Berkeley Electric Cooperative's customers also affected for a brief period
on Sunday
About 10,000 households on Kiawah Island, Seabrook Island and some of Johns
Island lost power for more than five hours Saturday.
Rose Principe said it was the most massive power outage she had ever seen in
her 12 years on Seabrook Island.
"The temps in our homes were beginning to rise into the high 80s, let alone
we couldn't cook for our families, and many elderly people on the island
were anxious as to how long the outage would last," she said.
The power was knocked out by the downing of a Santee Cooper transmission
line that feeds Berkeley Electric Cooperative's substations on Kiawah and
Seabrook.
A tree fell on a major transmission line and cut it, Santee Cooper
communications director Laura Varn said.
Principe said she called around and found the outage not only left homes in
the dark but resorts and restaurants, as well, leaving wedding parties and
dinner reservations in limbo.
"None of the restaurants at Bohicket Marina had power, nor did The Sanctuary
or both the clubs on the islands," Principe said.
Her biggest concern was that she couldn't get any information about what was
going on, since all the circuits were busy when people tried to call.
"There doesn't seem to be any way to notify anybody, even in this digital
age," Principe said. "If we can't disseminate information about a
five-and-a-half-hour power outage, how will we communicate in a real
emergency?"
The number of households affected is higher than the 4,200 households
reported in Sunday's Post and Courier. Those who lost power were customers
of Berkeley Electric Cooperative, not South Carolina Electric & Gas, as was
initially reported.
SCE&G didn't have any widespread power outages Saturday, spokesman Eric
Boomhower said Sunday.
Power on the islands went out shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday and was restored
shortly before 8 p.m., according to Berkeley Electric Cooperative
communications specialist Micah Ponce.
Berkeley Electric Cooperative experienced scattered outages elsewhere Sunday
afternoon, Ponce said. The typical outage elsewhere lasted only a few
minutes as power was rerouted around the problem, he said.
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