Crews from Poplar Bluff are among those responding to Florida because of Tropical Storm Idalia.
Organized by the Missouri Public Utility Alliance, lineworker crews from 15 utilities are traveling to Jacksonville, preparing to respond to power outages at Florida municipal utilities after the storm passes, according to a press release from MPUA.
The combined response involves 68 lineworkers and other utility personnel from the 13 Missouri cities of Carthage, Chillicothe, Columbia, Hannibal, Higginsville, Independence, Kennett, Macon, Nixa, Odessa, Palmyra, Poplar Bluff and Springfield. They are also joined by a crew from Conway, Arkansas, and a crew from the MPUA Resource Services Corporation in Columbia.
The workers will stage in Jacksonville, equipped with more than 40 utility work vehicles, including bucket trucks, digger/derrick trucks, and other linework vehicles and equipment. The Missouri lineworkers’ Florida arrival is timed to be ahead of anticipated hurricane impacts on the Florida Gulf Coast.
Idalia is currently a tropical storm but is predicted to grow into a major hurricane by the time it makes its anticipated landfall on the Florida Gulf Coast. Municipal utility workers from other states are also on the road to Florida to assist in the hurricane recovery efforts. Preparedness coordinators for the Florida Municipal Electric Association issued a call to the Missouri Public Utility Alliance for mutual aid assistance early Monday, and the crews departed for Florida at different times from their hometown utilities later in the day.
The responding crews are from “public power” electric utilities, not-for-profit community-owned electric utilities that serve their individual cities, but also have agreements in place allowing staff to assist neighboring communities and states during widespread outages in other communities.
The mutual aid response is coordinated through MPUA’s Mutual Aid Network. Assisting cities are reimbursed by the municipal 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, so they can help each other in times of need.