FOCUS, photo essay:  Santee Cooper crews restore power

Myrtle Beach crews cut trees to pull them off lines off 48th avenue. (Photos courtesy of Santee Cooper.)

Staff reports  |  Electrical power started popping off early Saturday as Hurricane Florence lingered, dumping rain throughout eastern North Carolina, the Grand Strand and Pee Dee.  More than a million reportedly lost power in North Carolina.  In South Carolina in Santee Cooper’s retail service area, more than 50,000 customers lost power in the storm.

But the utility’s crews, ready for days to jump into action, quickly got to work to restore service to homes and 21 transmission delivery points, most of which were in the North Myrtle Beach-Little River region, according to spokesman Mollie Gore.

Crews, who battled foul weather and wind for hours, were able to turn on the lights to 48,000 customers by Sunday afternoon – a huge effort after a huge storm.

“We are down to the detail work, mostly, at the point – the damages that impact small groups of customers at the end of lines,” Gore said Sunday afternoon.  “And so the numbers will drop more slowly than they have been. But crews will remain out until everyone is restored.”

Below are some photos, provided by Santee Cooper, of what crews faced as they worked to get power to return after the storm.  We thought seeing the photos would make the impact of the storm more understandable.

In misty weather in Moncks Corner, crew trucks roll out early Saturday headed to work in the Grand Strand.

Transmission workers use a Marsh Master to access a damaged pole in the Great Pee Dee Swamp near Mullins, Sunday morning.

Distribution lineworkers replace a cross arm on U.S. Highway 17 near the former Air Force base in Myrtle Beach, late Saturday evening.

Myrtle Beach crews at work near 48th Avenue in Myrtle Beach.

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