Our industry has a history of pulling together in times like these. Of course our linemen and tree trimmers are on the front lines doing battle with downed conductor and splintered poles. And I am so proud of every one of them. But we have so many heroes to be thankful for, from the guys who pitch the tents to the cooks who work 20 hour days to make the meals. So many things have to come together. I met so many people who were working their storm assignments whether in Lufkin, Livingston, Houston or Galveston. Each utility had and worked their response approach plans, whether Oncor, Sam Houston Electric Cooperative or CenterPoint Energy. I talked with inspectors, dispatchers, foremen; call center operators. Everyone pitched in. And I saw utility linemen from all over the country who set aside their day jobs to come help out. It gives you goose bumps seeing these guys work so hard. It is truly a band of brothers.

And of course the contract line workers and tree trimmers brought in assistance on a massive scale; and a massive effort was needed as Hurricane Ike took dead aim on Houston and inflicted damage all across the CenterPoint service territory. A lot of these folk came over to help out coming straight from the battle lines drawn by Gustav.

The supply chain was stretched thin, partially due to all the materials and supplies already taken out of the system by Hurricane Gustav. But it was holding. Kudos to the factory workers who worked nights and weekends to make sure the linemen had the fuses and cutouts, the wire and transformers, the bolts and connectors they needed.

But in closing, I’d like to acknowledge the real unsung heroes, our families left behind to cope. Particularly those left without power who must figure out how to make it on their own. Our wives and daughters, our husbands and sons, who support us, who hold our families together while we do battle.

I’d like to close by sharing this letter that CenterPoint lineman Danny Teague said I could print. It is from his wife who wrote it after being treated less-than-kind by someone in the parking lot of a grocery store:

“Every wife of a lineman knows of the pride and danger that surrounds the men that we love and hold near and dear to our hearts. We occupy our lines with work, family, education and other things to keep our worst fears at bay. As my children come to me with questions of doubt, I feel compelled to write.

“I thought at one time my biggest hero was my father. But as I have grown into and married into this family or brothers that I have come to love and respect, I find myself hiding my worst fears from them and myself. The man I have had them build their trust on and tell all their problems to, and restore organization to our family structure to, has been away. I hear their cries of ‘Mommy, where is Dan Dan? When is he coming home?’ All I can do is occupy their time with games, outside time, movies and chores.

“My wonderful husband found time to talk to my daughter from the field. But as she still talks about it in a daze and fantasizes about how great her stepfather is, she still reminds me of the ever-present danger that is bestowed on every lineman out there.

“I had a discussion with someone in the parking lot of a grocery store, who asked me, ‘When are the lights going to be on?’ I proudly told them that my husband worked for CenterPoint Energy and he and the rest of the crew are working 16+ hours just to get the power back on. He said, ‘Well, I bet you have power.’ All emotions ran out of me. I told this man how it really is. I told him that since the storm has come, I am the one to make sure that my kids and I have everything we need because my husband is gone. I start the generator, put the gas in it, go find gas, put the tree back up, check the attic for leaks, cut the grass, maintain the pool, kill the snakes in the backyard, cook for my children, make sure they are bathed and well. My husband has enough energy to take a shower and go to bed. The only thing I have is the prayers that I beg of God to bring him and the rest of the brothers off the pole, out of the bucket, off the street and home to their families.

“I live day in and day out, like so many other linemen’s wives, without our loved ones. Everyone should respect what they do for us. My husband does not carry a weapon, he does not pilot a ship or carry out government orders, but every day, he and his brothers risk their lives to ensure that we have the very basics of what we call life. Thank God, and then you better thank a lineman. They care for your family as well as mine. I am the very proud wife of a CenterPoint lineman.”

Autumn T. Davis

You can’t get this stuff
at your building supply store

I have written how you feed an army this size, but I have been asked how do you supply it. After all you just can’t stop at local building supply or hardware store. What about fueling the armada of vehicles? How can you take a convoy through a gas station? You don’t! That is the point of the staging areas. It is a one-stop shopping center.

CenterPoint Energy’s teams work very hard at making sure crews have every thing needed to rebuild the system. As I walked around the area, I followed the trucks to the refueling area. It was manned by CPE’s meter readers. The trucks would be refueled at least 2 at a time with precession and speed. I followed the trucks to the pole racks where they were resupplied with the poles needed to the days work. Then I was on to the hardware. CPE told me they were reusing all the hardware possible from the downed lines, but they still needed a lot of new material.

Loading poles for the day’s assignment

They had to find a lot of it to keep the crews rebuilding. I’ll never take a trip to the hardware store for granted again.

