For immediate release

Feb. 12, 2009 — 9 a.m.

Co-ops battle the elements to hold their own

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

Electric cooperatives struggling to restore power to approximately 7,000 members barely held their own Wednesday as a brutal wind storm tore through the area. Wind gusts up to 50 mph and non-stop straightline winds kept crews working to avoid losing ground in the effort.

“We spent a lot of time due to the high winds trying to keep the work we’ve done from blowing back down,” says Charles Crawford, manager of Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric Cooperative, Hayti. “That really caused us problems. We had to put back a lot of poles that were leaning.”

At Ozark Border Electric Cooperative, Poplar Bluff, three substations went off line due to the wind. Five previously repaired feeder lines leading out of the substations also went down. While these problems were quickly repaired, the effort took time that would otherwise have been spent repairing ice damage.

Despite the setback, Ozark Border managed to get another 100 members back on line, reducing the number without power to 860. Total outage numbers for the electric cooperatives now stand at 7,100.

SEMO Electric, Sikeston, reported similar problems on Wednesday. “A lot of these poles are stuck in soup and they are all leaning,” says Jerry Dockins, SEMO’s customer service manager. “We had a line that was still standing from the ice storm. But there was something like six poles down a county road that just fell out in the road. It couldn’t handle a 50 mph wind.”

Wednesday was a frustrating day for those working the outages. At times the wind blew so hard that it broke the straps holding hard hats on the heads of linemen. Elsewhere, standing water forced linemen to work in chest waders. Crews put rock around the base of many leaning poles to prevent them from falling over.

Still, the all-out effort continued, with some crews working late into the night to make progress. “They go to work early and they stay late,” Crawford said of the crews, which now number more than 1,000 at Pemiscot-Dunklin and 3,500 across the outage area. “They are trying to give us the best they can.”

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