Kentucky Electric Co-op Crews Aid Hurricane Victims
09/07/2005

While Katrina's devastation brought unprecedented needs for assistance, helping restore power to storm victims in other states is something Kentucky's electric co-ops are well-prepared for.
Less than a week after the hurricane hit the Gulf states, 117 lineworkers from Kentucky electric cooperatives, including 61 utility trucks, were helping restore power to three especially hard-hit electric co-ops in Mississippi.
"This is a case where advance emergency planning will allow us to help people recover from this horrible devastation," said Ron Sheets, president of the Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives.
Sheets said, "We know this relief effort will be a long haul and the plans we have in place will allow us to offer this assistance and still be ready for unexpected outages that could hit our own state."
Nearly all electric co-ops in the United States, including all those in Kentucky, have signed a mutual aid agreement approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Similar arrangements exist among the Kentucky co-ops, to make sure that any co-op lending recovery teams still has adequate resources for any recovery efforts it may need for itself.
Co-ops in more than a dozen states have sent at least 1,400 workers to help restore power in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. With contract crews of non-co-op employees also being made available, this is the most widespread relief effort in the 70-year history of the electric co-op program. In September 2004 Kentucky electric co-ops sent more than 100 workers to help restore power to hurricane victims in Alabama and Florida.
The Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives, based in Louisville, represents 26 local, user-owned, electric cooperatives, which provide electricity to about one-third of the homes and businesses in the state, covering parts of 117 of the 120 counties in Kentucky.

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