Power crews respond to outages throughout South Carolina

Dominion Energy spokesperson Paul Fischer tells AccuWeather how their teams have been responding to outages caused by Tropical Storm Debby.

Transcript

00:00Their continuing coverage of now tropical depression, Debbie, just became a tropical

00:04depression as wind energy has been generally decreasing. But the flooding is a huge story

00:10as well. So with power out to so many up and down parts of the Carolinas and to the north,

00:14crews have been working to restore power and have been working for days in preparation for

00:19Debbie's wrath. And Paul Fisher is a spokesperson for Dominion Energy. And Paul joins us now to talk

00:24about how they're doing in South Carolina. And Paul, I know that it was a wild week,

00:29but it sounds like things are doing a little more better down that way right now. So thanks for

00:36making time for us. And how many days ago did you start preparing for Tropical Storm Debbie?

00:41So thank you and thank you for having me, Jeff. At Dominion Energy South Carolina,

00:46we serve approximately 800,000 customers all across our South Carolina service territory.

00:53And while we are preparing in the days and the weeks ahead of the storm, watching that forecast,

00:59strategically placing our crews, vehicles and equipment in areas that might see the most

01:05severe impacts. It's really the work that we do year round that really helps ensure a reliable

01:13and a safe system. That's things like investing in our system, investing in infrastructure and

01:18technology. And of course, safeguarding our system really somewhere across South Carolina

01:24every day, clearing our lines from dangerous trees, tree limbs and other forms of vegetation.

01:32It's safeguarding those lines that make a difference during severe weather like this

01:37and really every day of the year. That makes a lot of sense. Well, how did the heavy rain and

01:42strong winds from Debbie impact your service area? And what was the worst of it?

01:47Our peak for outages for our customers was overnight Monday into early Tuesday. We saw

01:54approximately 16,000 customers out at that time. But over the course of the event, and we're

02:01continuing to respond to scattered outages today. But over the course of the event, we saw

02:08approximately 80,000 customers impacted. The majority of those customers were impacted in

02:16places like Charleston, Beaufort and Colleton County, particularly along the coast. We were

02:21able to secure additional contract resources from neighboring states, strategically position

02:27them there in advance of the storm and dispatch them quickly when those first reports of damage

02:32came in. We even saw tornadoes on Edisto Beach and Edisto Island, where approximately 2,500

02:39customers were without power. The good news, Jeff, for all of our customers impacted throughout this

02:45event, the majority of customers were restored within 24 hours. That's a great goal there,

02:50and I'm glad to hear that you were able to meet that. I'm sure there were some extra hours,

02:54a lot of long hours there worked by your utility crews there through this week. Paul Fisher,

02:58spokesperson with Dominion Energy in the Palmetto State, South Carolina. Thanks again, Paul.