CHARLESTON, S.C.—“It has taken 87 years for Rutherford EMC to build this electric system from the ground up, and Hurricane Helene destroyed much of it within hours," said Dirk Burleson, general manager of the Forest City co-op in the North Carolina foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

For Chris Nault, manager of public relations at North Carolina's Electric Cooperatives, and Avery Wilks, vice president of communications at The Electric Cooperatives of South Carolina, that statement captured their challenge: communicating the scope of the devastation and the extent of the restoration challenge following the most destructive hurricane to hit their states in generations.

Hurricane Helene marched up the Tennessee Valley and soaked western North Carolina and South Carolina with as much as 30 inches of rain after making landfall in Florida on Sept. 26. High water brought devastating flooding and mud and landslides that washed out and closed 1,200 roads in western North Carolina alone.

“This is not something you can prepare for—a Category 4 hitting you where it's not expected," Wilks said. The western part of the state “is the end of our evacuation route. This is the high ground."

Nault and Wilks shared their lessons from Helene at the recent G&T Communicators Winter Meeting.

More than 1 million people in each state—including 239,000 co-op members in North Carolina and 425,000 in South Carolina—were without power at the storm's peak. Some co-ops experienced outages across 100% of their territory. Nearly 10,000 co-op distribution poles were destroyed, hundreds of miles of transmission lines were down, and about 120 substations were offline.

“Co-ops could not even do assessments, because co-op crews had to chainsaw their way out, so many trees had fallen on roads," said Wilks. “Overhead structures and lines and even underground lines were taken out by mudslides, taking even longer to replace."

Soon Nault and Wilks were helping support the work of their local distribution co-ops, communicating with their members, the media, legislators and state and federal officials. They hit on four themes: the extent of the damage, how co-op mutual aid was pouring in, how every member was a priority and that co-ops are resilient in a committed community.

They focused on their audiences, how best to reach them and the proper tone to keep everyone informed and hopeful as the restoration stretched into weeks.

Real-life examples from hard-hit co-ops helped explain the degree of damage. One co-op said losing 50 poles a year is the average; Helene destroyed 1,000 in one weekend. Without passable roads for heavy equipment, co-op crews had to work hours just to replace one pole.

Pictures and video humanized the mutual aid crews and showed members “how many people are on the ground working for you," said Nault. “They are here from all over the country to help you."

“It is really important [for members] to see boots on the ground, trucks in the field," Wilks added. “We had some people say we were lying."

Websites, news releases, app alerts, LinkedIn and emails worked for announcements and updates, but many members engage with their co-op on Facebook, and the media often lives on X.

“Think about your audiences; they exist in different places," Wilks told the group. It is also important for co-op communicators' tone to remain “truthful and authentic and not sound like a corporation. Be plainspoken, try to be positive, try to inspire."

Other key takeaways shared by Nault and Wilks included:

• Explain the extent of the damage and restoration work in simple terms, and repeat it.
• Be in constant communication with the members even if you are not delivering good news.
• Saturate channels with graphics and photos to show the extent of damage and how hard co-op crews are working to restore power.
• Beat the safety drum for members returning to their storm-damaged communities and for line crews working in dangerous conditions.
• Stay positive, but do not overpromise. Avoid caveats for restoration timelines.
• Buddy up with co-op communicators in a different region who can help when disaster strikes your area but spares theirs.
• Use blue-sky days to prepare and organize graphics and explainers on how electricity works, and educate members on a regular basis on the role of transmission and generation.

Nault and Wilks measured success when their co-op messages were reposted, broadcast or published on social media, TV, radio or newspaper or repeated by neighbors.

Wilks recalled how his wife heard an exercise classmate say it can take four hours to replace a single pole.

“Hearing other people using your words in a very matter-of-fact way is the best compliment in the world," he said.