Our crews, and all the assistance who came in to help, continue to battle and we are now down to 8178 members still out. Pickens County has 4497, followed by Cherokee with 2497 and the other counties are at about 400 with some substantially less than that. This is from a high of 26,000 meters that were out, which is roughly half of our entire system.
There is so much damage, with so many trees down, it is slowing restoration time, but we are doing all we can to get power restored. It is important to remember to not go near any downed power lines. We know it’s hard but it is critical to stay away and always assume power lines are still energized.
Restoration of this size is similar to the aftermath of a tropical storm or tornado. We continue to ask for your patience. It is still too early to give an accurate estimate of when all power will be restored. Some utilities give a forecasted restoration time, and then go back and extend that by hours or days. We knew from the beginning it would be a multiple day restoration and when more detailed information is available it will be released.