Thanks for your patience

The ice storm that struck Missouri on Jan. 12 taxed everyone at your cooperative. We worked around the clock to get power back on and mobilized hundreds of additional crews and equipment to restore things to normal.

On behalf of all the employees at your electric cooperative, we would like to extend a big thank you to all the members who were patient and understanding during this time of great trial.

We know how frustrating it can be to spend days without electricity. This friend and worker began as a luxury for electric cooperative members. Today, we know it is a necessity for cooking, lighting, entertainment and heating or cooling.

Cooperatives severely impacted Jan. 12-14

When an outage occurs on the cooperative’s lines, we have an emergency plan in place designed to get things on as fast as possible. If the outage situation is more than a co-op's crews can handle, help is just a phone call away.

The Emergency Assistance Program coordinated at the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives in Jefferson City is set up to quickly find crews from electric cooperatives that were not affected by the storm. All of the details involved in getting this help to our service area have been worked out in advance.

This makes it a simple task to bring in extra help when needed. A big plus is the fact that all rural electric cooperatives were engineered in a similar fashion. This means that when a lineman from a different part of Missouri or even another state comes to help, he won’t have to be taught what to do. The equipment and materials used to make repairs will be the same and the techniques for making repairs will be understood by each person.

Many times this program has been tested and then refined to the point where it is a well-oiled machine. We also benefited from our past assistance that was sent to other states. Electric co-ops in those states who called early to see if they could return the favor. These men and our own crews worked long, long hours in the worst possible conditions to restore service. They are proud of what they do and extremely good at their jobs, and we are lucky to have them on board.

As crews returned from the field at the end of a long day, the stories they told made everyone at your cooperative realize why we love working for you. They told of members who were without power bringing them food or hot drinks they cooked over Coleman stoves. There were members who offered their tractors to pull trucks out of the mud. Others took out their chain saws and cleared a path so the trucks could get to remote lines. Co-op offices were loaded with cookies, cakes and pies from caring members who appreciate these hard-working crews.

While we can’t do anything about the weather, we can do a lot to ensure these unpleasant times are as short as possible. Your help and support does much to make this happen. We certainly appreciate our members.