BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C.– Less than 24 hours after Hurricane Matthew exited Santee Cooper’s service territory, crews have restored nearly 60,000 retail customers and begun the work to restore its transmission system.
Santee Cooper has approximately 900 people assessing and working on the lines, including line and tree crews from several states who are aiding Santee Cooper’s own crews.
Approximately 25 percent of Santee Cooper’s transmission system was impacted, and today’s efforts focused on helicopter flyovers to pinpoint damage and help guide transmission restoration.
Santee Cooper’s transmission system feeds the state’s 20 electric cooperatives and several municipalities. Damage from Matthew has been exacerbated by already-saturated ground from September’s rain events.
As of 3 p.m., Santee Cooper’s distribution network has about 80,000 customers without power across its retail territory of Horry, Georgetown and Berkeley counties. “We expect to have our major distribution lines back on in the next day or two, and we appreciate our customers’ patience through this process,” said Mike Poston, vice president of retail operations. “It will likely be a week or more before we successfully bring all of our smaller lines back on. Hurricane Matthew left 137,000 Santee Cooper customers without power. Hurricane Hugo took out all of our customers, but in 1989 that was just 65,000 people.”
Outage numbers are starting to come down for Berkeley Electric Coop as well. As of 12:30 p.m. Sunday, just over 45,000 members remain without power.
“We ask that you please remain patient as there are still some areas we cannot access,” stated BEC officials. “However, all crews are in the field and working as hard as they can to quickly and safely restore power.”
Berkeley Electric is also receiving help from South Kentucky RECC. Crew members drove about 12 hours to assist BEC in restoring power to its service area.
Crew members say they will continue to work throughout the night until power is fully restores to all customers.
Less than 18 hours after departed from South Carolina, SCE&G restored power to 100,000 customers. Most of that progress occurred under darkness, officials stated.
“The level of damage South Carolina has sustained will take time for our crews and require a vigilance for safety,” SCE&G posted on their official Facebook page. “They will continue to work long, challenging hours until the last customer receives power.”
As of 6 p.m., SCE&G reports that more than 3,300 people remain without power in Berkeley County.
To report a power outage to Berkeley Electric, dial: 1-888-253-4232.
To report a power outage to Santee Cooper, dial: 1-888-769-7688.
To report a power outage to SCE&G, dial: 1-888-333-4465.
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