Why did thousands lose power in Myrtle Beach? It wasn’t blown transformers

Friday night went dark for more than 11,000 households in Myrtle Beach when some Santee Cooper customers lost power for more than an hour.

Despite a release from the city shared on Facebook, which said the outage was a result of several transformers blowing out at the Santee Cooper facility on North Oak Street, the electricity provider maintains a different issue was responsible.

“No transformers ever blew,” said Santee Cooper public relations specialist Tracy Vreeland. “There was one broken insulator.”

An insulator connection on a transmission pole was corroded, likely from salt air, and broke, according to Santee Cooper.

“This insulator broke, the wire fell down onto another wire, and so that’s why it ended up being as widespread as it was,” Vreeland said.

Why did it take more than an hour to restore power in Myrtle Beach?

Although the city’s release said both Santee Cooper and City of Myrtle Beach Public Works teams “were working” to get power back, the city wasn’t involved in restoration efforts.

Santee Cooper was able to restore power only after locating the damaged insulator.

“Once we could pinpoint where the problem was, we were able to get in there and change it out and bring everybody back on, but we didn’t know exactly where the outage had occurred, so that was what took us so long,” said Vreeland.

Separate from power restoration, city staff directed traffic at major intersections, adjusted traffic lights on side streets to flashing lights and kept sewage pump stations operating.