For immediate release

Feb. 6, 2009 — 3:30 p.m.

A lineman's perspective

Mike Jeffries, crew foreman at Northeast Missouri Electric Power Cooperative, Palmyra, was dispatched Feb. 1 to assist with ice storm recovery efforts at M&A Electric Power Cooperative in southeast Missouri. The following is his day-to-day, first-person account of his experiences this week.

View the latest information about Missouri co-op systems affected by winter storms.

Sunday, Feb. 1, 2009

We loaded material at the Palmyra base to travel to M&A’s headquarters in Popular Bluff, Mo. The material included 13 poles, 30 sets of cross arms, insulators, bolts and other related hardware. A five man crew including Damon Scott, Jeff Dornberger, Mark Grimm, Tom Pearn and myself brought 5 trucks to assist with the storm recovery efforts.

We arrived at the M&A headquarters around 4 p.m. and got signed in with their people and checked into our hotel. They served the evening meal at the cooperative.

Monday, Feb. 2, 2009

This morning, we met with Red Osgood and received our daily work assignment. We were also introduced to our co-op field employee or bird dog, as we call them. We were partnered with a crew from N.W. Electric Power Cooperative, Cameron, to work on the Ellis to Avon Knight line section, which is 95 miles from Popular Bluff. This line section has 30 poles and several broken arms to be repaired. We hauled poles and other material to the job site. I could not believe the damage we saw as we traveled to the work area. Mile after mile of broken poles and the line we were working on was no different. Our crew spotted and framed 9 poles while N.W.’s crew set behind us. We hauled and spotted the remaining 4 poles farther down the line.

Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2009

N.W. sent a second crew in last night. Red decided to put both of the N.W. crews together on the Ellis to Avon Knight line section and both of the NEP crews together on a different section outside of the town of Parma, Mo. We loaded poles and material for this line and headed to the job site. We had to travel back to the Ellis to Avon Knight line to pick up equipment and remove grounds from the line. We received a clearance from M&A’s dispatch for the Parma line and began spotting and framing poles. There are 57 structures down on this line. We framed and set 4 structures on this line today and spotted 20 more. We will haul more poles tomorrow. M&A brought a Hydro Ax and an operator to help pull trucks around. Setting has been slow with the first 4 poles going in standing water.

Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009

Our day started at 0630 again this morning. We loaded material for pole framing and traveled to the job site. We framed and set 2 structures including a 4G angle. We then framed another 8 poles. We ended our day by helping Bob Leake’s crew set 1 structure. The day ended at 2000 hrs. By our calculations, this line section will take another 10 days or so to complete damage repairs.

Thursday, Feb. 5, 2009

We began our day at 0630 this morning loading more framing material. The co-op had a shortage of some items a couple of days ago, but the lines of procurement are now flowing more freely. All of the items we needed were in stock. Our crew framed 12 structures today. Central Electric finished up on the line section they had been repairing and moved over to help us. They had 12 men and several pieces of equipment. They framed and set 2 more structures. They also set some of the structures we had framed assisting our other crew. There are now 27 out of 57 structures set. Our crew went back to the Parma substation and began placing the conductor back up on the arms. We found some bad places on the static and will have to sleeve them out tomorrow. We will attempt to get some of the conductor back up to sag and clipped in tomorrow. N.W. Electric said they should be completed with their line section by Saturday and will be moving over to help us as well. This should make the job much faster.

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Editor's Note: For media inquiries, contact Jim McCarty at 573-680-2451