Gassing up the trucks for the day

Robert Thoms

Wandering around the Sam Houston staging area can be interesting, exciting, and downright adrenaline producing – but it is never boring. Line trucks can appear from any direction at any time and so can interesting people. That is how I met Robert Thoms from Port Huron, MI. He had stopped his truck in front of me to pick up ice for the crew. What caught my attention was the truck door. He works for SPE’s Wind Energy Division. Having connected two wind farms to the grid, I spotted the windmill in his logo first. Granted hurricanes are great wind producers, but I was surprised to see him, so I had to ask. Robert explained his company did everything underground overhead, distribution, transmission with a lot of other key infrastructure work so needed in the Houston. Wind farms are utility systems in their own right, so it was a natural they were here with the restoration effort. He was their pilot flying the company plane where needed. Robert was doing whatever job was needed to support his folks and get the power on. See why I say it is an interesting place. You learn from everyone.

Steve Shepard

CenterPoint Energy got one big break. They had alliances with Southwire for conductor, Central Maloney for transformers, and Thomas & Betts for steel transmission and distribution poles. These alliances gave them priority for replacement parts and really helped speed up some aspects of restoration.

Since we were in the area, we called on Steve Shepard, plant manager for the Thomas & Betts facility in Houston. Steve had an interesting story to tell. He was glad his factory could help CPE, but he pointed out he has alliances with his suppliers too. These alliances provide Thomas & Betts with the raw material they need to be able to supply CPE its needs.

In addition, Thomas & Betts has four plants in the U.S. and can shift production to unaffected factories. Steve said the power went off on his factory the Friday of the storm. Last Tuesday (09-16-08) a 1,500kVA diesel generator was delivered to the factory and they were able to open the factory. It consumed about 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel everyday. They received a special surprise when one of their steel suppliers sent them 1,000 gallons of fuel to say you are not alone. It was a great morale builder. CPE got their power back on yesterday (09-22-08), which was really appreciated.

Get out of the way.

Doug White CPE consulting engineer took us to the Sam Houston staging area to see what a massive effort takes place in the process of restoring power. I met Scott Doyle, CPE’s site manager and Jerry Phillips, CPE site leader.

They explained, “Every morning 120 buses bring roughly 3000 workers from the hotels around the area where the workers are housed. They arrive about 5 a.m and are fed – give me that coffee! By 5:30 a.m most are at their trucks, which are fueled and restocked. They get their assignments for the day and are ready to leave something like 6 a.m. The Houston police department is waiting for them with escorts, traffic blockers, and anything else needed to get them moving quickly and safely. With all of this, it still takes over an hour just to get the hundreds of vehicles out of the staging area and on the road.”

Doug White, Jerry Phillips (site leader),
Scott Doyle (site manager)

The local television stations show the caravans moving along the interstates and roads each morning. It is truly an army on the move. Like I said before, they do things big in Texas, and they have a big job to do.

Food for the army

I fell behind a caravan of tree trimmers, and after maybe 20 minutes they stopped into – where else? Walmart. It turns out that John Sims was headed in to get something for his chiggers. He was from California, and I am from Georgia and I know a lot more about chiggers. He thought rubbing alcohol might work but I recommended Calamine lotion. We both headed into the store and found a sweet Texan lady who not only told us where the lotion was, she walked us over to it. I told her how kind that was, and she said she’d heard that a lot from folk coming here to help out.

I headed to the checkout line with a toothbrush and ran into one of John’s cohorts, Will Hamilton. He got into tree trimming along with all three of his brothers at one time or another. His older brother is a boss with Davey down in Concord, California.

As we were leaving, one of the tree trimmers saw a pregnant lady getting light-headed as she attempted to get in her car. He hurried over with a cold bottle of water and an offer to load her groceries. What a kind gesture. I then fell behind the convoy of tree trimmers as they made their way to the Sam Houston Electric Cooperative staging area at Cold Springs and maybe a cot and a warm meal.

Top Photo:



Davey Tree Trimmers John Simms (L) and Will Hamilton pick up personal effects.

Every thing about Texas is larger than life. It is a giant of a state, and it had a giant of a storm. Hurricane Ike was about 600 miles in diameter. It took it over 12 hours from the time it hit until the time it moved out of the area. The city of Houston is unbelievably big too. I landed at Hobby Airport on the south end of the city and am staying at a hotel on the north end of the city about 50 miles away.

However, the biggest thing in Texas is the size of the hearts of the people living there and their hospitality. The folks of CenterPoint Energy (CPE) are fantastic to say the least. We contacted them prior to coming to Houston and asked if it would be possible for us to talk with some of their executives, talk with workers, and visit areas being restored. We explained we did not want to be in the way in any manner; that is when the Texas-sized hospitality kicked in. We were welcomed with open arms and given the run of company. We were told they consider T&D World their magazine (talk about the warm fuzzy feeling – “it doesn’t get any better”). The folks at CPE want to share their story with the industry and help get information to other utilities that might be faced with a future Ike.

CPE is in the midst of one of the biggest restoration projects ever. My friend Doug White, CPE consulting engineer said, “Every employee has stepped up to do whatever is needed to get the system restored. There is a regulatory attorney working loading trucks with the supplies needed by crews in the field. Retired employees have volunteered asking where they are needed. It is an enormous task.”

