On March 4, crews from Mecklenburg Electric Cooperative, Southside Electric Cooperative, Northern Neck Electric Cooperative and Powell Valley Electric Cooperative traveled to Kentucky and parts of Tennessee to assist sister co-ops following destructive storms.
A crew from Northern Neck Electric Cooperative with Alyssa Clemsen Roberts in New Hampshire.
At peak, more than 300,000 electric cooperative members in Kentucky were affected by the storm that brought high winds and hurricane-strength gusts. Every electric co-op in Kentucky was hit by the damaging winds, which limited the ability of sister co-ops within the state to respond to their fellow co-ops. Mutual aid was provided by co-ops from Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The majority of the restoration efforts were complete within a week.
Electric cooperatives in Virginia were soon called upon once again for assistance. On March 13, crews from Southside Electric Cooperative, BARC Electric Cooperative and Northern Neck Electric Cooperative traveled north to New Hampshire Electric Cooperative ahead of a powerful nor’easter that dropped nearly a foot of heavy, wet snow with high winds throughout the region.
Storm damage in the Carroll Electric Cooperative service area in Ohio.
In 55 hours, line crews restored 283 outages affecting a total of 40,000 NHEC members.
“When the need is greatest, we can always count on our fellow electric cooperatives to help,” says NHEC President and CEO Alyssa Clemsen Roberts. “We’re grateful to the crews from across Virginia’s cooperatives who worked alongside us to restore power to recover from this major storm. They’re great workers who share our commitment to excellent member service.”
This past weekend, REC sent line crews to West Virginia and Ohio following storms that brought high winds, hail and flooding to the region. A total of 10 crew members from the Culpeper and Blue Ridge districts provided mutual aid to sister co-ops Carroll Electric Cooperative in Carrollton, Ohio, and Harrison REA in Clarksburg, W.Va. More than 60,000 co-op members in Ohio were affected.
–Report by Jim Robertson, Director of Marketing, VMDAEC.