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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 one reason power restoration after a storm is so labor intensive.
Photo courtesy of Santee Electric Cooperative
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Aiken Electric Cooperative lineworker Brad Ivey reconnects one of many broken power lines in the co-op's service area.
Photo by Keith Phillips
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Areas served by Edisto Electric Cooperative received up to an inch of accumulated ice, causing damage that CEO David Felkel considered "as bad as, if not worse, than Hurricane Hugo."
Photo by David Felkel, Edisto Electric Cooperative
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A car crash at a work site could have been deadly but because of quick thinking and dedication to their mission, two line workers remained safe and kept working to restore power.
Steve Pendleton (right), a lineman from North Carolina, was helping Santee Electric Cooperative repair ice storm damage, working with a crew on Highway 521 near Foreston. A car crashed into another vehicle next to the work site. One of the cars spun toward Pendleton, and Santee Electric lineman Scott Lee pulled him out of the way. The car grazed Pendleton's left side. Later, Pendleton learned that his knee cap was broken. But instead of going home to recover, he was back on the job the next day.
South Carolina's electric cooperatives recognized the two men, commending Pendleton for "his determination to stay and help our power crews get the job done" and Lee for "his quick thinking and willingness to help out a fellow crew member to avoid a tragic situation."
Photo by Adrel Langley
Winter Storm Pax, a two-day blast of ice, sleet, and snow that blanketed South Carolina in mid-February, will go down in the record books as one of the worst winter storms in decades, but thanks to dedicated co-op employees, the recovery effort may also set a new milestone.
At the storm’s peak, approximately 144,000 co-op members were without power, according to Todd Carter, vice president of loss control and training for The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina. The greatest number of outages occurred in the Midlands and Pee Dee regions. Up to 1 inch of accumulated ice snapped utility poles and sent trees crashing into power lines, causing extensive damage to the infrastructure serving the Aiken, Bamberg, Walterboro, Moncks Corner, Kingstree and Georgetown areas.
During the height of the storm, all of Walterboro-based Coastal Electric Cooperative’s 11,500 members were without power. Five more co-ops in the region experienced outages affecting 50 percent or more of their members.
David Felkel, CEO of Bamberg-based Edisto Electric Cooperative, said the storm damage was “as bad, if not worse, than Hurricane Hugo. It hit our entire system.”
While restoration in the aftermath of the infamous 1989 hurricane took four weeks to complete, Carter said South Carolina’s co-ops managed to repair most of the damage from Pax in about eight days, thanks to an influx of more than 700 co-op and contract lineworkers from Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia who worked alongside local repair crews.
“It’s mind-boggling what these guys have done in little more than a week’s time,” he said. “We realize a few people did not get their lights on for seven or eight days, but even in the best conditions, restoring power to some rural areas is a big challenge.”
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