jackson EMC)
Snapping Shoals EMC faced some 20 broken poles after the remnants of Hurricane Helene slammed its service territory overnight on Sept. 27. (Photo Courtesy: Snapping Shoals EMC)
As of midday on Sept. 27, Jackson EMC crews were working to restore power to just more than 10,000 consumer-members across the co-op's service area, down from nearly 20,000 earlier in the day, according to a post on its Facebook page. (Photo Courtesy: Jackson EMC)
As of midday on Sept. 27, Jackson EMC crews were working to restore power to just more than 10,000 consumer-members across the co-op's service area, down from nearly 20,000 earlier in the day, according to a post on its Facebook page. (Photo Courtesy: Jackson EMC)
A co-op crew from Indiana cuts through downed trees and debris to set a pole in an affected Georgia electric cooperative. (Photo By: Indiana Electric Cooperatives.)
Restoration efforts were underway on Sept. 27 in Palmetto, Georgia-based Coweta-Fayette EMC’s territory following damage from Hurricane Helene. (Photo Courtesy: Coweta-Fayette EMC)
A fallen tree knocked out a substation in Dobson, North Carolina-based Surry-Yadkin EMC’s territory on Sept. 27 as the remnants of Hurricane Helene moved through the Carolinas. (Photo Courtesy: Surry-Yadkin EMC)
Tri-County EMC crews in Madison, Florida-based Tri-County Electric Cooperative continued restoration efforts on Sept. 27. Hurricane Helene made landfall in the co-op’s service territory in the evening hours of Sept. 26. (Photo Courtesy: Tri-County EMC)
Also in Georgia, Covington-based Snapping Shoals EMC continued restoration efforts. As of midday Friday, Sept. 27, the co-op had approximately 2,000 consumer-members without power. (Photo Courtesy: Snapping Shoals EMC)
Dade City, Florida-based Withlacoochee River EC saw what the co-op described as “historic water and extremely high wind gusts” through its service territory when Hurricane Helene came ashore on Sept. 26. (Photo Courtesy: Withlacoochee River EC)
A view of the widespread flooding in Withlacoochee River EC’s territory late in the evening in Florida on Sept. 26 after Hurricane Helene passed through. (Photo Courtesy: Withlacoochee River EC)
On Friday morning, Live Oak, Florida-based Suwannee Valley EC crews began working on restoration efforts. The co-op posted on its Facebook page that 99.9% of its service territory lost power and that nine of its 13 substations lost power. (Photo Courtesy: Suwannee Valley EC)
On Friday morning, Live Oak, Florida-based Suwannee Valley EC crews began working on restoration efforts. The co-op posted on its Facebook page that 99.9% of its service territory lost power and that nine of its 13 substations lost power. (Photo Courtesy: Suwannee Valley EC)
A basecamp at Suwannee Valley EC in Live Oak, Florida, had approximately 1,500 beds ready for crews ready to assist with restoration efforts ahead of Hurricane Helene’s landfall on Sept. 26. (Photo Courtesy: Florida Electric Cooperatives Association)
Mutual aid crews—and their families, including the little ones—from CoServ in Corinth, Texas, meet on Sept. 25 before heading to assist co-ops in Georgia with restoration efforts from Hurricane Helene. (Photo Courtesy: Sawnee EMC)
Linemen from Coles-Moultrie EC in Mattoon, Illinois, before heading to Georgia on Sept. 25 ahead of Hurricane Helene’s landfall along the Gulf Coast. (Photo Courtesy: Coles-Moultrie EC)
Linemen from Northwestern REC in Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania, hit the road to Coweta-Fayette EMC in Palmetto, Georgia, on Sept. 25 in advance of Hurricane Helene’s arrival. (Photo Courtesy: Northwestern REC)
At Jackson EMC in Jefferson, Georgia, crews gathered supplies from warehouses to stock and prepare trucks for the storm response, while welcoming crews from other co-ops and contractors starting to arrive for support in advance of Hurricane Helene’s landfall on Sept. 26. (Photo Courtesy: Jackson EMC)
A mutual aid crew from CoServ in Corinth, Texas, meet on Sept. 25 to head to assist co-ops in Georgia with restoration efforts from Hurricane Helene. (Photo Courtesy: Sawnee EMC)
A mutual aid crew from Creedmoor, Texas-based Pike Electric arrived in Jackson EMC territory in Georgia on Sept. 26 in advance of Hurricane Helene’s landfall. (Photo Courtesy: Jackson EMC)
