LOUISVILLE, Ky. (KT) – With power restored within Kentucky, hundreds of line workers and contractors from the state’s electric cooperatives are now helping sister co-ops in other states ravaged by Hurricane Helene in one of the largest mutual aid deployments in the program’s history.
More than 150 personnel from Kentucky’s co-ops are providing mutual aid in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, joining crews from 18 other states. These employees are in addition to the hundreds of contract crew members released by Kentucky co-ops so they can also respond to the calls for help.
“We are finding more destruction and houses that have been damaged beyond repair,” said Mitch Bearden, Chief Communications Officer at Haywood EMC in Waynesville, North Carolina, one of the co-ops where Kentucky crews are working to rebuild the electric system, as flooding and landslides have swept away roads, limiting access to infrastructure and isolated communities…