Deja Vu For Power Crew As Florence Approaches NC

Media Contact:

Wayne Scarbrough

(423) 745-4501 ext. 6002

wscarbrough@aub.org

September 12, 2018

ATHENS, Tenn. – Exactly one year ago today, AUB power crews left the comfort of their homes and hometowns and traveled to Florida in the wake of Hurricane Irma, where they worked to restore power to the city of Wauchula, near Tampa.

The American Public Power Association recently awarded AUB with a national commendation for the work.

Today, many of the same AUB linemen are headed to Greenville, N.C., as the city and region brace for the impact of Hurricane Florence.

Line crew foremen Marcus Goforth and Stan Roderick along with linemen James Lowery, Wayne McKeehan, Matt Price, and Dickie Slack left AUB around 2 p.m. and expect to be in Greenville late tonight, where they will meet with local utility officials and crews to begin preparing for the aftermath of the hurricane’s landfall on Friday.

The AUB linemen will work virtually nonstop in North Carolina for a week and then most likely will be replaced by another AUB crew based on restoration needs and conditions.

Greenville, N.C., is a sprawling metro area almost due east of Athens and 87 miles from the Atlantic coast with some 812,000 people within the city’s 45-mile radius.

Average annual rainfall for the area is 49.02 inches, about half of which could fall in the next few days driven by punishing hurricane-force winds that will cripple the local power infrastructure and other utility services.

AUB is providing the emergency assistance through a Mutual Aid Network of Public Power Utilities that agree to assist each other in times of need, usually following natural disasters such as hurricanes, ice storms, and tornadoes.

AUB benefitted from the assistance program two years ago when crews from the region came to Athens following the November 2016 tornado.

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