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Public power utilities respond to power outages caused by ice storms

November 16, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
November 16, 2020

Oklahoma public power utilities embarked on a large-scale restoration effort after a historic ice storm caused widespread outages the week of October 26-31, the Oklahoma Municipal Power Agency (OMPA) reported on Nov. 12.

OMPA said that statewide, more than 300,000 customers lost power in the first 24 hours of the storm, due mainly to fallen trees.

Utilities in Oklahoma typically employ tree-trimming programs to avoid such disasters, but this storm came earlier in the year than normal and dumped several inches of ice onto trees that still hadn’t lost their leaves, thus impacting trees that had sustained decades worth of winters.

The state’s public power utilities deployed their mutual aid program to get customers back online, as crews from around the state answered the call for assistance, as well as crews from utilities in Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri.

Fourteen of the OMPA’s 42 members suffered outages in the first day of the storm, while another 15 experienced outages in the following days, impacting thousands of customers. One public power utility with just less than 16,000 customers had 260 different individual outages on the second day of the storm.

Several of the outages OMPA members saw lasted days, some the entire week, due to the extensive damage sustained from the fallen trees. However, all OMPA members had power restored by Monday, November 2, with a few remaining service drop issues.

OMPA offered thanks to the following crews for assisting members with outage restoration:  GRDA; Tahlequah, OK; Claremore, OK; Skiatook, OK; Pryor, OK; Collinsville, OK; Stilwell, OK; Bentonville, AR; Wellington, KS; Coffeyville, KS; Siloam Springs, AR; Monet, MO and OMPA Field Services.

NPPD helps Burt County Public Power District restore power

Meanwhile, in partnership with other public power utilities, Nebraska Public Power District assisted Nebraska’s Burt County Public Power District in making repairs after a hard-hitting ice storm earlier this month.

Along with NPPD, crews from the following utilities assisted Burt County Public Power District assisted with power restoration efforts: Elkhorn Rural Public Power District, North Central Public Power District, as well as Niobrara Valley Electric Membership Corporation.

Public power utilities help La. cooperative with power restoration efforts

October 13, 2020

by APPA News
October 13, 2020

Public power crews are hard at work helping Louisiana cooperative SLEMCO restore power in the wake of Hurricane Delta.

SLEMCO on Tuesday, Oct. 13, reported that as of noon, it had 18,600 customers without power. “SLEMCO crews and several hundred contract crews are working on repairs to feeders still out and also working on outages at individual locations,” the cooperative said on its Facebook page.

Later in the day, SLEMCO reported that as of 3 p.m., SLEMCO had 16,481 customers without power.

On Oct. 10, SLEMCO reported that its system had sustained catastrophic damage from Hurricane Delta, with more than 98 percent of its system without power.

SLEMCO, which is headquartered in Lafayette, La., provides power to 109,000 members in Southwest Louisiana.

Public power utilities send crews to help with restoration efforts

Crews from the following public power utilities have deployed to assist SLEMCO with the cooperative’s power restoration efforts:

Public power crews pre-positioned prior to Hurricane Delta

Public power crews had already deployed and the mutual aid network had been active before the tropical-storm-force winds from Hurricane Delta began affecting southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas at the end of last week.

Crews deployed to Gulf Coast to prepare for restoration from Hurricane Delta

October 9, 2020

by Susan Partain
APPA News
October 9, 2020

Public power crews had already deployed and the mutual aid network had been active before the tropical-storm-force winds from Hurricane Delta began affecting southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas on Friday morning.

As of midday Friday, more than 200 personnel from 39 public power utilities have been deployed or are scheduled to deploy to assist nine public power utilities in Louisiana: City of Abbeville, City of Alexandria, the Town of Boyce, Town of Gueydan, Lafayette Utilities System, the City of New Roads, Plaquemine City Light and Water, City of St. Martinsville, and the Town of Welsh.

Responding utilities, as of Friday, October 9, include the following.

Austin Energy in Texas also reported that it is sending crews to support investor-owned utility American Electric Power, which has a service territory that includes Shreveport, La. CPS Energy, also based in Texas, noted plans to assist affected IOUs.

