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A caravan of Public Service Co. of Oklahoma utility trucks pulls out of a Tulsa facility Sept. 26 en route to Florida; crews also departed from Lawton and McAlester. The utility company sent 150 employees and business associates to Florida to help restore electric power disrupted by Hurricane Ian. LEDGER PHOTO COURTESY WAYNE GREENE
Oklahomans have a well-deserved reputation for extending a helping hand to others in times of need, such as tornadoes, fires and earthquakes. The latest disaster is Hurricane Ian.
Public Service Co. of Oklahoma sent 150 employees and business partners to Florida in preparation for the hurricane, according to Wayne Greene, PSO’s region communications manager.
That number included six employees from PSO’s Lawton center, External Affairs Manager Tim Hushbeck said.
The business partners are contractors who “spend most of their time working on PSO jobs,” Greene said.
In addition to the workers, 21 company trucks left one of PSO’s facilities in Tulsa on Sept. 26, and others were dispatched from Lawton and McAlester, Greene said.
The electric utility’s crews traveled 1,200 miles and arrived in Orlando on Sept. 28, the same day Ian made landfall in what’s usually referred to as The Sunshine State. After spending some time making plans and checking their equipment, the crews moved on to Tampa on Sept. 30 for safety briefings and assignments, Greene said.
Utility company crews from 30 states traveled to Florida to help repair damage to the power grid and restore electricity. The hurricane knocked out power to an estimated 2.6 million Florida homes and businesses – nearly one-quarter of the state’s utility customers.
“Our folks are the tip of the spear,” Greene said.
After completing their duties over a period of several days, they will be replaced by “a second wave” of utility crews, he said.
Electric utilities often provide mutual assistance to colleagues in other states in times of crisis.
“We rely on each other for aid,” Greene said. PSO has often been the recipient of such help, “so we didn’t hesitate to lend assistance in this instance.”
A receiving utility that requests assistance from other electric companies “pays all of the costs,” Greene added.
PSO, a unit of American Electric Power, provides power to more than 568,000 customer accounts in 232 communities in eastern and southwestern Oklahoma. The utility serves at least 37 communities in southwest Oklahoma, including Lawton, Altus, Duncan, Cache, Elgin, Fletcher, Porter Hill, Sterling, Hobart, Apache, Temple and Rush Springs.
Besides PSO’s team, a caravan of more than 60 trucks carrying 95 Oklahoma Gas & Electric linemen and support staff left Oklahoma on Sept. 26 and arrived at a staging area in Tampa, Florida, on Sept. 28. There, the utility’s crew members prepared for expected power outages in the tropical storm.