"Someday, it could be us."

Posted by Lauren Dublin on December 3, 2024

After Hurricane Helene tore through the southeast, four of WH’s linemen traveled to South Carolina to assist Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative (BREC) in the aftermath. The four left early on a Wednesday morning with their bucket truck, digger truck, and pole trailer, and returned a week later.

Getting the job done

The crews convoyed with eight fellow linemen from Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative and McLeod Cooperative Power.

WH's linemen just prior to leaving for South Carolina. Left to right: Trevor Skluzacek, John Stueven, Scott Gearey, Dan Morris.

WH crews with the crews from Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative and McLeod Cooperative Powe​r.

“We avoided the Asheville area because there were so many roads shut down still, so we went down through Atlanta. We didn’t see damage until we got within a half hour or hour of Pickens,” said WH foreman Scott Gearey.

After checking in Friday morning, the Minnesota crews were assigned a ‘birddog,’ a local lineman who is familiar with the area. From there, restoration was “like we do here. We get a job, we ground the line out... and we just go to work,” said Gearey.

BREC made it clear the crews were heading into tough conditions, noting their “service territory has the most rugged terrain in the state, which means access to many of these (broken) poles poses a unique challenge. While it takes approximately four hours to replace a broken pole, many being replaced now are in areas inaccessible by machinery. This means the poles must be dug and placed by hand, just like they were in 1940 when the cooperative was formed. Some spans of line have as many as 10 broken poles on them."

WH’s linemen didn’t end up working in that part of BREC’s territory, but described the area they were in as very densely forested, similar to Northern Minnesota but much hillier and with very narrow roads.

  

After 16-hour days, crews returned to a tent city, which featured hot meals, semis converted into sleeping areas and showers, laundry facilities, and more.

“The food was actually pretty good honestly. They had plenty of food, snacks, breakfast,” relief crew foreman John Stueven said. “They had boxed lunches premade with sandwiches, chips, so you’d just take that with you in the morning.”

WH’s linemen slept in a large tent, and Stueven estimated there were about 100 cots in the tent. “Guys slept in their trucks, hammocks,” and some of the local linemen went home at night. He heard at peak they had about 700 linemen aiding BREC.

“It was a good set up,” He said.

A week away from family

Besides work, it was “difficult being away from the kids and family,” said relief crew foreman Dan Morris. His kids are 4, 2, and 1. “I talked to my oldest and the two year old, and told them I was going to be gone for a little while, going to work, told them about the storm…. They know when I’m on call and the phone rings I have to leave.”

Journeyman Trevor Skluzacek’s mom didn’t want him to go. “She was worried, but she knew it was something I wanted to do…. If you asked anyone, a storm is one of the things that we like to do the most. Day to day things we do around WH, that’s linework, but it’s not solving problems. That’s why we got into it.”

Locals were immensely grateful

One morning, a man pulled over in his car and said “’I’m not even on Blue Ridge, I’m on Duke Energy, and we appreciate you people being here.’ He just stopped to literally say thank you. You’d have people stop and just roll their window down as they were driving by and just say ‘thanks for coming.’ The people were absolutely fabulous,” said Gearey.

“You’d come to a four-way stop and everyone would just sit there parked and wave any line truck through,” said Morris.

“You’d pull into somebody’s yard, they’ve got a broken pole and they’d say ‘are you here for us?’ ‘Yeah, we should have you on in a couple hours,’ ‘like today?!’ and just…” Gearey waved his hands to express South Carolina’s residents’ shock.

This was the first hurricane restoration any of the four had helped with, though WH has sent crews to assist other cooperatives in Minnesota and the Midwest following wind, ice or snowstorms, or tornadoes. Several WH linemen assisted with hurricane restoration when they worked at other cooperatives.

Some of the many trucks supporting BREC.

“There were people from all over the U.S. there,” said Gearey. “You just always have to remember: someday, it might be us, and it’d sure be nice for them guys to come up. It’s a pay-it-forward type thing.”