Aug. 31, 2005
For Immediate Release
Contact: Jim McCarty, (573) 659-3402
jmccarty@amec.coop

Missouri electric co-ops send crews to Mississippi

Today 129 linemen and 54 trucks from 28 Missouri electric cooperatives are in Mississippi helping weary line crews get power restored to members in the path of Hurricane Katrina. On Monday the crews, all volunteers, left Missouri en-route to Coast Electric Power Association in Bay St. Louis, Miss., and Singing River Electric Power Association in Lucedale, Miss.

“It’s devastating based on reports I’m getting from Mississippi,” says Rob Land, director of Risk Management and Training at the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives. “I talked to one lineman who said he had never been in a war zone but this must be it.”

Both Mississippi cooperatives were at ground zero for the storm, which is reported to have devastated the entire coastline. As of Wednesday, Aug. 31, not a single meter was turning at either system. The Missouri crews spent the week clearing downed trees and other debris so that power lines could be restrung.

Finding enough fuel to keep their trucks running was the major issue for the linemen. They reported long lines and shortages at gas stations along the way, in addition to heavy traffic from residents trying to return home.

Water and ice are also in short supply. To help with the situation Black River Electric Cooperative, Fredericktown, is sending a tractor-trailer load of ice and Citizens Electric, Ste. Genevieve, is sending two trucks loaded with bottled water and non-perishable food to Mississippi. M&A Electric Power Cooperative, Poplar Bluff, had an additional six linemen ready to send into the fray on Thursday and shipped an 8,000-gallon tanker of diesel fuel to the gulf coast cooperatives.

The Missouri crews, which came from as far away as Rockport on the Nebraska border, are being coordinated by the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives in Jefferson City. The statewide association works from an emergency plan that coordinates crews during emergencies such as ice storms or tornadoes.

Last year Missouri’s electric cooperatives sent crews to Mississippi and Alabama to help restore power in the wake of Hurricane Ivan.

According to Hobson Waites, CEO of the Electric Power Associations of Mississippi, it could be a month or more before service is fully restored in his state. The Missouri crews are expected to stay for 10 to 14 days and then rotate with fresh linemen from around the state.
Electric cooperatives have always offered assistance to neighboring systems and to other states in times of crisis. Besides sending crews they are also collecting donations to help those in harm’s way.

Missouri cooperatives sending crews included Atchison-Holt, Barton County, Barry, Black River, Boone, Callaway, Central Missouri, Citizens, Co-Mo, Consolidated, Crawford, Cuivre River, Farmers’, Grundy, Howell-Oregon, Intercounty, Lewis County, Macon, Northeast Power, Osage Valley, Ozark Border, Pemiscot-Dunklin, Ralls County, Southwest, Three Rivers, United, Webster and West Central electric cooperatives.