About 125 Missouri linemen representing 20 electric cooperatives are heading to Georgia and Florida Tuesday afternoon, to assist communities in the path of Hurricane Irma.
Crews from Platte-Clay Electric Cooperative in Kearney speak to Kansas City television reporters on September 12, 2017 (photo courtesy of Association of Missouri Cooperatives)
Association of Missouri Cooperatives Vice President Jim McCarty says Show-Me State linemen have been working hurricanes since 2004’s Hurricane Ivan.
“I know I can speak for those co-ops involved in this effort in saying that it’s always better to lend help than to be the one asking for it,” McCarty says.
McCarty says the 125 Missouri linemen will be split between Reynolds and Douglasville, Georgia … and Sumterville, Florida.
He notes a fuel tanker truck from Jefferson City’s Central Electric Power Cooperative will accompany the group heading to Florida, to avoid potential shortages enroute.
McCarty says the linemen will perform various duties.
“Typically with a natural disaster like this, we might see everything laying on the ground,” says McCarty. “And so a system that maybe took 80 years to build, they might have to redo it in just a few weeks.”
McCarty tells Missourinet the linemen are prepared for anything, including alligators and snakes.
He says those 20 co-ops left at different times Tuesday. Half of them will meet up in Alabama, and the other group will meet in Tennessee.
The 20 Missouri electric co-ops are:
** Barton County Electric Cooperative in Lamar
** Black River Electric Cooperative in Fredericktown
** Boone Electric Cooperative in Columbia
** Citizens Electric Cooperative in Perryville
** Co-Mo Electric Cooperative in Tipton
** Consolidated Electric Cooperative in Mexico
** Crawford Electric Cooperative in Bourbon
** Cuivre River Electric Cooperative in Troy
** Gasconade Electric Cooperative in Dixon
** Howell-Oregon Electric Cooperative in West Plains
** Intercounty Electric Cooperative in Licking
** Laclede Electric Cooperative in Lebanon
** Macon Electric Cooperative in Macon
** Osage Valley Electric Cooperative in Butler
** Ralls County Electric Cooperative in New London
** Sac-Osage Electric Cooperative in El Dorado Springs
** SEMO Electric Cooperative in Sikeston
** Southwest Electric Cooperative in Bolivar
** Tri-County Electric Cooperative in Lancaster
** Webster Electric Cooperative in Marshfield
Click here to listen to the full interview between Missourinet news director Brian Hauswirth and Association of Missouri Cooperatives Vice President Jim McCarty, which was recorded on September 12, 2017:
