Southeastern storm causes outages for CHELCO members

Choctawhatchee Electrical Cooperative members were without power as a very deadly, dangerous Feb. 23 storm made its way through the area. More than 4,000 members experienced a loss of power during the storm.

Several factors — such as trees falling on lines, lightning strikes and tornado winds — caused 52 outages.

Crews were dispatched around 8:30 p.m. Feb. 23 as soon as the first outages began and by 12 p.m. Feb. 24, power had been restored to all members.

The Paxton substation lost power due to a blown fuse, which affected more than 1,000 of the members without power. Crews coordinated with CHELCO's power supplier, PowerSouth, to make the repairs.

"This storm system was very dangerous, and those in Louisiana and Mississippi who suffered so much more damage than our service area are in our thoughts," said CHELCO CEO Steve Rhodes. "Our crews worked throughout the night to ensure power was restored in a timely manner. CHELCO is always striving to be reliable even in dangerous storms."

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Southeastern storm causes outages for CHELCO members