As of Friday morning, the National Hurricane Center expected Hurricane Delta to hit the coast as a Category 3 hurricane, coming to shore by Friday evening, and then downgrade to a tropical storm by Saturday morning as it moves inland in a northeast direction into northern Louisiana and Mississippi.

The American Public Power Association compiled a moments feed on twitter to capture the mutual aid activity and latest news from the utilities involved in the response.

Another in a long season

Delta is the 24th named storm in the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season and the tenth to hit the continental US.

The hurricane is on a path to affect many of the same areas hit by Hurricane Laura at the end of August. Hurricane Laura damaged significant portions of the transmission system, leading to prolonged outages for customers in the area. Customers in the City of Vinton, La., got power restored at the end of September after investor-owned utility Entergy completed restoration of a transmission line connected to the public power city. For Hurricane Laura, the Energy Subsector Coordinating Council reported that nearly 30,000 people from 29 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada participated in restoration activities across the utility sector.

In mid-September, the Gulf Coast region also experienced Hurricane Sally, which made landfall in Alabama as a Category 2 hurricane. In that storm, public power crews from Alabama, Louisiana and Florida aided three coastal Alabama utilities.

As has been the case with other mutual aid scenarios during the pandemic, crews traveling to Louisiana must complete health screenings and undergo temperature checks. As a precaution, local and responding crews practice social distancing during briefings and while having meals and have been supplied with appropriate personal protective equipment. 

Puerto Rico to receive nearly $10 billion from FEMA to rebuild its grid

October 7, 2020

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
October 7, 2020

The Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) has approved $9.6 billion for the Puerto Rico Electrical Power Authority (PREPA) to repair damage to its electric grid caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017.

The federal funding is targeted to repair and replace thousands of miles of transmission and distribution lines, electrical substations, power generation systems, and other grid improvements.

The aid package also includes a $2 billion grant for the Puerto Rico Department of Education for restoring school buildings and educational facilities on the island.

“PREPA welcomes the FEMA fund obligations and is focused on the next steps to begin reconstruction of the electrical grid,” Fernando Padilla, director of restructuring and fiscal affairs at PREPA and head of the utility’s disaster funding management office, said via email.

PREPA is in the midst of restructuring its debt following its declaration of a form of bankruptcy in 2017. The utility’s current balance sheet “contains unsustainable debt” that precludes the issuance of bonds to raise capital for infrastructure improvements, Padilla said. In addition, the devastation of Hurricane Maria left unprecedented damages that requires significant mitigation to protect from future natural disasters.

Following the hurricanes in 2017, a massive cross-industry mutual aid response involved thousands of crew members from public power and investor-owned utilities to help restore power to the island. The American Public Power Association coordinated with PREPA, the responding public power crews, and other entities involved through the extended restoration time, which was a concentrated effort from September 2017 through March 2018, but which has continued in other ways as the utility has worked to rebuild and improve its response practices. Through support from the Department of Energy, APPA led a workshop in August for PREPA and other island territories to discuss preparedness practices and lessons learned from the events in 2017.

The FEMA funding will provide the necessary funding to help protect the electrical system and the people of Puerto Rico from future catastrophic events, Padilla said.

The FEMA funds will be used to bring PREPA’s electrical system up to standards capable of withstanding a Category 4 hurricane.

In the wake of Maria, a Category 5 hurricane, Congress approved $50 billion as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 including funding for hurricane response and recovery and for rebuilding critical services and facilities. About $16 billion of those funds have been distributed to date.

Since then, the island was hit by a series of earthquakes in December 2019 and January 2020 and then by Tropical Storm Isaias in July.

The work of reconstructing the grid in the wake of Hurricanes Maria and Irma “has been significantly completed,” Padilla said, but the work was done to codes and standards that would not necessarily stand up to a hurricane of Category 4 or higher.

The list of projects that will be undertaken using the new FEMA funds is still under development and is expected to be completed by the first week of December, Padilla said. Top priorities include protecting critical infrastructure loads, transmission and distribution lines, and large industrial loads that are essential to Puerto Rico’s economy, he said.

PREPA expects to begin receiving the FEMA funding later this year or very early in 2021, Padilla said. The initial funding will be allocated for the design process and then to procurement for initial projects, he said.

“Our organization is fully committed to work with FEMA and all stakeholders to secure a 10-year infrastructure plan that will outline the overall vision and project pipeline to ensure project execution within federal parameters and FEMA guidelines.”

