Clay Electric completed power restoration from Hurricane Helene in the evening of October 3, ending ...

October 4, 2024

Clay Electric completed power restoration from Hurricane Helene in the evening of October 3, ending a week of outages from the destruction the Category 4 storm left behind.

"Clay personnel, contractors, and mutual aid pushed through the challenges and finished strong," said Chief Operations Officer Bryan Gunter.

On Friday, September 27, about 105,000 members were without power after the powerful storm barreled through North Florida. The Lake City and Gainesville Districts were the hardest-hit areas and took the longest to restore.

For several days, Clay Electric personnel, along with mutual aid and contract crews, pushed through downed lines and broken poles to restore power to members. In all, about 750 workers contributed to the effort in the field, and other employees and volunteers provided support.

Clay Electric replaced 622 power poles and 459 transformers during restoration, both numbers that far exceeded those replaced after Hurricane Irma in 2017. The co-op also replaced 144,000 feet of primary conductor, 20,000 feet of service wire, and 150 crossarms.