Currents - December 2024

Currents Suwannee Valley

WEATHERING THE STORM SVEC’s recovery after Hurricane Helene

DECEMBER 2024

NATURAL TREASURE Explore the natural wonders of Lee County AROUND THE COMMUNITY Touch-a-Truck returns with bucket trucks, helicopters and more!

CEO’S MESSAGE Suwannee Valley

The best-laid plans

Thoughtful planning has always been a priority for our system. Whether it’s laying out a road map for our co-op over the next year, setting the groundwork for long-term investments that will improve service for our consumer-members or simply reviewing our Emergency Restoration Plan before hurricane season, Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative is always readying that next step.

Looking back on the last year, though, I’m reminded that there are some things no amount of planning can prepare you for. Late last year, Hurricane Idalia caused recordbreaking damage to our electric system. Over the following 13 months, our system was battered by storm after storm, culminating with Hurricane Helene, which was even more powerful than Idalia.

While no one can predict a parade of storms like that, we can and did plan for how to respond to them. Since Executive VP/CEO organizing the large-scale response to Hurricane Idalia MICHAEL S. MCWATERS last year, our team at SVEC has gotten pretty good at managing restoration efforts for even the biggest storms.

Hurricane Helene was no different.

In this issue, you can read more about the extent of the damage after Helene and the effort that went into restoring power to most consumer-members in less than a week. As always, we would like to thank our fellow cooperatives and contractors for their aid during a difficult time, and our consumer-members for your patience as crews worked night and day to get the lights back on.

You’ll also find some photos and information about what goes into restoring Rapid Fiber Internet service after a major storm. It’s a slower process, since our fiber technicians must wait for electricity to be restored in an area of the system before they can begin making repairs, but one we will continue to make faster and more efficient in years to come.

It’s also a reminder that for all the challenges of the last year, we have a great deal to be proud of as a cooperative. Rapid Fiber Internet service continues to expand to more customers, bringing high-speed internet to areas that have not had access.

We have continued to help local students through Operation Round Up® and hosted several popular community events.

That’s the power of a cooperative community, and I could not be prouder to be a part of this one. I’d like to wish all of you a merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year. We may not be able to predict everything 2025 will have in store, but you can rest assured that SVEC will continue to strengthen our system so we can bring you the reliable service you deserve. ■

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Currents December 2024

Suwannee Valley Currents is a monthly newsletter published by Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative, © 2024. It is distributed without charge to all consumermembers of the cooperative.

WE BELONG TO THOSE WE SERVE Business Office: 800-447-4509 11340 100th St. Live Oak, FL 32060 Lobby Hours: 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday Drive-thru Kiosk: Open 24 Hours 24/7 Power Outage Reporting: 800-752-0025

svec-coop.com facebook.com/sveccoop Instagram.com/sveccoop SVEC is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

On the cover: After Hurricane Helene knocked out power for nearly all of SVEC’s 28,500 consumer-members, the cooperative teamed up with contractors and mutual aid co-ops to restore power in just six days. Read more on Page 4.

Suwannee Valley Currents

SVEC NEWS

SVEC’s office will be closed for the Christmas holiday on Tuesday, Dec. 24, and Wednesday, Dec. 25. The office will also be closed for New Year’s Day on Wednesday, Jan. 1.

The 24-hour outage reporting system is always available, as is our drive-thru payment kiosk. We will have standby crews ready to restore power if needed.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Arbor Day Tree Giveaway SVEC is giving away 130 native red maples on a first-come, first-served basis.

Come by the co-op’s Live Oak office, 11340 100th St., starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 18, to pick up your free tree.

There is a limit of one tree per member, and you must provide proof of membership, such as an SVEC bill, to pick up a tree.

Fast, reliable and affordable Rapid Fiber Internet service is now available in project zones 1-15 and 17.

Is Coming to Your Neighborhood!

Suwannee Valley Currents

You can find your zone by entering your address into the search tool on the Project Info page at rapid-fiber.com/project-info.

DECEMBER 2024 | 3

Storm Surge

How SVEC restored service after Hurricane Helene When Hurricane Idalia struck the Suwannee Valley in August 2023, it set a record for the most damage done to SVEC’s system. Nearly all the cooperative’s consumers at the time were without power. It took a Herculean effort from over 2,000 workers to restore power to essentially all of them in just eight days.