The $9.6 billion award is more than half the cost needed to modernize Puerto Rico’s electric grid over the next 10 years, Moody’s Investors Service said in a tweet in response to FEMA’s Sept. 18 announcement.

The rating agency said the grant was positive for both PREPA and for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

The FEMA funds would bring PREPA’s transmission and distribution systems “up to code and improve reliability and service quality without burdening the Commonwealth and PREPA with incremental debt, and ultimately its customer base, with rate increases for these projects,” Moody’s said.

APPA’s mutual aid network delivers smooth response to Hurricane Sally

September 18, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
September 18, 2020

The rapid activation of the American Public Power Association’s mutual aid network to Hurricane Sally, which made landfall near Gulf Shores, Ala., as a Category 2 hurricane, created a smooth path for equipment and crews to be deployed in an effective manner, said Jon Hand, Executive Direct of Electric Cities of Alabama, on Sept. 18.

“We were able at a moment’s notice to activate APPA’s mutual aid network,” he noted in an interview, adding that APPA’s Mutual Aid Working Group is a “great resource for member utilities.”

Hand is a mutual aid coordinator for Region IV of APPA’s Mutual Aid Network. Region IV covers Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

He said that it was “quite an easy process once we called for the network to be activated” to get equipment and crews right away.

Hand praised APPA President and CEO Joy Ditto’s leadership during the hurricane. In particular, he cited Ditto’s “reaching out to our utilities directly” and offering APPA as a resource to make sure that any resources needed from the federal government were provided.  

“That was very reassuring and much appreciated,” Hand said.

And APPA’s mutual aid team, which includes Sam Rozenberg, APPA’s Engineering Services Security Director, and Giacomo Wray, APPA Engineering Services Specialist, “were extremely helpful,” he said.

Crews from Louisiana and Florida were traveling to Alabama during the storm to make sure that they arrived in a timely manner, as did crews from Alabama public power utility Dothan Utilities, Hand noted.

He reported that in the wake of Sally, Alabama public power utility Riviera Utilities initially faced around 46,000 outages, but that number had been brought down to approximately 36,000 outages as of 6:00 a.m. on Sept. 18.

Another Alabama public power utility, Fairhope Utilities, was 100 percent out after Sally hit the Alabama coast. On the evening of Sept. 17, a transmission line for the city was fixed, Hand noted.

At around 9:10 the morning of Sept. 18, the City of Fairhope’s Thomas Hospital was re-energized. “Crews are now working to get first-responders up and running. There is still extensive damage throughout our system, but we are working as safely as possible to get everyone up and running,” the city noted on its Facebook page.

The City of Robertsdale, Ala., also initially was faced with 100 percent power outages, but as of mid-day on Sept. 18, the city had reduced outages to around 2,500.

Riviera Utilities, Fairhope Utilities and Robertsdale are Alabama coastal utilities.

Further inland, other Alabama public power cities have been making good progress in terms of bringing the lights back on to customers. The Cities of Evergreen and Andalusia were expected to complete power restoration efforts on Saturday, Sept. 19.

Meanwhile, power restoration efforts for the City of Tuskegee, Ala., were completed on Sept. 18.

Hand noted that at one point, Alabama had 52,000 systemwide public power outages.

Public power utilities deploy crews to help with restoration efforts

Public power utilities from Florida, Louisiana and Alabama deployed crews to assist with restoration efforts.

Those utilities include:

The following Alabama public power utilities also deployed crews for restoration work:

Hand noted that other public power utility crews remain on standby.

As with other recent responses to storms and hurricanes, public power utility crews working on restoration efforts for Hurricane Sally have been taking precautions to minimize potential exposure to COVID-19.

Hand noted that “We’re encouraging all employees and mutual aid crew members to practice social distancing. We’re going the extra mile to make sure that the meals are packaged separately.”

Power mostly restored to Vinton, La. after public power utility crews pitched in

September 11, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
September 11, 2020

Power has been largely restored to Vinton, La., after the city was hit hard by Hurricane Laura last month. Crews from several public power utilities have played a key role in helping to bring power back to the city in an expedited fashion.

