Singing River Electric Cooperative was awarded the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) Medallion Award on Wednesday, April 7, in recognition of SRE employees' hard work following Hurricane Zeta to ensure polling sites had power in the midst of working to restore electricity to local communities.
Singing River Electric was hit hard by Hurricane Zeta with 82% or 62,388 of its 75,798 meters without power following the storm on Wednesday evening, Oct. 28, 2020. The co-op worked to replace more than 1,100 power poles, 322 damaged transformers and 21.73 miles of power lines following the storm.
"Hurricane Zeta was unique in many ways, including the intense damage that was concentrated north of our coastal communities and the timing, making landfall just six days prior to a presidential election," said General Manager and CEO Brian Hughey. "We thank Secretary Michael Watson for working to ensure Singing River Electric lineman and visiting crews had an opportunity to vote in the midst of their long hours working to restore power in southeast Mississippi."
The NASS Medallion Award was created to honor individuals, groups and organizations that support the national association's goals, including service to state government, specifically as it relates to the elections and the duties of the office of the Secretary of State.
Only five medallions can be awarded by the Secretary of State annually. In addition to Singing River Electric, the award was also presented to Coast Electric Power Association and Mississippi Power Company for their efforts restoring power to polling sites following Hurricane Zeta.
Singing River Electric has an 83-year heritage of providing safe, reliable and affordable electricity to our local communities where we call home. SRE serves more than 76,600 meters across 7,556 miles of power lines in seven counties in Mississippi (Jackson, George, Greene, Perry, Stone, Wayne and Harrison) and two counites in Alabama (Mobile and Washington). The electric distribution cooperative works with Cooperative Energy to provide its members a diverse mix of generation resources including five small-scale solar sites locally and a 540-acre solar site in Lamar County. For more information, follow our conversations on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.