Crews from Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative (SVEC) worked around the clock Christmas eve and early Christmas morning to restore service to consumers who lost power due to the storm that brought high winds and heavy rain to our area. Three power poles were broken by the storm and falling trees and tree limbs took down 28 lines.
Beginning at about 5 pm on Christmas Eve, rain along with wind gusts of up to 32 mph caused 105 outages that affected about 3,400 of the cooperative’s 27,000 consumers. SVEC crews restored power to over 3,300 of the affected consumers by 6:30 am Christmas morning. Power was restored to the rest by 8:45 am.
“While outages are always inconvenient, it’s especially unfortunate when they occur at special times like Christmas Eve,” said SVEC CEO, Mike McWaters. “I am very proud of how dedicated our employees are to the welfare of our members. They worked hard to get the power back on, even when it meant being away from their own families.”