Mudslides, flooding and downed trees are challenging utilities in remote areas as they work to restore power. So far, supply chains have kept pace with the need for replacement equipment.

Recovery efforts continue after Hurricane Helene knocked out power to about 6 million customers and devastated communities in the U.S. Southeast. In some areas served by rural cooperatives, utility leaders warn it could be weeks before service is restored.

“The consumers of electric cooperatives are in areas that are more remote, more rugged, more difficult to restore,” National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Jim Matheson said in a call with reporters Tuesday afternoon.

Electric cooperative customers are about 1.25 million of the total outages, and more than half of those have had power restored. But about 500,000 cooperative customers remained without power on Tuesday afternoon, Matheson said.

and downed trees are challenging utilities in remote areas as they work to restore power. So far, supply chains have kept pace with the need for replacement equipment.

In total, according to data from PowerOutage.us, about 1.3 million electric customers remained without power on Wednesday morning, almost a week after Helene struck Florida as a Category 4 storm. About 500,000 of the outages were in South Carolina; North Carolina and Georgia each had more than 300,000 outages remaining. Those totals include customers of cooperatives, investor-owned utilities and public power entities.

“This could have a long tail to it … This could take days. This could take weeks, in some cases, because of the location and the amount of damage,” Matheson said. Some utilities will “rebuild from the ground up.”

Bolstering the cooperative restoration effort are about 6,500 mutual assistance workers from 15 states. So far, Matheson said he is not aware of any supply chain constraints hindering work.

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For more on hurricane season and the utility industry, see how Duke Energy is strengthening the grid,  ask yourself if you are making these heat related illness mistakes, and make sure you are stocked up on the must haves for storm season.