mutual aid

Hurricane doppler

Every so often, we are reminded of the raw power of — and our relative helplessness against — the forces of nature. Throughout Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, communities are still coming to grips with the devastation wrought in late September and early October by the one-two punch of hurricanes Helene and Milton, two of the more powerful and damaging storms of the past few decades. 

The utter destruction there is difficult to fathom. Recovery will take months, and even years in some communities.

Less than 36 hours after Hurricane Helene made landfall late on Sept. 26, an initial force of 40 lineworkers from 11 Ohio co-ops headed south.

When electric cooperatives in North Carolina and South Carolina put out the call for help after Hurricane Helene barreled through in late September, Ohio answered. 

When the Ohio group reached the Carolinas, what they found was shocking. In the western parts of those two states, Helene had left a mutilated landscape in its wake. Roads, bridges, power systems — in some places, even entire villages — had been washed entirely off Appalachian hillsides and into flooded valleys. Damage was widespread, and it was devastating.

Downed trees and power lines

As Father’s Day approached this past June, so did a weather pattern that brought with it a series of storms across Ohio. The storms appeared initially to be strong, to be sure, but not out of line with the usual tempests that sweep through the Midwest every summer.

As the co-ops organized resources to restore the systems to turn power back on to their members, the next several days brought alternating extreme heat and additional powerful storm systems that made the work of restoring service both more dangerous and more plentiful. Problems on AEP’s high-voltage transmission network resulted in more than 100,000 central Ohio homes and businesses having their power intentionally shut off for long stretches of time.