Several days in to what would become a 15-day power outage in the wake of Hurricane Helene for some Aiken Electric Cooperative customers, a man called the utility’s Edgefield office, threatening to shoot the employees there if the lights didn’t come back on that day.
At the time, the cooperative had 925 people — both office personnel and linemen working 16-hour shifts — who it needed to keep safe, said CEO Gary Stooksbury.
“When you have a situation like we had, people get desperate,” Stooksbury said. “And when people get desperate, they do things that they normally would not do.”
Downed power lines were not the only hazard electric workers encountered on the job following the deadly storm that swept across much of the Southeast.
Sometimes, the danger came from the residents of 1.3 million South Carolina homes and business left in the dark by the storm a year ago.
In an effort to protect their crews and prevent similar issues in the future, the Palmetto State’s power cooperatives plan to ask legislators to enact a law to deter people who might threaten or attack linemen or other workers, such as road crews, responding at times of natural disaster.
“Our focus is to make sure anybody who is restoring critical infrastructure in a time of natural disaster is protected,” said John Frick, the cooperatives’ senior vice president for public policy. “You’re really talking about people’s lives and families out there that will be forever affected. So, you have to make sure you protect the workers that are just out there doing their job.”
This could include tougher criminal penalties for threats made during a state of emergency.
South Carolina already has laws on the books that apply in times of emergency declared by the governor, such as fines and misdemeanor penalties for business owners convicted of price gouging, as well as felony charges for looters.
“Most of the public has been extremely good to our people and first responders,” Frick said.
That included church congregations that brought meals for linemen and school children who wrote and mailed thank you cards.
“But a few people have not (been good),” Frick said. “That endangers everybody and actually slows down restoration efforts.”
Frick said cooperatives are open to measures other than criminal charges as long as it keeps people safe.
When it comes to the Aiken cooperative customer, Stooksbury said the man “just took his frustration out over the phone.” The customer never actually came armed to the office.
Still, cooperative staff had to take the threat seriously. They called the sheriff’s department, and police arrested the man without incident.
As an added precaution, the cooperative hired police officers to stand watch at its offices across three counties.
After all, Stooksbury has seen things go another way.
At the executive’s first job out of college, working in the offices of Tennessee Valley Authority, a landowner shot and killed a power company employee while the worker was out surveying property for a new power line.
“It was a tragic situation,” Stooksbury said.
“Being a lineman is a very dangerous job,” he added. “You need to be focused on what you are doing rather than worrying about somebody coming up behind you or getting threatened out on a roadway.”
While South Carolina is no stranger to hurricanes, Helene wrought severe and widespread devastation not seen since Hurricane Hugo in 1989. That coupled with more than two weeks without power took its toll.
“This was the longest outage we’ve ever had,” said Newberry Electric Cooperative CEO Keith Avery. “We literally had to rebuild lines on the opposite sides of roads because we couldn’t clear up the downed trees quick enough.”
Avery said Newberry Electric customers did not make any threats but several frustrated people showed up to the office. Two even drove past the gate into the storage yard full of spare parts and heavy machinery, disrupting crew members who were loading replacement power poles onto a work truck.
“You’ve got people out there working. They’re loading poles with forklifts. They’re focused on their job,” Avery said. “They’re not focused on you pulling in there, and that creates a whole different hazard.”
Days after employees managed to calm down one woman angry about having been without power for more than a week, a man came into the yard trying to convince crews to come to his house and get his lights back on.
On a third occasion, a woman approached a crew fixing a downed power line telling them how the workers who had been at her house that day hadn’t restored her electricity.
“When you have downed power lines, anything can happen. The work site itself is hazardous,” Avery said. “Come to find out, she wasn’t even our member.”
Jessica Holdman writes about the economy, workforce and higher education. Before joining the SC Daily Gazette, she was a business reporter for The Post and Courier.
SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