Crews from Louisiana public power utility Lafayette Utilities System (LUS), Florida public power utility Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) and Alabama public power utilities deployed in late August to assist with restoration efforts after Vinton was hit by Laura.

Alex Antonowitsch, an LUS spokesman, noted in a Sept. 10 email that Vinton is 80 percent restored.  The remainder are due to structural or electrical damage that would require the resident to have resolved, he said. 

LUS and GRU installed a 5,000 kV transformer to step down the voltage from investor-owned utility Entergy’s lower 35.5 kV line to feed Vinton. “Entergy’s 138 kV transmission lines are still down so we are waiting for Entergy to rebuild the lines. There is no timeline from Entergy as to when these will be rebuilt,” Antonowitsch said.

Antonowitsch noted that LUS currently has one five-man crew traveling every day to Vinton to assist in any additional work.

Two days after Laura made landfall and after completing restoration work in Lafayette, Greg Labbe’, Electric Operations Manager at LUS, was asked by the mayor of Vinton to oversee the restoration in Vinton.

“The damage was much worse than when we went to help out after Rita,” said Labbe’. “We are committed to see it through to the end.”

Labbe’ is a member of the American Public Power Association’s Mutual Aid Working Group.

Kevin Bihm, General Manager for the Louisiana Energy and Power Authority, noted that there were “so many facets of mutual aid that were displayed in Vinton.” Lafayette and Vinton are both member cities of LEPA.

Bihm cited the “neighbor helping neighbor” story seen through LUS personnel helping Vinton to assess damage to the system and assist city leaders in the coordination effort to restore power, as well as

APPA mutual aid line crews from various states “putting boots on the ground to restore and in some cases rebuild” the distribution system.

In addition, he noted that APPA and LEPA worked with state and federal governments to fast track needed equipment and facilities to get the lights back on as expeditiously as possible.

On a normal day, Vinton’s main substation is fed via a 138 kV transmission line, Bihm pointed out. This 138 kV line was damaged in the storm and Entergy was estimating several weeks for restoration. 

“APPA and LEPA were working on both the federal and state levels to secure a generator for Vinton so that they could power critical infrastructure” in Vinton, he said.

These efforts led to the installation of a temporary transformer that was interconnected to an energized 34.5 kV transmission line near Vinton in order to supply up to 5 MW of the total 8 MW load of Vinton.

Labbe’ and his team led the effort to construct the necessary substation structures for the installation of this transformer, Bihm said.

ESCC reports that significant progress has been made in power restoration post-Laura

September 2, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
September 2, 2020

The Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council (ESCC) on Sept. 2 reported that less than a week after Hurricane Laura slammed Louisiana and parts of Texas, Mississippi, and Arkansas, electricity has been restored to approximately 737,000, or 75 percent, of customers impacted by Laura.

“Before Laura made landfall, investor-owned electric companies, public power utilities, and electric cooperatives in the storm’s path mobilized an army of at least 29,000 workers from 29 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada to respond and to restore power as quickly as possible once it was safe to do so,” ESCC noted in a news release. The workforce includes company personnel, contractors, and mutual assistance workers.

Approximately 251,000 electricity customers remain without power as of 4:00 p.m. EDT, Sept. 2, with most of these outages in communities in Louisiana that suffered a direct impact from the hurricane.

“In these areas, the storm caused catastrophic and unprecedented damage to the high-voltage transmission system, and entire sections of the energy grid must be rebuilt before power can be restored,” the ESCC said in the news release.

While distribution lines already may have been repaired, some customers will be unable to have their power restored until the transmission lines serving their communities are rebuilt and reenergized, it said.

There also will be customers who cannot be reconnected at all due to the severe damage to their homes and businesses.

“Laura was a devastating storm, and we appreciate the coordinated response to this restoration mission that is taking place across the industry and government,” said Joy Ditto, President and CEO of the American Public Power Association. “Tens of thousands of workers were mobilized quickly and are making progress in restoring power in the face of extensive damage and challenging geographic locations, as well as ensuring appropriate pandemic response measures are taken,” she said.

“Workers continue to be redeployed to the hardest-hit areas where, in many cases, both the distribution and transmission infrastructure must be completely rebuilt before power can be restored,” Ditto noted. Ditto is a member of the ESCC Steering Committee.

