For immediate release

Feb. 14, 2009 — Noon

Hard work about to pay off for Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric Co-op

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

Turn off your generator and turn on your porch light — power should be flowing to most members of Pemiscot-Dunklin late today, Manager Charles Crawford says.

If all goes as planned today, most members of Pemiscot-Dunklin can turn off their generators and return home Saturday evening as the hard work of the more than 1,300 linemen and support staff rebuilding lines for Pemiscot-Dunklin and M&A Power finally pay off.

“We think there’s a good possibility that with the exception of one or two substations, late today all the rest will be up,” says Manager Charles Crawford. “If they proceed as planned, they should be hot by this afternoon. We may lack some, but the better part are ready to go.”

Meanwhile, the mop-up continues at the other two electric cooperatives heavily damaged by the January ice storm. Both Ozark Border Electric, Poplar Bluff, and SEMO Electric, Sikeston, were in the final stages of repair work with around 300 members without power at each. Outage totals for all Missouri cooperatives dropped to 5,900 Saturday morning.

As power begins to flow once again on cooperative lines, members are cautioned to get generators unhooked if they are wired into the home circuit. Any generator that is improperly wired can be damaged when power flows back onto the cooperative’s lines. Generators that serve individual appliances through extension cords should be OK.

The public is also cautioned to avoid any downed power lines they might see. All power lines should be considered live and dangerous. Do not attempt to move downed lines or remove trees and other debris from the lines. Leave that to linemen.

For the past couple of days, workers at the Pemiscot-Dunklin have been in the final stages of repairing distribution lines with the goal of being ready when the heavily damaged transmission lines owned by M&A Power were repaired. On Friday, transformers and service drops to individual homes were being replaced, the last step in a major outage.

“Our efforts running around like crazy to get repairs made are about to pay off,” Crawford says. “I can’t wait to see this happen.”

Crawford says the linemen will have to bring power back up slowly to check for problems. He says breakers leading out of substations will be turned off as the transmission lines heat up. Then crews will close the circuits one at a time and look for problems.

He cautioned that much work remains to be done before the outage can be officially declared over, and that unforeseen problems could delay today’s breakthrough.

“It’s not over,” he says. “There’s still a lot to do. But we hopefully will have power to the homes and schools and businesses. We know we have about 800 three-phase irrigation loads to complete, but there’s time for that.”

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