‘This Is an Unprecedented Situation’: Co-ops Pick Up the Pieces After Helene

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.

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.

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.”

The Cooperative Development Foundation (CDF) has set up a dedicated page for donations to raise funds for disaster relief to electric cooperatives and co-op employees directly affected by Hurricane Helene. 

Steven Johnson is a contributing writer for NRECA.

More on Hurricane Helene:

Day 1 Coverage | Day 2 Coverage