About 100 Missouri line workers are heading back to the Show-Me State Tuesday from South Carolina and about 65 workers remain there.
Missouri line workers attempt to restore power in a swampy area in Kingstree, South Carolina on September 17, 2018 (photo courtesy of Jim McCarty at the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives)
Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives spokesman Jim McCarty says the remaining workers are stationed in Kingstree and Darlington.
He also notes a tanker truck from Jefferson City-based Central Electric Power Cooperative has delivered diesel fuel to cooperatives in both South and North Carolina.
“There were able to fill trucks up in South Carolina and before crews came home there, there was a need for the remaining fuel in North Carolina so it was dispatched north,” McCarty says.
McCarty says many of the Missouri crews have had to use boats to get to impacted areas in South Carolina. He says the workers are focusing on individual and smaller outages, which is time-consuming.
“It’s the kind of work they do everyday after a storm here in Missouri, however these guys traded their bucket trucks in some cases for boats and had to float into swampy areas and areas that had been flooded by the storm,” says McCarty.
Crews also have to be on the lookout for alligators and snakes.
The Missouri electric cooperatives have sent construction and service crews to assist in power restoration efforts.
CNN reports Florence has killed 32 people and has trapped hundreds more. North Carolina’s governor warns that rivers are still rising.
The Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives says South Carolina residents are appreciative of the Missouri line workers who’ve traveled there. McCarty tells Missourinet crews from the Kearney-based Platte-Clay Electric Cooperative also received a pleasant surprise, when they stopped to eat lunch in Tennessee on their way to the Palmetto State.
“When they got finished and went to pay their bill, they were told that people around them recognized they were linemen, that they were heading into the hurricane zone and passed the hat and paid for their lunch,” McCarty says.
McCarty says Missouri’s electric cooperatives also sent crews to Florida and Georgia in 2017 after Hurricane Irma.
Click here to listen to the full interview between Missourinet’s Brian Hauswirth and Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives spokesman Jim McCarty, which was recorded on September 17, 2018:
Copyright © 2018 · Missourinet