SEC brings in more crews; more than 1,300 still out in PE

Published 9:26 am Sunday, February 21, 2021

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Southside Electric Cooperative (SEC) said it made significant progress over the past 24 hours restoring power to more than 1,000 homes but still have 15,500 people without power in its 18 county area as of Sunday morning.

In Prince Edward County, the number of people without power is down to 1,343. That’s down from the 1,811 number SEC reported Saturday morning.  Outages affecting more than 200 customers remain in the Meherrin area of the county.

The county is offering hot meals again today at 4 p.m. at five locations throughout the county. The meals may be picked up at Meherrin Fire and Rescue Department, the Hampton-Sydney College football stadium, Darlington Heights Volunteer Fire Department, Rice Volunteer Fire Department and Prospect Volunteer Fire Department.”

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More crews from Dominion Energy and other contract crews arrived Saturday morning giving SEC the largest number of workers it has had in the field since the ice storm struck more than a week ago. SEC reported it had 889 workers Sunday morning.

SEC said it expected to make more significant progress today but cautioned the number of people restored will likely get smaller due to the more isolated problems on the system that affect fewer customers.

The cooperative is providing periodic updates on its Facebook page where it is clear the patience of those who have been without power for more than a week is wearing thin.

The comments range from compassion for the line workers out in the weather restoring the electricity to complaints about the cooperatives leadership and lots of questions about the outage map, tree clearing policies, and how prepared the cooperative was for the storm.

“Still in the dark here in Farmville, Va,”  Rebecca Haigh said on SEC’s Facebook page Saturday. “You drop us from reported outages every day, and we report again and again. Your trucks drive past our house and do not stop to fix the line with several trees on it.”

Southside officials said they would provide another update today at noon.