Linemen are weary, but determined to keep lights on
Electric cooperatives realized early on that they can’t control the weather. However, they can quickly react to the damage Mother Nature has caused and rush into action to repair the damage.
Storm after storm has pounded the state in the past six months. Electric cooperatives have dealt with floods, wildfires, straight-line winds, tornadoes, snow and ice storms. Some of the storms have been so widespread that on one day, all 40 of Missouri’s electric cooperatives had outages.
In each case, linemen who work for cooperatives out of harm’s way have come to the aid of those facing lengthy repairs through the statewide Mutual Assistance Program. The program greatly reduces outage time by sending fresh “troops” into the fray along with additional equipment.
You would think such a lengthy ordeal of storm repair would have co-op linemen worn out from their long hours on the job. Instead they say they are weary but ready.
“I can’t speak for all the linemen but I think some of us are getting pretty tired,” says Chris Turner, a veteran lineman for Black River Electric Co-op. “But we’re always ready to go. We always want to put fire in the wire.”
His co-op has been the hardest hit during the wild spring weather. Chris has worked a total of 695 hours in nine weeks of storms.
It seems almost every storm enters at New-Mac Electric Cooperative, Neosho, then finds a path across Missouri to Black River’s service area, sparing no co-op in between.
“Those Black River linemen are a special kind of tough,” says Dusty Prater, a lineman for Ozark Border Electric Cooperative. He, like many others, has recently assisted neighboring co-ops. Dusty also had his hands full at home.
Last year he celebrated his birthday repairing lines damaged by a brutal wind storm. More recently, he worked for three weeks in woods so dense with broken trees right-of-way crews had to saw a road to the damaged poles.
“It’s kind of a blessing every week that it doesn’t storm now,” he says. “The first one we had hit on March 14, and there for about three weeks, it was just crazy. You just keep plugging on. It comes with the job.”
Black River Electric Manager Paul Montgomery is one person ready for the storms to stop. The cooperative has faced three major outage events this year thanks to an ice storm, flood and tornadoes. “Even though our linemen need a break from storms, they do a great job every time,” he says. “The adrenaline gets flowing because turning lights on is exciting. We have received help from so many other cooperatives that now our guys are ready to go help someone else.”