More than 11,000 Myrtle Beach households lost power Friday night when a corroded insulator connection on a transmission pole broke, causing widespread outages across the city. The incident affected Santee Cooper customers for over an hour, with power restoration delayed as crews worked to locate the damaged equipment.

Initial reports from the city incorrectly blamed blown transformers at the North Oak Street facility, but Santee Cooper officials clarified that no transformers failed. Instead, salt air corrosion caused an insulator to break, allowing a wire to fall onto another wire. This single point of failure created the widespread outage that darkened Ocean Boulevard and other areas.

Santee Cooper restored power only after pinpointing the damaged insulator's location, a process that took more than an hour. While the utility handled restoration, City of Myrtle Beach staff managed traffic control at major intersections, adjusted traffic lights to flashing mode on side streets, and maintained sewage pump station operations during the outage.