It’s a tremendous relief to be on the other side of Hurricane Isaias, and I know many of you feel the same. As the leader of this organization, I could not be prouder of how our team responded to this historic hurricane and the destruction it left behind.

Safety First

My greatest source of pride is that not a single CHELCO employee sustained an injury during restoration efforts. Despite the long hours, difficult conditions, and physically demanding work, our commitment to safety never wavered. That is an accomplishment everyone at CHELCO can take pride in.

Our Employees

I’ve expressed my gratitude to our employees many times before, during, and after the storm, and I cannot thank them enough. Thanks to preparations made well before hurricane season, every employee understood their role and was equipped to carry it out.
 

During the week of restoration, CHELCO employees worked an average of 83 hours. That’s more than twice their normal work week, which meant sacrificing time away from their families and in many cases not being home during daylight hours for an entire week. Even after restoration was complete, they faced the challenge of catching up on their regular responsibilities. Their ability to transition from daily operations to an all-hands storm response and back again speaks volumes about their dedication and professionalism.

Mutual Aid and Contractor Support

CHELCO has never undertaken a storm response of this scale or level of coordination. A major part of that effort was CHELCO’s first-ever activation of a storm response base camp, which supported 1,000 visiting lineworkers, right-of-way crews, and other support personnel from across the country.

I am deeply grateful to everyone who traveled to our area to lend a hand. In recent years, CHELCO has answered the call to assist other cooperatives following disasters. This time, we were on the receiving end of that same generosity. One of our Seven Cooperative Principles, Cooperation Among Cooperatives, was on full display throughout the recovery.

Our Members

If you’re a CHELCO member, there’s a good chance you were one of the more than 71,000 who lost power.

Throughout the restoration, we informed members that we could not consistently monitor or respond to social media comments and messages. However, that didn’t stop us from seeing many of the encouraging thoughts shared through social media, direct messages, and calls to our Member Services team.

Under normal circumstances, we can provide a reasonably accurate estimated time of restoration (ETOR). However, during an outage of this magnitude, a reliable estimate is not possible until damage assessments are completed, crews begin repairs, and restoration progress becomes clearer. I sincerely appreciate your patience and trust as we worked to provide an accurate ETOR, which became available Sunday afternoon.

To our members, thank you for the encouragement and support you showed us throughout this difficult time

Our Community Partners

Our recovery would have been much more difficult without the support of local organizations, including our local first responders and emergency management agencies. Their work to protect our communities, clear roadways, and maintain safe conditions allowed our crews to focus on restoring power.

Special thanks also go to the Walton County School District for allowing us to use Maude Saunders Elementary School to serve meals to personnel working outside the base camp, and to The Depot in Florala for providing hot meals throughout the week.

There are many others, far too numerous to list here, that supported us during the restoration efforts. For a full list, visit CHELCO.com/Isaias.

Thankful for the Good

Every day, I consider myself blessed to work at a cooperative like CHELCO. We are a good co-op, made up of good people serving good members.

And when I say good, I mean more than simply being good at what we do. I mean the character of our people, the values we uphold, and our willingness to stand shoulder to shoulder with one another during difficult times. To me, in that sense, being good means even more than being great.

As we enter the season of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for our employees, our partners, and each of you who make CHELCO such a special organization.

Proud and thankful to be CHELCO.

Steve Rhodes,                                             

Chief Executive Officer