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AUB Crews Head Out to Assist Florida City Hit Hard By Irma

Media Contact:

Wayne Scarbrough

(423) 745-4501 ext. 6002

wscarbrough@aub.org

 

September 12, 2017

 

ATHENS, Tenn.-- Yesterday, AUB personnel were preparing for overnight storms in our area, double checking assignments and plans, ensuring trucks were amply stocked, and planning for customer communications in the event of widespread outages or flooding.

 

"This morning we're capitalizing on that preparation and lending the expertise of our crews to a power system in Florida that needs help," said AUB's Wayne Scarbrough.

 

AUB is sending two crews along with the trucks and necessary equipment to work alongside crews in the City of Wauchula, Fla., a city of some 5,100 people about an hour southeast of Tampa that was hit hard by Hurricane Irma.

 

"We've known for a few days that we would likely send crews as soon as we could, barring major damage to our community's system. We were spared, so we're asking our men to go help a sister system in Wauchula," Scarbrough said.

 

"But they don't even have to be asked," he noted. "They know the need, they know the incredibly demanding work ahead of them in brutal heat and unfamiliar territory, and still they volunteer to go help."

 

AUB is part of a formal Mutual Aid Network of utilities that is organized nationally by the American Public Power Association and regionally by the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association (TVPPA).

 

Scarbrough said that TVPPA yesterday passed along the Wauchula assignment to AUB.

 

"It is a formal and well-structured program that streamlines the process of determining who needs help and who can offer help," Scarbrough said.

 

He noted that daily mutual aid conference calls began a few days ago, as Irma neared a landfall on the mainland U.S.

 

"As time passed and cities in Florida sustained damage they registered their need via the Mutual Aid Network and, in turn, we were matched up to that need by our regional coordinator in Chattanooga," Scarbrough said.

 

AUB crews will roll out of Athens this morning for the day-long drive to Wauchula. They will work for at least a week before returning to Athens.

 

In the meantime they will work alongside other mutual aid crews around the clock to restore power to sweltering hot communities in need.

 

The city of Wauchula will reimburse AUB for all costs incurred in providing local crews pursuant to the Mutual Aid Network guidelines.

 

"We help anytime we can and we know that when we need help someday, we'll get it. That is one of the hallmarks of public power utilities," Scarbrough said.

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Crew Heading to FL