The ESCC continues to convene calls to discuss the restoration efforts with senior officials from the Department of Energy and the Department of Homeland Security and with executives from all segments of the electric power industry.

Crews are following additional protocols in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ESCC noted.

FEMA says it will limit ongoing reimbursements for PPE, cleaning supplies

September 2, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
September 2, 2020

The Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) this week said that that after Sept. 15, it would no longer fund acquisition of personal protective equipment (PPE), cleaning materials, and other equipment unless for “qualifying emergency work.”

In addition, FEMA noted that it would move to limit the amount of stockpiling for emergencies of PPE that would be covered to a 60-day supply of PPE.

FEMA released the document, “Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic: Work Eligible for Public Assistance (Interim),” on Sept. 1.

FEMA Assistant Administrator for Recovery Keith Turi said that as of Sept. 15, PPE and other materials for non-emergency settings will be classified as “increased operating costs” for public services, and therefore will not be covered by FEMA’s public assistance program. Turi made his comments during a call with state and local officials.

The FEMA document, which is available here, includes details on what emergency protective measures (and activities related to those measures) FEMA will continue to provide public assistance.  

Crews from LUS, GRU and Alabama utilities deploy to Vinton, La., to help with restoration efforts

August 31, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 31, 2020

Crews from Louisiana public power utility Lafayette Utilities System (LUS), Florida public power utility Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) and Alabama public power utilities have deployed to Vinton, La., to assist with restoration efforts after Vinton was hit by Hurricane Laura last week.

The LUS crews left Lafayette Saturday morning at 6 a.m., with the trip to Vinton taking about two hours to get there, noted Alex Antonowitsch, an LUS spokesman, in an email.

LUS workers were joined by crews from GRU.

Crews are assessing the damage and assisting in restoration efforts including replacing poles and fixing lines.

Antonowitsch said that 14 workers from LUS and 11 or 12 from GRU traveled to Vinton.

He noted that there is no estimate yet in terms of how long LUS workers are expected to stay in Vinton “as we need to assess the extent of the damage. Depending on the extent, more crews may come in.”

“We have gone to help Vinton several times in the past,” said LUS Electric Operations Manager Greg Labbe’. “Once we arrive, we will assess the amount of damage and what we will need to get everyone back up with power,“ he said on Aug. 29.

Jon Hand, Executive Director for Electric Cities of Alabama, reported that crews from the public power communities of Opelika, Troy and Tuskegee have deployed to Vinton to work on distribution system rebuild.

Hand said that the total number of workers from the Alabama public power utilities is 25.

Lafayette, La., which was also hit by Laura, received mutual aid from several public power utilities last week. Crews from the City of Tallahassee, Fla., were pre-positioned in the city before the arrival of Laura.

Crews from GRU, New Smyrna Beach, Fla., Fort Pierce, Fla., Lakeland, Fla., and Jacksonville (JEA) arrived on Thursday after Laura passed through Lafayette.

Crews from Fort Pierce, Lakeland and Tallahassee are headed to Abbeville, La., Antonowitsch reported on Aug. 29, while crews from JEA is assisting investor-owned utility Cleco.

He also noted that LUS sent was sending a crew to Gueydan, La., to assist in mutual aid.

COVID-19 precautions

Antonowitsch also detailed the precautions LUS workers took to avoid potential exposure to COVID-19.

Implementing procedures were established when teams arrived in Lafayette, he noted. Operations were based out of the Cajundome, the arena for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

“All workers had to first go through a temperature gun check of the forehead, then a checklist of questions asking about potential exposure,” he said.

If the temperature was 100 or higher the worker went to a COVID staging area to wait and re-check temperature. 

There were instances of residual heat from workers sitting in a hot car that would show high temperatures when using the thermometer gun.  If the temperature didn’t go down, a rapid COVID test was available that would provide for a quick blood draw test. In addition, personal protective equipment and masks were made available to workers.

Public power crews work to restore power after Hurricane Laura makes landfall

August 27, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 27, 2020

Public power utility crews were hard at work restoring power to communities hit by Hurricane Laura, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in the early morning hours of Aug. 27.

The hurricane made landfall in Louisiana with 150 mph winds and more than nine feet of storm surge “that ripped buildings to pieces, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands and inundated the coastline,” the Weather Channel reported on its website.

