Ala. co-ops move crews to S.C. to continue Matthew recovery efforts

Updating at 12 p.m. Oct. 10: So far, four of the Alabama rural electric cooperatives that have been working to restore power at Clay Electric co-op in Florida have been released. Those crews have been reassigned to help in South Carolina, where at one point more than 400,000 people were without power.

Meanwhile, Cherokee EC, Joe Wheeler EMC, Sand Mountain EC, Southern Pine EC, Wiregrass EC, Dixie EC and Marshall-DeKalb EC have sent fresh crews to the Santee EC in South Carolina.

The Alabama co-op crews still working in Florida should be released today or Tuesday, and will likely be reassigned to South Carolina.

None of the Alabama crews are back home yet.

The U.S. death toll from the storm stands at least 17, according to a report in the New York Times.