SEC brings in more crews; outage number down to 2,660

Published 8:33 am Sunday, February 21, 2021

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

In Lunenburg County, the number of people without power is 2,660. That’s down from the 3,005 number SEC reported Saturday morning. Outages remain scattered throughout the county with no single outage affecting more than 300 customers.

More crews arrived 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 at 889.

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.

“Where are you?” Rohana Rain Shifflet of Victoria asked in a comment on SEC’s Facebook page. “Not one truck in sight lines down in the roads. This drill is getting old. I plan on seeing you at your board meeting.“

Jordan Pegram said lines have been across a road in Dundas for days.

“Lines are still down across the roads all over Dundas. Both on the Brunswick and Lunenburg sides,” she commented. “People have become so used to just driving over them now because they have to that I’m worried it’s going to become a big hazard once power gradually starts coming back on.”

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

Lunenburg remains the county with the second-most outages in SEC’s system. Dinwiddie County has 3,191 SEC customers without power.

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