A crew from Sam Houston EC in Texas prepares to head to Central Georgia Electric Cooperative on Sept. 26 to assist with restoration efforts from Hurricane Helene. (Photo Courtesy: Sam Houston EC)
At Laurens EC in South Carolina, employees inspected equipment on Sept. 26 while prepping for Hurricane Helene to impact their service territory. (Photo Courtesy: Laurens EC)
Crews at Withlacoochee River EC in Dade City, Florida, finished advance prep ahead of Hurricane Helene’s landfall on Sept. 26 and were on standby to begin restoration efforts. (Photo Courtesy: Withlacoochee River EC)
Jackson EMC system control operators in Georgia continue to monitor Hurricane Helene and dispatch crews for restoration efforts in the early morning hours of Sept. 27. (Photo Courtesy: Jackson EMC)
Crews at Grady EMC in Cairo, Georgia, grab a quick meal before returning to work after Hurricane Helene passed through the co-op’s service territory. (Photo Courtesy: Grady EMC)
Sack lunches provided by a local business await crews working on restoration efforts at Clarkesville, Georgia-based Habersham EMC on Sept. 27. (Photo Courtesy: Habersham EMC)
The good news—overall, mutual aid crews working day and night in treacherous conditions returned power to more than a half-million co-op members in less than three working days. Amid that restoration, though, remained the gut-wrenching images of homes and business that will never return.
The mix was apparent at Madison, Florida-based Tri-County Electric Cooperative, which made incredible progress on critical parts of its system but still had about 19,000 outages remaining midday Sunday.
Crews tend to the area of Tri-County Electric Cooperative in Florida as repairs stretched into a third day. (Photo By: TCEC)
Kaitlynn Culpeper, TCEC’s community relations director, said workers had restored power to six of seven schools in the co-op’s territory so that education can resume, and many stores can again serve customers.
“Our hearts are heavy for our members in the coastal communities and all who are tasked with rebuilding their homes and lives in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. However, we will overcome and getting the lights back on is our priority,” Culpeper said.
More than 1,400 mutual aid personnel dealt with at least 362 broken poles and 175 broken crossarms. Helene was the third hurricane to strike parts of TCEC’s service area in a little more than a year.
At Live Oak, Florida-based Suwanee Valley Electric Cooperative, more than 1,100 workers restored electricity to 13,500 members, or nearly half of the co-op’s membership, according to Jon Little, director of communications. He said the co-op has documented 1,538 separate reports of damage to its system and the tally of 354 destroyed poles is certain to rise.
Further north, Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative said two-thirds of its membership—nearly 49,000—still lacked power as of early Sunday. Mobile sleep trailers arrived at its Pickens, South Carolina, headquarters to aid with crew rotation.
In North Carolina, crews had restored power to 84,000 members since the storm swept through the western part of the state, leaving untold damage.
“While we’ve seen outage numbers tick down, we do want to urge co-op members to be prepared for prolonged outages, especially in the hardest hit areas where outages could remain for the next seven days,” said Lee Ragsdale, senior vice president of energy delivery at North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives. “The impact of this storm is like nothing we’ve ever seen before, but the resolve of the cooperatives to restore power to members as safely and quickly as possible is strong.”
Marshall-based French Broad EMC had power back on for about 11,000 of its 42,000 members. But, like many co-ops, it was dependent on transmission repairs from investor-owned utilities before it could start its work.
“If you can travel out of Western North Carolina, we highly recommend you do so,” the co-op said on social media. “Power will not be restored to all of our members for weeks. Our electrical system has suffered significant damage.”
Steven Johnson is a contributing writer for NRECA.
