Hurricane Helene Recovery Efforts

Hurricane Helene made landfall along the Florida Gulf Coast on Thursday, Sept. 26. With winds reaching 140 miles per hour late that evening, the damage was catastrophic. The storm continued north weakening to a post tropical cyclone over Tennessee the next day, stalling over the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina and dumping upwards of 30 inches of rain on some communities. The storm created severe flooding, hundreds of fatalities and billions of dollars in property damage across Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Despite the extensive damage created by Hurricane Helene, electric co-ops are doing what they do best – helping their own.

“Tennessee co-ops are rolling up their sleeves and helping when it’s needed most, both with our own here in the state and with sister co-ops in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina,” said Mike Knotts, CEO of TECA. “We could not be more proud of the lineworkers who are making this happen.”

Some of the hardest hit co-ops in the Volunteer State were Powell Valley Electric Cooperative in New Tazewell and Mountain Electric Cooperative in Mountain City.

Powell Valley Electric Cooperative had 735 individual outages following the storm, 95 broken poles and more than 11,000 consumers without power, but with the help of the co-op family, all power has been restored. The co-op received mutual aid from co-ops, contractors and tree trimmers.

“Fortunately, nearly 40 linemen from our sister cooperatives in Virginia—Northern Neck, NOVEC, Choptank, and Mecklenburg—answered the call, working alongside our crews to restore service. The coordinated efforts between the Tennessee Electric Cooperative Association and the Virginia, Maryland and Delaware Association of Electric Cooperatives were key in quickly finding help for us, ensuring that we received the necessary support to speed up the restoration process,” said Brad Coppock, PVEC’s general manager. “The principle of cooperation among cooperatives truly shines during times like these, and PVEC is deeply grateful for the assistance from both TECA and our fellow co-ops in Virginia and Maryland.”

Reconstruction efforts continue into the second week at Mountain Electric Cooperative. After the storm, 25,000 consumers–well over half of the co-op’s system–were without power.

“Hurricane Helene impacted Mountain Electric Cooperative with severe damage to our electrical grid,” said Rodney Metcalf, general manager of MEC. “There were thousands of trees, poles and electrical lines damaged. The grid in several areas will need to be completely rebuilt. Many of our employees have sustained damage to their own homes and are unable to do any repairs because they are working to serve others in the community above themselves. Please keep our community and our employees in your prayers for safety.”

MEC’s outage numbers are down to around 2,000, and lineworkers from MEC, joined by crews from Tennessee Valley Electric Cooperative and Fayetteville Public Utilities, continue working 15 hour days to assist those in need. With the help of its community, FPU was able to send nearly 75,000 pounds of supplies to those impacted by the hurricane and plan to send another load in the coming days.

“TECA is always ready to answer the call for mutual aid,” said Todd Blocker, TECA’s vice president of member services and coordinator for mutual aid in the state. “Hurricane Helene certainly caused devastation and destruction for some of Tennessee’s electric cooperatives, but it has been encouraging to see other co-ops from across the state rush to assist.”