The Department of Energy reported that as of 7:30 AM EDT, there were approximately 484,000 customer outages reported across the states of Louisiana and Texas, including approximately 386,000 customer outages in Louisiana.

Prior to the hurricane’s making landfall, crews from public power utilities across several states had already deployed or were on their way to Louisiana.

The Florida Municipal Electric Association (FMEA) on Aug. 26 reported that it had assembled public power crews from across the state to aid with power restoration efforts in Louisiana following Hurricane Laura. Approximately 25 public power personnel from Tallahassee have already arrived in Lafayette, Louisiana, and another 80 were on their way to assist Lafayette Utilities System, a public power utility, FMEA said.

Along with Florida, crews were also deployed from Missouri, Texas, Georgia and Alabama to Louisiana. Public power utilities from other states were on standby and ready to send crews if needed.

On Aug. 27, the Missouri Public Utility Alliance (MPUA) reported that more municipal utility electric line crews from two more Missouri communities were on their way to Louisiana, responding to the call for recovery help in the wake of Hurricane Laura.

Organized by MPUA, additional lineworker crews from Nixa and Rolla are on their way to Alexandria, Louisiana to assist that city in recovery from power outages.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, crews from the utilities in Hannibal, Harrisonville, Higginsville and Macon travelled to Alexandria to prepare for anticipated damage to the city’s electric system. The combined response now numbers 24 lineworkers from the six utilities.

“Our hometown utility professionals are eager to help in emergencies like this,” said MPUA mutual aid coordinator Mike Conyers. “Working together as communities and states to help our neighbors is fundamental to how our crews work.”

MPUA organized the network response from member utilities after preparedness coordinators at Alexandria called for mutual aid assistance from public power utilities. 

Lafayette Utilities System (LUS) on Aug. 27 noted in a tweet that LUS crews “have been up since early morning restoring power from downed lines.”

Texas

Meanwhile, in an interview with Public Power Daily, Russ Keene, Executive Director of the Texas Public Power Association (TPPA), reported that a total of eight municipally owned electric utilities (MOUs) that were in the track of the storm. Two of the eight MOU cities — Liberty and Livingston – were not affected.

Prior to the system making landfall, TPPA and member utilities did an effective job in terms of preparing to offer mutual aid, if needed, Keene noted.

Six cities — Hemphill, Jasper, Kirbyville, Newton, San Augustine and Timpson – were hit with power outages as a result of Laura.

TPPA’s response was slightly delayed as Internet and wireless outages during the morning of Aug. 27 created an unexpected lack of situational awareness.

The six cities are “almost in a north south line right along the Texas-Louisiana border – just inside Texas. They’re considered Deep East Texas,” Keene said.

“They were right in the middle of the forecasted path. It apparently went a little more eastward into Louisiana than thought so it therefore didn’t affect Liberty and Livingston, which are a little bit west out of that line of these other six cities,” Keene said.

With respect to the six cities, “we don’t know the extent of the damage to their city systems yet. We know that at least two transmission lines are down – one owned by Entergy and another owned by the Jasper-Newton Electric co-op,” he added.

The six cities “are all completely without power right now,” Keene said, although he noted expectations are for full restoration within 48 hours, with a key variable being how quickly the transmission lines can be repaired.

“We are learning the extent of the damage to the city systems,” he noted. “We don’t know full extent of the damage to the city systems, but we know it includes poles and wires down” in numerous locations.

He noted that New Braunfels Utilities is rolling trucks to help Hemphill “and they expect a full two-day restoration.”

Texas public power utility Kerrville Public Utility Board has dispatched crews to help Kirbyville with power restoration efforts, while another public power utility in the state — Lubbock Power & Light — has sent crews to help Newton.

In addition, the city of Seguin, Texas, is providing mutual aid to San Augustine, while Garland Power & Light is going to provide assistance to Jasper.

Keene said that APPA’s Mutual Aid Working Group (MAWG) “has been terrific to work with for more than a week and has been very impressive overall.”

He also noted that “we started last Friday at TPPA internally with those eight Deep East Texas members” in terms of helping them prepare.

“I think we were, in a sense, overprepared – at least from the mutual aid perspective,” he said.