Electric Cooperative Restores Power To Hatteras Village Public Facilities

Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative

is providing electric power to vital public-safety facilities at Hatteras Village.

Jim Kinghorn, manager of engineering and operations for CHEC, said the 1,750-kilowatt diesel generator is powering the Coast Guard station, ferry dock, sheriff's office, fire department, a motel, grocery store, gas station, health clinic and approximately 250 homes.

The 100,000-pound generator-transformer combination began providing electricity at 3:05 p.m. Sunday. As of 9 p.m., 23,771 electric-cooperative consumers remained without electric power in the aftermath of Hurricane Isabel.

Another electric cooperative was able to restore power to practically all of its members Sunday.

Halifax Electric Membership Corporation,

based in Enfield, reported only scattered outages, which are usually structures too damaged to receive power.

To start Sunday, Halifax had 2,000 outages. Halifax serves parts of Warren, Martin, Nash and Halifax counties.

The remaining cooperatives with significant outages are

Albemarle

,

Cape Hatteras

,

Roanoke

and

Tideland.

All four cooperatives serve northeastern North Carolina, the area hardest hit by Hurricane Isabel.

Flooding, snakes and mosquitoes are becoming the biggest obstacle to power restoration for line crews of North Carolina's electric cooperatives. Cooperative crews are fighting downed trees and branches, saturated ground, which makes setting poles difficult, and a shortage of critical facilities and supplies -- including water, ice, food and lodging.

Cooperative officials are working with local emergency management offices and FEMA, as well as local businesses and the

North Carolina Association of Electric Cooperatives,

to alleviate these issues and have met with some success.

North Carolina's 27 independent electric cooperatives serve approximately 2.5 million people in 94 of the state's 100 counties.