Area line crews ready for hurricane deployment

Officials with the Missouri Public Utility Alliance (MPUA) released a statement Friday afternoon regarding the possible deployment of utility line crews from Missouri and Arkansas to Florida over the next few days. The crews are preparing to perform recovery work in the wake of Hurricane Dorian. The storm stalled over the northern Bahamas on Monday, pummeling the islands with winds up to 185 mph.

On Monday afternoon the National Weather Service announced Dorian is moving very slowly into the U.S. at a mere 1 mph and is still classified as a Category 4. Outer bands of the storm continue to impact southern Florida with gusty winds and tropical downpours. Forecasters are predicting Dorian will maintain its Cat. 4 status until Wednesday morning. South Carolina and the rest of the Eastern Seaboard will likely see impacts into Thursday.

David Schremp, general manager of Ozark Border Electric Cooperative, says his “guys are on stand-by,” awaiting word from the Florida area cooperatives as to when line crews will be needed. “We’ll be ready to go when called,” adds Schremp.

A four man crew from Poplar Bluff Municipal Utilities headed out on Saturday to the Orlando, Fla. staging site with equipment to restore power in areas affected by the storm, said Bill Bach, general manager of Poplar Bluff Municipal Utilities.

MPUA says a total of 46 utility workers from nine Missouri cities and one city in Arkansas are set to be deployed. They will join public power utility crews from as many as 20 states who will assist in the work.

According to MPUA officials, lineworker crews from 14 Missouri municipal utilities have responded nine times this year to calls from neighboring communities needing recovery assistance after seasonal storms.

Municipal utilities participating in MPUA’s mutual aid network are reimbursed by the utilities receiving assistance. Nationally, mutual aid agreements organized through the American Public Power Association link more than 2,000 public power and rural electric cooperatives that help each other in times of need.