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A Santee Electric Cooperative contract crew had to go through the swamp to restore power off U.S. Highway 341 in Florence County. This type of terrain is common in co-op served areas, and it's why power restoration after a storm can take days to complete.
Photo by Santee Electric Cooperative
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Governor Nikki Haley tours areas affected by ice storm
Governor Nikki Haley visited parts of Aiken and Colleton counties to see the devastation left behind after the February 2014 ice storm. "The lineman across this state have angel's wings," said Haley during a stop in Aiken.
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Haley visits storm damaged co-op areas
“The linemen across this state have angel's wings.” –Gov. Nikki Haley in Aiken Friday.
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A lineman works to restore power to homes in Aiken County on Friday afternoon.
Photo by Van O'Cain
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A power pole snaps under the weight of ice that built up on a distribution line on Tri-County Electric Cooperative's service territory.
Photo by Bert Walling
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A Marlboro Electric Cooperative lineman works to restore power on Thursday.
Photo by Christy Overstreet
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Limbs weighed down by ice sit atop a power line Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 12.
Photo by Santee Electric Cooperative
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This image illustrates dramatically what can happen to trees and power lines as ice collects.
Photo by David Felkel, Edisto Electric Cooperative
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Horry Electric Cooperative employees work to restore power Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 12, during S.C.'s second round of severe winter weather.
Photo by Horry Electric Cooperative
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Ice builds up on power lines in Hampton County.
Photo by Dylan, Gregg and Devin Freeman
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This is what lineman from Palmetto Electric Cooperative have been seeing in Hampton County.
Photo by Dylan, Gregg and Devin Freeman
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A line crew from Tri-County Electric Cooperative in St. Matthews makes repairs during severe winter weather that occurred on Wednesday, Feb. 12.
Photo by Tri-County Electric Cooperative
The monumental task of restoring power following the February ice storm is now complete. Electric cooperative officials announced that all power had been restored as of Saturday morning, February 22.
The winter storm dealt a significant, crippling blow to five co-ops, with outages affecting more than 50 percent of their members.
"The linemen across this state have angel's wings," said Governor Nikki Haley after touring damage in Aiken County.
“The amount of damage we have here is equal to Hurricane Hugo,” says David Felkel, president and CEO of Edisto Electric Cooperative in Bamberg. Portions of the territory served by Edisto Electric received more than one-inch of ice, interrupting service to more than 80 percent of their consumers.
“Some of our co-ops have never seen the damage on this scale before,” said Todd Carter, vice president of loss control and training for The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina. “For them, this has been a storm of historic proportions.”
Damage at Coastal Electric Cooperative in Walterboro was remarkable. At the height of the storm, all of Coastal‘s 11,500 members did not have electricity.
“An ice storm is worse than a hurricane,” says Bob Paulling, CEO of Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative in Lexington. “With a hurricane, the storm blows through, does its damage and it’s gone. An ice storm is like a hurricane followed by a series of mini-hurricanes. You restore power to an area, but then the ice comes back and the same area goes down again.”
In addition to local crews that have worked full-time on repairs, nearly 700 additional line workers from Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia helped South Carolina’s cooperatives.
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Related:
Q&A on the ice storm and electric co-ops
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To report an outage, contact your local electric cooperative immediately.