No one expected that barely a year later, our area would be hit by an even more massive storm— Hurricane Helene. Making landfall as a Category 4 storm, Helene wreaked havoc not just in Florida but across the Southeast, including Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. Reuters reported that approximately 5.5 million

people lost power as a result of the storm.

Here at home, Helene once again knocked out power to nearly everyone on SVEC’s system.

Fortunately, through experience, the cooperative has become more capable of handling these largescale restoration efforts.

The entire team, from line crews to office staff, played their parts in restoring power to essentially all of the cooperative’s consumers in only six days.

Thank you to everyone who had a role in helping SVEC turn the lights back on across the Suwannee Valley and to the cooperative’s consumer-members for your patience and understanding during a challenging week. ■

HELENE BY THE NUMBERS 840 broken poles 1,482 total workforce 17 states sent help — Tennessee, Georgia,

Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, North Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Illinois, California, Michigan, Kansas, Indiana and Alabama

6 days to restore power to 95% of consumermembers in all counties

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Suwannee Valley Currents

A YEAR OF STORMS HURRICANE IDALIA — landfall Aug. 30, 2023 Strong Category 3 with maximum sustained winds of 125 m.p.h.

NORTH FLORIDA TORNADOES — May 10, 2024 An intense squall line spawned at least five tornadoes, damaging wind gusts and straight-line winds across North Florida and the tri-state area.

HURRICANE DEBBY — landfall Aug. 5, 2024 Category 3 with max sustained winds of 80 m.p.h. and up to 12 inches of rain

HURRICANE HELENE — landfall Sept. 26, 2024 Category 4 with max sustained winds of 140 m.p.h.

RAPID FIBER RESTORATION When storms knock out fiber internet service, restoration can only begin once power lines and related equipment have been repaired. Rapid Fiber Internet works closely with SVEC to stay up to date on the status of all repairs and coordinate a response plan across the system.

Much like the electric restoration process, fiber technicians start at the source — the substation hut. Once those Suwannee Valley Currents

repairs are complete, they can fix any damage to main and feeder line fiber before addressing outages at individual locations.

Thank you to contractors EnterSource and Bigham, as well as sister cooperative fiber company Tri-CoGo of Georgia, for their support in addressing more than 1,300 damage tickets.

And a special thank-you to our customers for their patience and support while service was restored. ■ DECEMBER 2024 | 5

RECIPE and SAFETY

Apple Crunch in a Mug INGREDIENTS For applesauce:

5-6 pounds apples of choice, washed, cored and cut into small chunks 1/3 cup sugar (optional) 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg 1 teaspoon ground cloves 1 teaspoon vanilla ¾ cup apple juice or apple cider

For crunch topping:

½ cup brown sugar, loosely packed ½ cup quick-cooking oats ½ cup chopped pecans ½ stick butter, softened

DIRECTIONS To prepare applesauce: Combine all ingredients in a large kettle. Bring to a low boil until apples are soft enough to mash. If apples begin to stick, add a little more juice. Mash with potato masher until desired consistency is reached. Set aside to cool.

To prepare crunch topping:

Preheat oven to 350 F and line medium-sized rimmed baking sheet with foil. Mix all ingredients in small bowl with fork until mixture resembles large crumbs. Place crunch mixture on baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, stirring once.

To assemble mugs:

Fill mugs of choice three-quarters full with cooled applesauce, top remaining space with crunch topping.

Wrap or decorate mugs as desired. To prepare, microwave 1 minute until warm.

Safety first Electricity powers modern life, but it can be dangerous if not handled carefully.

Check back here each month for new tips on how to stay safe around electric power at your home or business.

For many, the Christmas season means gathering with family and enjoying some jolly holiday decorations. But with all those festive lights around the house, it’s especially important to practice safe electrical habits throughout the holiday season.

• Keep decorations

at least 3 feet away from heat sources, especially those with an open flame like fireplaces and candles.

• Avoid running cords for decorations under rugs or furniture.

• If you have a natural Christmas

tree, keep it watered and fresh so it doesn’t become a fire hazard.

