Santee Electric Cooperative would like to thank crews from South Pine Electric Cooperative, Marshall-DeKalb Electric Cooperative, Dixie Electric Cooperative, Wiregrass Electric Cooperative, Sand Mountain Electric Cooperative and Joe Wheeler Electric Cooperative all out of Alabama; Carolina Tree Care out of North Carolina; North Virginia Electric Cooperative and Choptank Electric Cooperative out of Virginia and Aspen, Jimmy's Tree Service, Sumter Utilities, McCall Thomas and Tru Check from South Carolina, who have all come to help with Hurricane Matthew recovery.

Though we have about 200 men in the field working, with the extent of the storm, it is slow going for these crews. With 6,974 outages in Clarendon County, 8,245 in Florence County, 11,115 in Georgetown County and 10,098 in Williamsburg County we understand member's frustrations. Restoring 23.91% of our member's electricity is no small task when you have 5,543 miles of line to cover.

Restoration begins at our substations and crews move out working their way down the lines focusing on large primary feeders and critical infrastructure. Without knowing the exact damage in each area Santee Electric Cooperative employees cannot give restoration times.

As electricity begins to be restored, power lines may become extremely dangerous. Stay away from downed power lines.

Please report outages or downed power lines at www.santee.org , on the SmartHub app, using TextPower or at 1-888-239-2300. A map of cooperative outages across the state can be found at https://outages.ecsc.org/outages/maps