Dominion Energy spokesperson Paul Fischer tells AccuWeather how their teams have been responding to outages caused by Tropical Storm Debby.
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00:00Their continuing coverage of now tropical depression, Debbie, just became a tropical
00:04depression as wind energy has been generally decreasing. But the flooding is a huge story
00:10as well. So with power out to so many up and down parts of the Carolinas and to the north,
00:14crews have been working to restore power and have been working for days in preparation for
00:19Debbie's wrath. And Paul Fisher is a spokesperson for Dominion Energy. And Paul joins us now to talk
00:24about how they're doing in South Carolina. And Paul, I know that it was a wild week,
00:29but it sounds like things are doing a little more better down that way right now. So thanks for
00:36making time for us. And how many days ago did you start preparing for Tropical Storm Debbie?
00:41So thank you and thank you for having me, Jeff. At Dominion Energy South Carolina,
00:46we serve approximately 800,000 customers all across our South Carolina service territory.
00:53And while we are preparing in the days and the weeks ahead of the storm, watching that forecast,
00:59strategically placing our crews, vehicles and equipment in areas that might see the most
01:05severe impacts. It's really the work that we do year round that really helps ensure a reliable
01:13and a safe system. That's things like investing in our system, investing in infrastructure and
01:18technology. And of course, safeguarding our system really somewhere across South Carolina
01:24every day, clearing our lines from dangerous trees, tree limbs and other forms of vegetation.
01:32It's safeguarding those lines that make a difference during severe weather like this
01:37and really every day of the year. That makes a lot of sense. Well, how did the heavy rain and
01:42strong winds from Debbie impact your service area? And what was the worst of it?
01:47Our peak for outages for our customers was overnight Monday into early Tuesday. We saw
01:54approximately 16,000 customers out at that time. But over the course of the event, and we're
02:01continuing to respond to scattered outages today. But over the course of the event, we saw
02:08approximately 80,000 customers impacted. The majority of those customers were impacted in
02:16places like Charleston, Beaufort and Colleton County, particularly along the coast. We were
02:21able to secure additional contract resources from neighboring states, strategically position
02:27them there in advance of the storm and dispatch them quickly when those first reports of damage
02:32came in. We even saw tornadoes on Edisto Beach and Edisto Island, where approximately 2,500
02:39customers were without power. The good news, Jeff, for all of our customers impacted throughout this
02:45event, the majority of customers were restored within 24 hours. That's a great goal there,
02:50and I'm glad to hear that you were able to meet that. I'm sure there were some extra hours,
02:54a lot of long hours there worked by your utility crews there through this week. Paul Fisher,
02:58spokesperson with Dominion Energy in the Palmetto State, South Carolina. Thanks again, Paul.