Doug told me, “CPE has roughly 2.6 million customers in their service area (about 5,000 square miles). After the storm hit, 2.1 million were without power.” CPE ‘pulled the trigger’ Friday when it was certain Ike was heading right for the Houston area calling for help. Roughly 4000 transmission and distribution line workers and 4000 tree trimmers responded to CPE’s request for mutual assistance restoration workers. People are not worrying what hat they wear during the normal work day; they are part of the team now. They are working anywhere from 14-hour plus days to get the power back on for the people in their service territory and then going home to deal with their own storm-related problems.”

It is very humbling to be with these folks. I haven’t met anyone yet I would not consider a hero in this war against the storm aftermath.

Veronica

10:30 p.m.

Veronica has a quite-noticeable accent. A young and energetic lady, Veronica is in her element. “I’ve been working for the last five years for caterer Joy Wallace in Miami. I went to Pass Christian and to Gulfport to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner for Katrina. We like to feed people. It is our honor to serve these men. I’m still an Argentinian, but next year, I’ll become a U.S. citizen. Then I can vote. But it’s already my country, and I love to serve. I am ex-married, so that’s why I can travel. I wake up at 2:45 in the morning. I stretch my body. I wash my teeth. I sleep with my clothes on because at 3, I turn on the coffee. And we serve the breakfast from 5 to 7. Then we prepare the lunch to go for the next day and we prepare the dinner for that night. Because we work 20 hours a day, there are not too many women in this business. We come to feed the people and bring the smiles to their faces.”

David, a supervisor with Pike, walked up and asked for tea and Veronica made him a whole pitcher. He said to her, “Thank you so much. You guys are great.” Veronica smiled her great big smile, saying, “My pleasure.” She turned to me with those twinkling eyes and said, “Another day in paradise.”

When I called to let Mike Miming know I was a half hour out, he said, “Whenever you get here is fine -I’m not going anywhere.” Mining oversees the Lufkin storm staging area. He started off showing me the RV and camping trailers they set up on Saturday evening just after the worst of Ike passed. He did catch the tail-end and found himself driving around trees in the roadway and fighting winds up to 40 miles an hour.

James provided a window into the first few days:

“We are the first ones here and the last ones to leave. That’s,why we have the bunk beds on the end of our personal supply trailer. We have to move fast. We had the first tent set up Saturday night and the second one set up on Sunday. We go at it those first few days. We worked 5 a.m. to midnight the first few days. By Monday we had everything working smoothly. That means we had water, diesel and food. We have to be pretty much self-contained as there were no gas stations open. We have two big 2000 gallon tanks, one with diesel and one with unleaded. We also have that refueler truck that fills up the line trucks at night.”

Mike and I walked over to the staging area where the crews could pick up transformers, insulators and cutouts along with all the connectors, wire and hardware needed. Mike told me that they hadn’t run out of any materials that kept the guys from working.

“We came close but when we’d get down to a handful we’d get a shipment in. We had to contact a few suppliers to get some materials in. S&C overnighted us some fuses and some connectors so we could keep going.”

Richard Young opened a box of Chance cutouts he said were a heavy-use item. When he’s not working storms, Young is a material specialist who kits materials for jobs, so this storm assignment is right down his alley.

Mike and I walked over to the transformer yard where maybe 50 ABB/Power Partners transformers were lined up.

Of the 184 poles delivered to Lufkin, the crews had set and dressed probably 125.

We walked around the staging area with separate locations designated for tree trimming crews, Oncor crews, and contract crews. Portable lighting was scattered about so those crews that rolled in after dark were not affected. Contract crews included Flowers, Quanta, Texas Electric and Diversified.

Watching the crews roll in Tuesday night and roll out Wednesday morning, everything went pretty much to plan. Showers, portable toilets, meals, ice stations, water stations, tents, cots, box lunches. With a properly running staging area the men can focus on putting the lights back and that, of course, is the plan.

Photos:

James Mining shows me around the yard, stopping to chat about their ABB-Power Partners Transformers.

Richard Young makes sure the equipment and hardware are there when the linemen need it.

9:15 a.m.

“There is no food shortage in Houston County.” These are the words of the announcer of the KIVY morning show. He continued, “I went to two stores and there was plenty of canned food. There might not be ribeye steak, there might not be pizza, but there is food in Houston County. And, yes, we might have to boil water, but we have water. And now, about the chainsaw list. Call in and get on the list, and we’ll get you help.”

I have been totally amazed at the assistance of the local radio stations, both when covering Katrina and now Ike. The radio hosts provide information on the status with FEMA, the Red Cross, local assistance, advice, projections of when the power might be back on and encouragement to stay calm. And the listeners appreciate it. I heard a couple listeners call in this morning.

The first caller said: “Hats off to all the people who are helping us get over this. Hats off to Houston County.”

The second caller said: “I want to thank KIVY for all the work you do.”