Crews have restored power to 5,421 consumers since early this morning, but Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative (SVEC) continues to experience a large number of outages caused by Tropical Storm Elsa.
With the goal of getting power restored to everyone as soon as is safely possible, SVEC’s crews have been joined this evening by lineworkers and vegetation clearers from Musgrove Construction, Sparks Energy, Talquin Electric Cooperative, and Bryant Tree Service. “I am immensely proud of all that our employees accomplished today,” says SVEC’s CEO Mike McWaters. And this evening, we have 77 dedicated individuals working to get people back on”.
SVEC’s policy is to make repairs that will restore service to the most people in the least amount of time. Substations are repaired first, followed by distribution lines that feed large groups of people such as entire neighborhoods. Smaller tap lines and individual service lines are then repaired to restore power to members who may still be without electricity.
“While we are still discovering the full extent of the damage done to our system, crews will work all night to get as many people as possible back on,” says McWaters. “But to be safe, we recommend that individuals with health issues make plans to spend the night with a friend or family member who has power.”
Everyone is reminded to stay away from downed power lines and to not attempt to drive over them or remove vegetation from them.
More on SVEC’s response to Tropical Storm Elsa can be found on the SVEC Facebook page, the SVEC Twitter page, and the SVEC Instagram page.