Mike Couick
On these pages, we sometimes talk about the cooperative way of doing things. Often, the term refers to the work local cooperatives are doing in their community—supporting a charity, boosting economic development, or generally improving the quality of life for their members. But one of the best displays of it is when linemen leave their families to help a community hundreds of miles away.
Damage from Hurricanes Laura and Sally devastated cooperative systems in Louisiana and Alabama. Hurricane Laura ripped through Louisiana’s gulf coast region on Aug. 27, reducing a small cooperative to the point of needing a complete rebuild. Accounts from linemen who were there describe a landscape that looked “like a big landfill” or “like a bomb went off.” On Sept. 16, Hurricane Sally wreaked similar destruction to a larger cooperative on Alabama’s gulf coast, leaving only a small percentage of their 80,000 members with power.
It’s the cooperative way to monitor the movement of major storms and be ready for their potential impact. This preparedness doesn’t just happen in places where the storms are destined. All the states in our region are looking out for one another, reaching out to cooperatives who are willing to send crews to help.
That’s what happened leading up to both hurricanes’ landfall. By the time Laura’s winds had moved inland, crews from Berkeley Electric, Newberry Electric, Santee Electric, Fairfield Electric, Horry Electric and Blue Ridge Electric were getting their trucks equipped and their bags packed for the 18-hour journey to Louisiana. The same can be said for Black River Electric, Laurens Electric, York Electric and Newberry Electric (again) as they responded to the call to action a few days after Hurricane Sally came through.
It’s the cooperative way for linemen to be willing—to even want—to help restore power in service territories outside their co-op’s. They work on strange systems, battle the obstacles that nature has wrought and sleep in “tent cities” where they are exposed to elements that are often unkind. In 2020, they faced these challenges along with the added risks and responsibilities of COVID-19.
Despite the snakes, gators and mosquitoes—which I am told were plentiful and big—the extreme humidity and the sometimes primitive lodging, the greatest burden to bear was being so far away from their families, uncertain as to exactly when they would be headed back home.
But this is the cooperative way and so all linemen know that their cooperatives have also benefitted from this spirit of sacrifice and generosity, and they will again. Just in the last few years, South Carolina cooperatives have gratefully welcomed assistance from across the Southeast after Hurricanes Matthew, Dorian and Florence and the 1,000-year flood. This mutual aid collaboration goes back decades, evidenced by the help our state received from others following Hurricane Hugo’s devastation. Cooperative linemen, especially those working systems in coastal areas, know that they are just as likely to be hosting visiting crews as they are to be a part of one.
Motivation also comes from the people they are helping. In Louisiana, a crew from Berkeley Electric was treated to homemade jambalaya for lunch at a home near where they were working. Our linemen returned to their trucks to find snacks and bottles of water left for them on the hood. Instead of asking when their power would be back on, the members of the co-op often thanked them for coming and encouraged them to be safe.
There will certainly be more storms, and unfortunately, more destruction to power distribution systems. As this year’s hurricane season comes to a close, I’ll hope for the best, but I’m glad to know that our co-ops and their linemen are prepared for the worst, wherever it might happen. That’s the cooperative way.