When nasty weather strikes at home our first inclination is to take care of our own needs and then lend our neighbors a hand.

After our walks and driveways are cleared we pitch in, helping the neighbor clear his path or perhaps shoveling a porch for an older person down the road. Even so, if we see a passing motorist spinning his wheels we'll stop what we're doing and push, or in the worst cases, go for the tractor and chains.

That's just what neighbors do. Your electric cooperative is no different.

Your co-op tends to its immediate needs first. Job One is making sure the power stays on for a co-op's own members but when that job's done — or if a system was spared the bad weather and isn't facing a crisis of its own — it answers the call to help neighboring co-ops.

When disaster strikes, Missouri's electric cooperatives have a plan that quickly goes into action. It starts with a flurry of phone calls in to and out of the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives (AMEC) in Jefferson City.

There's a large map of the state of Missouri on the wall in the Risk Management and Training Department here at AMEC. Alongside the map are a supply of little colored magnets representing linemen, line service trucks and other equipment.

In this day of Internet communication and GPS satellite positioning systems, it's not high-tech but it works. In fact, it works extremely well.

Even as the first calls come in from co-op managers requesting help, the staff at AMEC is watching the weather (now using the Internet) to see which systems are likely to escape winter's wrath. Phone calls are made to co-ops outside the path of the storm — no matter how far away that might be — asking for volunteers. Director of Risk Management Rob Land and his staff quickly begin filling the map with magnets, each representing help on the way.

With one phone call a weather-stricken system can forget about rounding up volunteers and turn its attention to getting power back on. They know that, through cooperation among cooperatives, a neighbor will soon be there to lend a hand.

Neighbors helping neighbors — it's the concept that built the rural electric network, a proven notion and one that forms the basis of our very existence. But at no time is it put to the test more than during winter's storms.

But just as sure as neighbors will pitch in to clear a walk or pull a car out of a snowbank, co-ops know that help will be there when they need it. And that should help you breathe a little easier as you feel the winds pick up and the ice and snow begins to fall.

Yes, nature will interrupt the smooth flow of power but as strong a force as nature is, cooperation and neighborliness is there to respond.