CHELCO crews work through Hurricane Sally to restore power 

Approximately 175 CHELCO personnel, along with contractors, are working to restore outages caused by Hurricane Sally as quickly as safely possible. As of noon Wednesday, CHELCO has around 7,100 members without service.  

If the storm moves as predicted, CHELCO Senior Vice President of Engineering and Operations Matthew Avery projects most power should be restored Friday, with potential exceptions for flooded or hazardous areas. CHELCO linemen and restoration crews cannot safely work in a bucket truck with extremely high wind gusts, which is slowing down restoration times Wednesday.  

“Our crews are working to restore power quickly and safely, but restoring power with the amount of rainfall and wind we’ve had is a complicated process,” said Engineering Manager Kevin Jones.  

On the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Ivan’s landfall in Pensacola, Hurricane Sally made landfall early Wednesday morning in Gulf Shores, Alabama. CHELCO reported its peak morning outages reached approximately 8,100 on Wednesday.  

For more information, visit CHELCO’s website at CHELCO.com or follow them on Social Media. 

CHELCO is a not-for-profit electric distribution cooperative serving more than 53,000 accounts in Walton, Okaloosa, Holmes and Santa Rosa counties.