Overnight, the SECO Energy system held up remarkably well given the high winds and rain that came in the wake of Hurricane Hermine.  At height of the Thursday overnight outages, about 7,500 members were without power. As of 8 am on Friday, about 3,000 members remain without power.

Employees worked throughout the night and field crews are performing under tough conditions. Fresh crews and tree trimmers stepped in this morning to relieve the overnight crews.

SECO expects severe weather throughout the day. Gusty winds up to 45 mph are forecast through 5 pm with periods of heavy rain and lightning at times.  The key component of the current outage equation is there are 170 individual outages affecting those 3,000 members.  That is a high number of individual outages, and some SECO members in less populated areas may need to prepare for a restoration effort that extends into the weekend

SYSTEM OPS UPDATE:

By-County Outages:

• There are 1,125 without power in Marion County – largely in Blichton and Rainbow Lakes and Waterways Ocala.
• There are only 127 members without power in Lake County.
• Sumter County recovered well overnight after unofficial reports of tornados came with multiple outages. About 521 remain without power in Sumter County, mostly along the Highway 301 corridor north and south of Bushnell.
• Hernando County (far north along the 301 corridor) has 15 without power.
• 14 members are without power in Pasco County.
• There are 99 members without power in Levy County.
• Citrus County has 609 members without power – generally along Highway 41 and in Inverness. There are Citrus outage pockets on the north and south sides of Highway 44.

RESTORATION PROCESS:

Remember that bucket trucks and line work cannot withstand winds in excess of 35 mph – restoration work must be suspended in high winds.  SECO’s emergency restoration plan determines the system’s restoration priority of each affected feeder. Essential services such as shelters, hospitals, fire/law enforcement facilities, schools, and government agencies are the highest priority. Line repairs that will restore power to large groups of members are next, and then individual electric services in less populated areas.

If a member is unsure if SECO is aware of an outage, report it using your last name and house number on Storm Center.