Laurens Electric Update – Sunday Morning
September 29, 2024
Crews continued work through the night, removing and replacing broken poles and transformers and cutting trees off power lines along 7,100 miles of line in 7 counties.
Another substation was brought back online. 12 or 34 substations are functional at this time. Mutual Aid crews from Florida worked beside us in the dark, and we on-boarded crews from co-ops in Ohio and Arkansas this morning. We expect the arrival of 100 more personnel are expected in the next day or two.
As we stated previously, because of the catastrophic damage to our electric infrastructure from Hurricane Helene, there is no estimated time for full restoration yet. Many of our members will be without power until well into next week. We advise members to make contingency plans, and we understand the hardship will cause.
We will be required to rebuild much of our infrastructure, as opposed to simple power restoration during normal outages. The number of broken poles throughout our system is at least 200 and counting. For reference, Helene’s destruction of critical electric infrastructure has surpassed that of even Hurricane Hugo in 1989.
If you or someone in your household requires emergency medical assistance, please call 911 immediately. Those who are dependent on medical equipment at home and are without power may be eligible for a medical needs shelter. Contact the S.C. Dept. or Public Health at 1-855-472-3432.
Our full work force is committed to working around the clock to bring power back to our members, and we greatly appreciate your patience during these hard days.
