Powering Through

Once outages in the Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative (GCEC) service territory were restored, employees assisted fellow co-ops.

Category 4 Hurricane Helene made landfall on September 26 near Perry. It was the strongest hurricane to strike Florida’s Big Bend region and the 10th strongest landfalling tropical cyclone in the state. Helene was still a Category 2 storm when it reached Georgia the following day. It is estimated Helene caused $38.5 billion in damages and claimed more than 200 lives, with nearly 300 still missing.

Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative’s service territory experienced some outages due to the tropical storm conditions in our area. However, all these outages were restored by midday Sept. 27, allowing 12 employees to assist Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative in Live Oak.

Following Hurricane Helene, 99.9% of Suwannee Valley’s service territory was without power, with nine of its 13 substations inoperable. By the time GCEC employees returned home on October 3, power had been restored to more than 27,300 SVEC member-owners who lost power during the storm. This was accomplished by 1,482 lineworkers, tree clearers, and support staff working across four counties.   e co-op documented more than 3,100 damages to its system, including 767 broken poles.

On October 5, Gulf Coast Electric Cooperative sent 11 employees to Excelsior EMC in Metter, Georgia, where 3,553 members were still without power. Our employees remained in Georgia until Oct. 8. At that time, only 40 of the co-op’s member-owners remained without power, so the GCEC crew traveled to Gainesville to assist Clay Electric Co-op once Hurricane Milton passed.

We are proud of our employees’ dedication and appreciate the sacrifices they and their families make.