Chronicle readers may wonder if we are “getting soft” on SC Electric & Gas.

The truth is, we have never been hard on SCE&G’s people.

We have questioned the competence, decision making and motives of some of its executives and those above them at the SCANA holding company that owns SCE&G.

These executives exposed their lack of competence and flawed decisions in the collapse of the nuclear reactor project in which their 725,000 ratepayers invested $2 billion.

They brought their motives into question with outlandish bonuses and golden parachutes that turned over stock analysts and shareholders against them.

But we feel for their employees who suffered from a public perception of greed and what executive decisions have done to SCANA stock values on which their employees hoped one day to finance their retirement.

Even critics such as Sandra Wright, whose views on SCANA you will see below on this page, says SCE&G workers are highly capable and know their work.

Due to them, we have the fastest recovery rate of most states when a disaster happens.

We say thank you to them.

We also thank Gov. McMaster, Gen. Bob Livingston and thousands of our first responders and military men and women who valiantly responded to Florence and other emergencies.

All who have pitched in to help gave Florence a good fight. The Wall Street Journal noted.

“It is impossible not to be moved by the determination of North and South Carolinians to survive this storm and the acts of heroism on their behalf,” the national newspaper wrote.

“Rescue teams, often led by the National Guard, have worked around the clock to save the stranded. Skilled rescuers have arrived from New York, Texas, Georgia, Missouri and elsewhere. Examples of looting have been rare.”

Public officials and Carolinians in both states set an example of courage and old-fashioned spunk for the rest of the nation. Take a bow.

- JerryBellune@yahoo.com