When Hurricanes Hit: The Power of Mutual Aid

Major storms are always a threat to our electric grid. which means major challenges for the families who depend upon utilities for essential services. Losses of electricity, internet and telephone service aren’t just inconveniences, they are genuine threats to medical access, disconnection from family and time separated from work.

Hurricanes pose some of the greatest risks and the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season is already one for the books. Hurricane Helene which made landfall as a Category 5 storm along Florida’s Big Bend on Sept. 26 knocked out electricity to nearly 1.5 million meters as it lumbered inland ripping up vital infrastructure as far north as Virginia.

Two weeks later, Hurricane Milton, a Category 3 storm, roared ashore near Sarasota, Florida and more than 2 million electric utility meters lost service before it crossed into the open Atlantic October 10.

Big storms mean all hands restoration events, and for electric cooperatives and public power providers, mutual aid provides the muscle, equipment and expertise needed to put systems back together.  Businesses, schools, public services and families need electricity for cleanup and getting back to normal.

While large investor-owned utilities draw restoration personnel from within their corporate affiliates and contractor pools, electric co-ops and municipal utilities rely upon mutual aid agreements forged in the 1990’s.

Particularly destructive storms like 2005’s hurricanes Rita and Katrina, and 2012’s Superstorm Sandy, which made landfall as a hurricane before morphing into a major winter storm event drove revisions and expansions of those voluntary agreements.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) works closely with more than 900 electric distribution and generation and transmission co-ops and their statewide organizations to support coordinated national responses.

“The electric cooperative network works to ensure that when a disaster strikes a particular state or region, the needs of local cooperatives are met with co-ops outside the affected areas committing personnel and other resources to help get members the power they need,” according to NRECA.

“Whether crews need to come from Kansas to help co-ops in Florida, or travel from the Great Lakes region to South Carolina, our local co-ops don’t have to handle trouble alone,” an NRECA spokesperson says. “It’s a brotherhood, with all of us working together in the cooperative spirit.”

Co-op mutual aid activations are typically handled by safety and loss coordinators representing their statewide co-op organizations.

“Co-op employees often volunteer to assist impacted electric cooperatives as they are dedicated to serving not only their own members, but all electric cooperative members in need,”

says Rob Roedel, a spokesman for the Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp.

Following Helene and Milton, Arkansas’ co-ops dispatched about 250 personnel to help restore electric service in seven states.  When major work extended beyond two weeks, other states sent in additional crews to keep restoration on track until the last member at the end of the line was back in service.

While lineworkers, their bucket trucks, and crew vehicles were what people saw while waiting to get power, that only scratches the surface of the outside help supporting their work. Mechanics, drone operators and warehouse personnel, often helped with damage assessment, equipment maintenance and making sure poles, wires and hardware kept crews moving until power was fully restored.

Digital technology was also used to reroute service calls and support communications that keep members and the media informed about challenges and progress before and after major system outages occur.

Co-ops and municipal utilities often draw from the same resources, supporting each other in times of need. According to the American Public Power Association (APPA), more than 1,200 of its member utilities have signed on to the association’s mutual aid agreement since the early 1990s.

“In addition, 800 rural electric cooperatives have signed our agreement,” says Patrick Hart, APPA’s senior director of resilience programs, adding that investor-owned utilities also often are involved. “While each segment of the industry has its own mutual aid system to assist its utilities, there are times when the three systems overlap.” That means local utilities can count on additional help once each organization’s immediate needs are met, says Hart. “Once [visiting] public power crews finish assisting a utility, they offer their assistance to co-ops and IOUs, and vice-versa, before the crews are released and return to their home utility.”

According to the Electric Subsector Coordinating Council, which includes representatives of investor-owned utilities, public power providers, electric co-ops and several federal agencies, more than 50,000 people supported power restoration efforts following Helene and Milton.

The back-to-back storms created special challenges impacting mutual aid responses because they affected some of the same areas. After Helene stalled more than one million co-op served meters, 12,000 co-op crews and contractors mobilized.

When outages affecting more than 330,000 co-op meters occurred after Milton, about 8,700 personnel joined the response. Responders from more than 25 states helped get co-op power restored following the two events.
Public power providers mobilized about 2,000 workers in Florida, following Milton, says APPA’s Hart. “Contractors, mutual aid crews and native utility personnel – took part in the restoration mission following the hurricane.”
Those men and women helped total strangers in communities they’d likely never visit, leaving even those glad to have the power back on to wonder why.

“It used to be about making extra money for the family. Today, it’s about knowing people need help—some have lost everything,”

says Ryan Wishon, a journeyman lineworker with Sikeston, Missouri based SEMO Electric Cooperative.

Over the last 20 years, I’ve taken on at least 10 mutual aid assignments in seven states following ice storms, blizzards and hurricanes, says Wishon. “It’s an incredible feeling to arrive, with only the lights from our trucks, and to leave knowing they have their own lights again.”