Palmetto State News

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham visited Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative in Pickens, South Carolina, where he met with leadership and employees. Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative is a customer-owned utility company that has been operating since 1940, and Graham himself is a customer.

During the visit, Graham provided an update alongside Blue Ridge President and CEO Jim Lovinggood. Graham praised the cooperative's efforts, stating, "The co-ops are great all over South Carolina. They are indispensable at times like this." He also acknowledged the hard work of the staff: "These men and women have been working night and day."

Lovinggood described the recent storm as historic, noting its impact on power outages: "We had about 90 percent of our customers out of power Friday morning at 10:00 AM… So far we’ve been able to get about 70 percent of those back on. So we’re down now to about 30 percent of our customers without power."

Graham compared the situation to Hurricane Hugo for the Upstate region: "We got flattened up here, folks. I wanted to come by and thank the co-ops and all the line crew out there and the people working out in the field. You know it’s a team sport here."

Lovinggood mentioned ongoing recovery efforts: "We are working around the clock. We’ve set up in both of our campuses to house up to 700 outside workers. We have over 500 currently in the field and we’re hoping to get more help as the days go by."

Graham urged patience from those affected by outages: "Just be patient. The people who are trying to restore your power lost their power. They haven’t seen their families; they are out there working 16 to 18-hour days under very dangerous conditions. So to the extent you can be patient, please do. I know it’s frustrating, but the people trying to help you have suffered like you have."