Recovery from Debby

October 2024

Power restoration began at first light every day.

Note: This story was written before Hurricane Helene became a named storm and made landfall in Florida. The Helene restoration effort will be featured in a future issue of Currents.

By the time Hurricane Debby made landfall on Aug. 5, Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative had been hard at work for three days on a plan to rebuild its system.

Cooperative leaders activated the Emergency Restoration Plan on Aug. 2, monitoring incoming reports from weather services, preparing employees for the upcoming work schedule, and reaching out to contractors and the Florida Electric Cooperatives Association to see what additional help would be available.

“I was proud of our effort, I thought we did a good job,” SVEC CEO Mike McWaters told WCTV. “The one thing we did differently for Debby, was we had more resources here quicker.”

By Aug. 3, SVEC staff met to lay out all the resources available for the restoration effort and set up daily storm calls with Seminole Electric Cooperative, the Florida Electric Cooperatives Association, and Duke Energy. That planning paid dividends after the storm hit, with SVEC able to restore power to the vast majority of consumer-members in under 72 hours.

Warehouse staff checks the inventory of an electrical device prior to landfall.

Sunday, August 4

  • 219 Crew members from SVEC and MONDAY, AUG. 5 contractors ready for electric restoration
  • 177 lineworkers
  • 23 vegetation management personnel
  • 19 support personnel
  • 84 Contractor crew members ready for fiber restoration

Monday, August 5

Category 1

Two bucket truck crews repair lines on Aug. 7 with around 62% of the system restored.

Hurricane Debby’s rating when it made landfall near Steinhatchee at 7 a.m.

  • 27,714 Meters out of service by 2 p.m., approximately 96% of SVEC’s system
  • 78 Hotel rooms reserved for soon-to-arrive non-local crews
  • Basecamp activated at SVEC’s Live Oak campus to:
    • Feed 500
    • Sleep 300

Tuesday, August 6

  • 27 Feeders out of 42 (64%) were restored by 5 a.m.
  • 6,875 Consumer-members with power restored after 15 hours, about 25%
Crews continued to work in flooded areas through August 8.

Wednesday, August 7

  • 17,171 Consumer-members with power restored by 5 a.m. (39 hours), about 62%
  • 522 Total workforce now contributing to the restoration effort
  • 95% Service restored to Hamilton and Columbia counties by 6:15 p.m. (52 hours)

Thursday, August 8

  • 95% Service restored to Suwannee County by 10:30 a.m. and to Lafayette County by 2 p.m., (72 hours).

Safety in The Storm

In all, SVEC and contractors worked 27,839 man-hours to restore power with:

  • 0 fatalities
  • 0 major injuries
  • 0 lost-time work injuries
  • 81 first-aid treatments for cuts, abrasions, bug bites, backaches, and headaches

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