Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 storm in northwestern Florida and left a path of destruction through inland Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee.
It’s the deadliest inland storm on record, killing at least 230 people. Helene flooded towns, destroyed roads and bridges, and swept away homes.
Hurricane Helene’s impact was felt across the Santee Cooper power system, but the greatest impact was to the transmission system in the western part of the state. Crews began restoration as soon as conditions were safe to respond. Once Santee Cooper had completed its restoration and repairs, transmission crews were sent to assist other South Carolina utilities with their restoration. Distribution crews also assisted in helping other utilities get the lights back on.
Transmission System
Hurricane outages are, unfortunately, a regular occurrence for the Santee Cooper distribution system because the majority of customers are along the coast. Our transmission system is not usually impacted as widely by tropical storms. Helene was different.
Crews watched the weather forecasts and were ready for a few trees to come down.
“Instead of one or two trees here and there, we had trees down everywhere,” said Mike Johnson, Transmission Operations Director. “The most difficult thing was accessing transmission rights of way, which is challenging under ideal conditions. Those conditions were exacerbated by main roads that were completely covered in trees, access roads blocked by trees, and difficult to navigate rights of way.”
Santee Cooper’s first transmission outage was just before 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 26. In all:
- 51 transmission lines locked out due to sustained outages (approximately 20% of the system based on mileage).
- 126 customer delivery point substations were impacted because of sustained outages to transmission service, impacting 12 electric cooperatives, two industrial customers and one municipal customer.
- Approximately 186,000 cooperative members were impacted by sustained outages to the transmission system.
- The storm caused 250 trees to fall on lines, 27 broken poles, 20 broken insulators and one broken conductor.
- Service to the last delivery point substation was restored – Sunday, Sept. 29 at 8 p.m., although all but four were restored that Saturday
“It was absolute devastation all the way up the western part of our state, especially through the Aiken and Newberry areas,” said Johnson. “There was a collective effort from the entire transmission team and many of our contract partners, who worked tirelessly from Hilton Head to all the way up near our Rainey Station (Anderson County), repairing damage to structures and removing a lot of trees. I am so proud of this group and the way they came together and responded, and I’m so proud of our company.”
Santee Cooper crews restored transmission service to all customers within three days of the initial impact of Helene, with most restoration within two days.
“It was an amazing effort by the entire team,” said Johnson. “And most importantly, everyone worked safely.”
Distribution System
Our distribution teams were also ready. They experienced their first outage at 7 p.m. on Sept. 26. The storm’s impact along the beach was much less severe and included.
- 8,811 total customers impacted.
- 4,262 customers out at peak.
- 14 distribution feeders locked out.
The last outage was restored on Friday, Sept. 27 at 8:43 p.m.
Because damage wasn’t as widespread along the coast as it was inland, distribution crews completed restoration the next day. Santee Cooper was able to send distribution crews Friday evening to help with extensive damage in Upstate South Carolina.
Mutual aid efforts
In all, Santee Cooper released 12 distribution crews, eight transmission crews, two mechanics and a safety specialist. A total of 100 employees provided mutual aid assistance to other South Carolina utilities, which included:
- City of Abbeville
- City of Clinton
- City of Rock Hill
- Aiken Electric Cooperative
- Broad River Electric Cooperative
- Edisto Electric Cooperative
- Laurens Electric Cooperative
- Newberry Electric Cooperative
- Dominion Energy South Carolina
We also provided material to support the restoration at the City of Abbeville.
Line Tech A Wilson Mishoe was part of a group that headed to Aiken.
“I’ve never seen that much damage in one spot,” said Mishoe, a Santee Cooper veteran of nine years. Having already provided mutual aid in Louisiana and Mississippi for other storms, he said it’s still not easy packing up and leaving his wife and three children for two weeks. But line techs will tell you the joy they get from helping others.
“Everybody was really thankful,” Mishoe said. “One road in particular was about 3 miles long and only had six customers on it. A few individuals came out with their side-by-sides and 4-wheelers and helped clear the road. That was a lot of help.”
It’s a hurricane he’ll never forget.
“100-year-old oak trees, beautiful landscapes and every bit was torn down,” he said.
Hurricane Helene was a historic storm, creating a rare path for a hurricane. More than 2 million homes lost power. Santee Cooper’s herculean efforts were just a small part of recovery from Helene.