SECO News
TM
OCTOBER 2017
DUNCAN’S DIGEST Jim Duncan, CEO
H
urricane Irma is indeed the biggest, baddest, meanest named storm we’ve seen in a long time. Irma’s damage to our system was more significant than we experienced in the infamous 2004 hurricane season.
HURRICANE IRMA HITS HARD Hurricane Irma – the aptly named “war goddess” – arrived with an arsenal of hurricane-force winds. She wreaked havoc as she traveled directly through SECO’s service territory as a Category 1 to a Category 3 hurricane, per data from the National Hurricane Center. Power outages began late Sunday evening September 10, and members continued to lose power through Monday morning. 559103 From Irma’s onset until winds subsided Monday mid-day, approximately 139,000 outages were
Areas of south Sumter County were engulfed by rising water.
reported by members and captured by our outage management system. Over half of our system was damaged by the hurricane-force winds with lines, transformers and poles on the ground covered by trees and debris. Executing an emergency action plan before, during and after a named storm is a standard DIGEST cont. on page 2…
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