Progress Energy crews go to Texas to aid recovery efforts

By Kevin Smetana
SCNOW.COM Multimedia Journalist
Published: September 14, 2008

BISHOPVILLE — A convoy of 30 Progress Energy vehicles from the Carolinas hit the road Sunday morning with 1,100 miles and three days separating it from its destination of Houston.

The crew of 60 employees is prepared to spend several weeks assisting a Texas utility company with power restoration for millions of customers who have been affected by Hurricane Ike.

Before leaving, Progress Energy officials briefed the crew at a truck stop off Interstate 20, talking mostly about safety.

“My biggest concern is their safety and getting back to their families — nobody getting hurt, no vehicle accidents,” said Bobby Talton, an operations manager from Rockingham. “If we can do that, it’ll be a successful trip.”

As a member of the Southeastern Electronic Exchange, it’s common procedure for Progress Energy to send crews into areas affected by natural disasters, said Melody Birmingham-Byrd, general manager for the company’s southern region.

Most employees in the local crew have hurricane relief experience, and many were deployed to the Gulf Coast region when Katrina and Rita hit in 2005.

Tony Truett, a line technician out of Sumter,  said he has gone on 20 to 30 hurricane relief trips in his 10 years with Progress Energy.

“When I left for Katrina, it was devastating to go in and see all these trees down and lines down and houses tore up,” Truett, 33, said. “It brings a new meaning to being without lights.”

Jerry Garner, a Hartsville line technician, said he has been on four or five hurricane relief deployments, including a trip to Texas during the Rita aftermath.

“When you go down there and you see the conditions people are living in, you feel for them,” Garner, 40, said. “You try to do whatever you can to get their lights back on.

“Normally, when they see our trucks pull in, they’re glad because they know they’ll have the power on shortly.”

After making landfall as a Category 2 storm Saturday in Galveston, Ike moved inland and slammed the Houston area.

Centerpoint, the utility company Progress Energy is assisting, is thought to have at least 2 million customers without power, Birmingham-Byrd said.

“I’m expecting when they get there they’ll find lots of broken poles,” she said. “They’ll probably see similar, if not worse, devastation from an infrastructure standpoint than they saw going to the aid of Rita and Katrina.”

The crew, which consists of line technicians, IT support staff and mechanics, planned on traveling 600 miles Sunday before spending the night in Birmingham.

Progress Energy is sending more than 800 workers from the Carolinas and Florida to assist utilities in Texas, according to a press release.