Santee Electric hit hard by Winter Storm Pax

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Santee Electric Cooperative is thankful for its members’ patience as it continues to work on one of its largest outages since Hurricane Hugo, according to Manager of Community Relations Adrel Stone Langley.

“We were one of the worst-hit systems,” Langley said Sunday afternoon. “We have about seven members per line of the mile, and we have 5,517 miles of line in our four-county area, which includes Clarendon, Florence, Georgetown and Williamsburg counties.”

Langley said more than 44,226 total members were affected by Winter Storm Pax, which moved through the Clarendon County area late Tuesday and early Wednesday. About 9,000 of the cooperative’s outages were in Clarendon County, with Georgetown and Williamsburg counties being hardest hit with about 12,000 outages each.

“We have the largest physical footprint of any co-op in the state,” Langley said. “We are working on the problems, and we just ask that our members continue to be patient.”

Langley also said members should not get discouraged when they see someone in their neighborhood with power while they still go without.

“Customers in the same neighborhood may be served from different phase3s on the same feeder,” Langley explained. “One phase may be less severely damaged than another, which serves the neighbors’ homes.”

She said members may have an “individual outage” from a downed tap line or another reason that cannot be seen with the naked eye. She said crews are working on those issues on a home-by-home basis.

She said the company cannot provide a guarantee on restoration, but advised that members should call (888) 239-2300, and continue to call if it is busy because members are getting through.

As of Sunday afternoon, more than 4,000 homes in Clarendon County are without power, including those supplied by Duke Energy and Black River Electric Cooperative

For more information on current outages statewide, view www.santee.org/about-santee-electric/news-and-press/feb-16,-2014-outage-map.aspx.