Posted on 09/01/2005 4:58:52 PM PDT by SandRat
SIERRA VISTA - Dana Jackson, an apprentice with the Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative, worked out of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico for two years.
He's now returning to the Gulf Coast, this time with some of his SSVEC co-workers to help repair the power infrastructure after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Mississippi Delta area earlier this week.
Jackson, originally from Meridian, Miss., has an idea of what awaits him and the rest of the crew. "I worked offshore on oil rigs, so we were out there for a couple of hurricanes," said Jackson, whose family and friends are safe in the area affected by Hurricane Katrina. "Nothing as bad as this one. The worst we had was a Category 3."
Personnel and equipment from SSVEC embarked on a trip to Louisiana on Wednesday morning to aid overwhelmed fellow cooperatives coping with the aftermath of the huge natural disaster that hit the New Orleans area Monday.
The SSVEC employees will meet their point of contact, Safety and Training Specialist Mike Bergeaux, at the Association of Louisiana Electric Cooperatives statewide office in Baton Rouge, then will head to work in Slidell, La.
The Washington-Taminney Electric Cooperative in Slidell serves the area hardest hit with more than 4,900 miles of electric line downed, and that area's damage assessment is yet unfinished, said Jack Blair, chief marketing officer for the SSVEC.
"Like serving a little tour of duty, and then come back out," said Pete Swiatek, maintenance and operations supervisor for the SSVEC.
"We're sending experienced and trained and qualified personnel down there."
The work awaiting the SSVEC crew will include cleaning up destroyed infrastructure and replacing it as they go along section by section.
"We're in a hazardous occupation, so safety's our first concern," said Mike Stringer, who is SSVEC's construction manager. "We're taking sleeping bags and stuff. So if it's hotels, great. It could be tents."
More than one of the local crew members headed to Louisiana is originally from Mississippi, which shared the wrath of Hurricane Katrina.
Foreman Don Veal, of the SSVEC construction crew, grew up in Jackson, Miss., and remembers the late summer weather at the crew's destination.
"The humidity is going to eat them alive," Veal said of his Arizona-born colleagues.
Veal said his mother, who lives about two hours from New Orleans, is safe, but her home has been without electric power since noon on Monday. All his friends and family in the affected areas are safe. About half of them are have no power.
"It seems like all they need is men and vehicles. They seem to have a lot of material, they just need the people to put it back in service," Stringer said.
The local cooperative has gone to the aid of other cooperatives before, such as the assistance it gave during the Mount Lemmon fire, but has never gone to an out-of-state emergency before.
"Not of this magnitude, but we definitely like to help out our sister cooperatives," Stringer said.
About 25 percent of the Cochise County-area's SSVEC construction and maintenance line-crew personnel, plus 14 vehicles and six trailers, Swiatek said, packed and loaded for the interstate trip to Baton Rouge, La.
Blair said he could not estimate the overhead cost of this interstate assistance, but whatever it amounts to will not affect local customers and rates.
"We have no idea, except we do get reimbursed from FEMA and all the cooperatives," he said.
The crew has already found local support, Blair said. Col. Jonathan Hunter, garrison commander of Fort Huachuca, "opened up the commissary, and we're buying MREs" as provisions for the line crew. The manager at the local Wells Fargo bank branch at the Mall at Sierra Vista also opened up early Wednesday morning so SSVEC could cash a big check.
"If you can imagine the banks, there's no cash around there," Blair said, and the $10,000 will hopefully get the crew well on its way.
"What we're planning on, right at this time, is a three-week minimum, and we'll have to see what the situation is then," Swiatek said.
If the SSVEC personnel are needed for longer, a rotation will likely begin to send in fresh line crews.
"The man in Baton Rouge said to call when we get close," Stringer said before the crew departed from the Sierra Vista substation.
This little corner of AZ where I, Spiff, HiJinx are from is sending help!
Good on SSVEC (by the way, one of the best energy providers I have ever used) energy is a tuff game. I have seen the hard work up close. God Bless the folks at SSVEC
BTTT!!!!!!
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