Sept. 27, 2005
For Immediate Release
Contact: Jim McCarty, (573) 659-3402
jmccarty@amec.coop

Missouri crews again assist hurricane recovery

Barely a week after returning from recovery efforts in Mississippi, crews from Missouri's electric cooperatives are once again headed south to assist electric cooperatives in Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Rita. When Rita came ashore Saturday in southwest Louisiana it devastated those systems in its path, snapping poles and leaving power lines on the ground in a twisted heap.

Missouri cooperatives sending crews are: Atchison-Holt, Black River, Citizens, Co-Mo, Consolidated, Cuivre River, Farmers', Gascosage, Grundy, Intercounty, Laclede, Macon, New-Mac, North Central Missouri, Northeast Power, Osage Valley, Ozark, Ozark Border, Platte-Clay, Ralls County, Sac-Osage, Se-Ma-No, SEMO, Southwest, United, Webster, West Central and White River Valley.

The Missouri linemen are headed to Jennings, La., where they will repair lines for Jefferson Davis Electric Cooperative. The cooperative serves the area where Rita made landfall. It reported 100 percent of its 10,000 members were without power.

"After the storm moved through at daybreak we were able to get on top of a bridge and looked at some transmission lines we have that run south to the Gulf," said Jefferson Davis General Manager Mike Heinen. "We looked through a pair of binoculars and only saw one pole standing."

Missouri systems have committed 140 linemen from 28 different cooperatives to the effort. In addition, Black River Electric Cooperative in Fredericktown is sending 1,600 pounds of ice to Beauregard Electric located in DeRidder, La. That system also reported 100 percent outages.

According to officials at the Association of Louisiana Electric Cooperatives, every system in that state has been affected by the two hurricanes, with the latest storm leaving 689,519 homes without power. A crew from Callaway Electric Cooperative, Fulton, was still at work last week repairing damage from Hurricane Katrina at Washington-St. Tammany Electric Cooperative near New Orleans but had to clear out as Hurricane Rita approached. Nearly 300 Missouri linemen helped repair damage caused by Katrina, primarily in Mississippi.

Louisiana's cooperatives are asking their counterparts in other states to release contractors not performing essential jobs so that they can also lend assistance.

Missouri sends volunteer crews to assist other states as part of a mutual aid agreement between the nation's nearly 1,000 electric cooperatives to help out in emergencies and natural disasters. The relief effort is coordinated by the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives in Jefferson City.