Intercounty Electric Cooperative is sending a crew to Florida to help restore electricity after Hurricane Irma struck over the weekend, leaving millions without power in the Sunshine State.
The Licking-based cooperative said six linemen will assist in clean up and restoration efforts. A second crew is standing by to relieve them, if needed. Intercounty is among several cooperatives in the state sending assistance. Officials said 154 linemen from 26 systems left Tuesday for the hurricane-torn state.
“Cooperation among cooperatives is a guiding principle, and Intercounty is excited to be able to help those in need. Remaining crews at the co-op are more than capable of maintaining members’ reliable service throughout Intercounty’s territory during the absence of these six linemen,” according to a statement late Monday by the cooperative. “Intercounty has a strong team and is grateful to be able to assist in the Hurricane Irma restoration efforts.”
The Missouri crews will be split between Flint Energies, Reynolds, Ga., GreyStone Power, Douglasville, Ga.; and SECO Energy, Sumterville, Fla., which has about 200,000 meters and nearly 107,000 outages were reported on Monday evening.
Earlier the Missouri crews were committed to two cooperatives in South Carolina, Berkeley and Palmetto electric cooperatives. However, Irma’s westward shift focused the pre-storm preparation to Georgia and Florida, where millions of people are without electricity.
Missouri took part in daily conference calls among electric cooperatives that were expected to need help and those that should be out of harm’s way. Offers of assistance came from electric cooperatives as far away as New Hampshire, Vermont and South Dakota.
Most of the Missouri electric cooperatives will be sending a digger-derrick truck and a bucket truck to be prepared for anything they may find. A fuel tanker truck from Central Electric Power Cooperative, Jefferson City, will accompany the group headed to Florida to avoid potential shortages en route.
Missouri’s electric cooperatives are no strangers to helping out in hurricane zones.
Show-Me State linemen worked their first hurricane in 2004, when Hurricane Ivan hit the Gulf Coast. In the years that followed, Missouri crews, out of harm’s way, have become a common sight wherever the hurricanes occur. Electric co-ops in Louisiana and Mississippi have returned the favor, helping Missouri electric cooperatives restore power after the ice storms of 2007 and 2009.
Relief crews are coordinated by the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives, the statewide service organization for the state’s electric cooperatives. Its emergency assistance program began in 1948.