Christy Tuckey

In the two days since Hurricane Irma crashed through North Florida, Suwannee Valley Electric has restored power to approximately 50% of its consumers who were affected by the storm:

We are doing our utmost to get all power back on by the end of the week. Crews from SVEC, Musgrove Construction and Bryant Tree Service continue to clear trees and make repairs to the electric system, and line crews from other co-ops have arrived today to help.

During the night, power was restored to an additional 2,040 SVEC consumer-members. This morning, efforts continue with a workforce of 522 in the field. All substation feeders are now energized, which allows crews to focus on smaller tap lines and individual service lines.

SVEC has suspended power restoration efforts this evening, due to high winds. Restoration efforts will begin again Monday afternoon, as soon as it is safe for employees to respond.

Power has been restored to over 6,000 out of the 28,848 (20.9%) SVEC consumer-members who lost power on Thursday night due to Hurricane Helene.

SVEC is experiencing widespread power outages due to Hurricane Irma.

SVEC encourages its members to be prepared for extended power outages caused by Hurricane Irma. Our crews will do their very best to restore power as safely and quickly as possible, but because of the size and strength of this historic storm, we’re expecting significant damage to our system.

The predicted track of Hurricane Irma has moved west, so SVEC has requested 23 crews from co-ops outside of the storm area to arrive in Live Oak on Tuesday. These crews will augment the 14 SVEC crews and 3 contractor crews that are already prepared to respond to damage caused by the storm.

Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative (SVEC) has activated its Emergency Response Plan in anticipation of potentially severe weather from Hurricane Irma. “We’ve incorporated lessons learned from Hurricane Hermine into our plan, and every employee is ready to fulfill their role in meeting the needs of our members,” said SVEC’s CEO, Michael McWaters.