A letter to Excelsior EMC members and the local community from President/CEO Greg Proctor recounts the resilience and support shown following Hurricane Helene.
In the early morning hours of Friday, September 27, Hurricane Helene’s winds blew across the entire Excelsior EMC service area. By the time they subsided, we were facing the largest outage event in our 86-year history.
Not a single part of Excelsior’s eight counties went unscathed. 25,451 of our accounts – 100 percent – were in the dark. Trees were down everywhere, which also meant poles and wires were down everywhere. By the time it was over, crews had replaced around 875 broken poles. This surpassed our next largest storm, Hurricane Matthew, by 725 broken poles.
Our employees sprang into action as soon as it was safe to go outside. We also began calling on our fellow cooperatives from all over the nation to assist us.
One of the cooperative principles we operate by is “cooperation among cooperatives.” Never have we seen a greater example than during our efforts after Hurricane Helene. At the restoration efforts peak, there were 664 linemen and tree trimmers from Excelsior EMC, 36 other EMCs, and multiple contractors assisting with our efforts. Many of our retired employees returned to work to assist out-of-town crews in finding their way around.
Not only did those in our industry help; our members and community answered the call to help get the lights back on as well.
Excelsior EMC members assisted line crews by doing such things as using their tractors to pull trees out of the way. Workers in the field frequently received offers of food and drink along with kind words. Members brought food and snacks by our offices throughout the week.
These valuable support services allowed linemen to concentrate on getting the lights back on.
The outpouring of support is humbling. We couldn’t have done the job without the help of our members, community, fellow EMCs and others.
We know that being without power is inconvenient and frustrating. Your patience and understanding as we worked as hard as possible to restore your service is appreciated by all of us.