AUB Power Crews Travel to Florida to Assist in Dorian Recovery
AUB POWER CREWS HEAD TO
GATOR COUNTRY TO PREP FOR DORIAN
RECOVERY
ATHENS, Tenn. – For the third hurricane season in a row AUB power crews will head out of state to assist in power restoration following a storm.
On Saturday, six crewmembers will leave Athens for Gainesville, Fla., where they will stage at the headquarters of Gainesville Regional Utilities to prepare for what could be another round of seemingly endless work.
Two years ago, in September 2017, AUB crews worked near Tampa after Hurricane Irma tore through the area. Then, exactly one year later, crews traveled to North Carolina to help restore services to several cities in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence.
Now, with Hurricane Dorian bringing more mayhem to the mainland, AUB crews are anxious to assist via the Mutual Aid Network of Public Power utilities that support one another in times of dire need, usually following natural disasters such as hurricanes, ice storms, and tornadoes.
Dorian is expected to be a Category 4 storm with 130 to 140 m.p.h. winds upon landfall.
Line crew foremen David Rayl and Stan Roderick along with linemen James Lowry, Matt Price, Abe Aziz, and Dickie Slack will roll out of AUB headquarters on Saturday.
Upon arrival in Gainesville they will meet with local utility officials and crews to discuss their assignments and to plan and prepare for their work in the aftermath of the hurricane’s landfall.
If the storm brings its intensity to the Florida peninsula as expected, immense damage to power grids will be widespread.
The AUB linemen will work virtually nonstop for at least a week while on the Mutual Aid trip. Another AUB crew may then rotate in and relieve them based on restoration needs and conditions.
At home, AUB officials will monitor the track and intensity of the storm and continually assess if crews need to come home to rest and prepare for strong storms in our own community. But, for now the focus is on Mutual Aid assistance.
With the exact areas of greatest need not yet known, Gainesville will serve as a regional staging ground from which crews can be readily dispatched to the areas of greatest need.
AUB benefitted from the Mutual Aid Network program nearly three years ago when power crews from the around the Southeast came to Athens following the November 2016 tornado that ripped through the region.
We ask that you keep these members of our AUB family in your thoughts and prayers as they undertake this trip. Line work is dangerous enough when working on your own power system, let alone when working on an unfamiliar power grid with scores of other linemen, line foremen and tree removal crews that you have just met.
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