• Inspect decorations and throw away any that are damaged or worn out.

• Always turn off

To learn more about building safe electric habits, click the Outages & Safety tab on the SVEC website, svec-coop.com, and follow us on social media.

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decorations when you leave home or are asleep.

/sveccoop

@sveccoop

Suwannee Valley Currents

Treasure Hunting for Shells and Wildlife in Lee County

BY CHELLE KOSTER WALTON, VISIT FLORIDA Left-handed shells. A fish with fins, legs, wings and an identity crisis.

Crabs that put themselves in time-out.

Bones once belonging to prehistoric monsters. Birds that eat with big pink spoons. What kind of place is this anyway?

No, you haven’t stepped inside a Dr. Seuss book. This is Lee County in Southwest Florida, where wondrous creatures past and present make a family treasure hunt better than fantasy.

Fossil fueled

Begin your Lee County treasure hunt in the past. The way past. Hook up with Fossil Expeditions, operated by a vocational paleontologist-author and his artist wife in Lehigh Acres.

Paddling along the Caloosahatchee and Peach rivers, Mark and Marisa Renz take you in search of fossil teeth and bones from some of Florida’s extinct early inhabitants, including mammoths, mastadons, giant sloths, rhinos and saber-toothed cats. Expect to get wet as you snorkel or pan for treasures with a screen sieve in kneedeep water. Any historic or scientifically important finds go to the state, the rest of the booty you keep.

Shell of a treasure

In case you haven’t heard, Sanibel Island beaches rock when it comes to shells. You can’t take a step without crunching down on a dozen or so. All you need is a bag and a bendable back to do the so-called Sanibel Stoop.

Suwannee Valley Currents

A shell ID chart helps, or you can stop at the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum to learn more about your finds.

The islands above Sanibel also hold treasure troves but are less accessible due to a lack of bridges.

But that makes their shell hoards less plundered. Adventures in Paradise, east of the Sanibel causeway, makes your family's entry into the world of shelling fun and instructive with boat cruises to help you find and classify your haul.

Watchable wildlife

As a major stopover along a welltraveled flyway, Lee County counts more than 200 bird species, including great blue herons, ospreys, redshouldered hawks, great white egrets and those comical roseate spoonbills, whose name comes from their pink spatulate beaks. To see them in their natural habitat—along with alligators, otters and squirrels—do the boardwalk at Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve.

Here treasure hunting gets a little tricky, requiring high levels of quiet, stealth and keen observation.

For the benefit of the less patient in the family, head down the road to nearby Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium, where butterflies, pelicans, alligators, egrets, snakes and rehabilitating birds are contained for easy observation. Stay for the live animal demonstrations, a show in the Planetarium or explore 105 acres of Old-Florida ecosystems. ■

An educator for the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium teaches kids about mollusks.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BAILEY-MATTHEWS NATIONAL SHELL MUSEUM & AQUARIUM

ABOVE: The Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve is a great place to spot some of Lee County’s wildlife.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SIX MILE CYPRESS SLOUGH PRESERVE

BELOW: A crab wades onto the beach in Sanibel.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SANIBEL-CAPTIVA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

DECEMBER 2024 | 7

SVEC IN THE COMMUNITY

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SVEC

Thank you to those who serve SVEC was proud to honor our local veterans by taking part in the Live Oak Veterans Day Parade on Nov. 11.

Families enjoy fun and learning at Touch-a-Truck Thank you to everyone who joined us for SVEC’s fifth annual Touch-aTruck event. Children from across the cooperative’s service area came out to explore a diverse range of service vehicles and meet the people who operate them. When they weren’t learning about the vehicles, kids enjoyed activities like inflatables, crafting, barrel cart rides and more.

Some favorites included an Airlife medical helicopter, bucket truck rides with SVEC linemen and visits with Sparky the Fire Dog.

Facility manager Clinton Bullard, left, and mechanic Ross Wood pose with SVEC’s mini bucket truck before the Live Oak Veterans Day Parade.

Children enjoyed big trucks, bucket truck rides, helicopters and photos with Sparky the Fire Dog at the 2024 Touch-a-Truck event.

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Suwannee Valley Currents