Speedy Recovery

The weather forecasts largely claimed that the severe weather risk on Sept. 8 was only “marginal.”

However, hot and cold air converged on the night of that 106-degree day, triggering violent thunderstorms packed with lightning and straight-line winds as high as 80 miles per hour that descended upon United’s eastern and central service territory.

As they tore through, the storms blew down trees, sent tin from barns and outbuildings flying, downed electrical, internet and telephone lines and  caused outages that affected more than 15,000 United members.

Despite the wreckage left behind in its wake, United line crews scrambled through the darkness and managed to have virtually all members restored within 24 hours of the storm.

Senior Foreman Jerry Scott said damage from the Sept. 8 storm was one for the record books, although he considered the February 2018 ice storm that hit Stephenville worse. That storm was compacted by several days of freezing rain, which swamped rural terrain, required assistance from several neighboring co-ops and affected more than 8,000 members.

He said the fact this storm moved through the area so quickly helped mitigate damage that would have occurred, had the storm moved more slowly.

“The high winds impacted us the worst,” Scott said. “Not only did it break a number of poles,  but also,  it broke a lot of trees and tree limbs. Removing the big trees and limbs takes time and more than one or two crew members at a time.”

After the storm blew through after 10:30 p.m., United crews and several contract crews immediately sprung into action to begin the restoration, Scott said. They had half the original 15,000 members restored by 3:30 a.m. on Sept. 9 and had only 427 members to go by 1 p.m. that afternoon. Extra help wasn’t required.

“I thought the guys did a fantastic job,” Scott said. “It was definitely an overwhelming obstacle when we got started. We always work well together. I think that is the norm for us. I just say thanks to all that helped.”

United member Alicia Rosales of Venus was one of several members who publicly praised line crews on Facebook for their efforts and diligence in restoring her power.  She said she appreciated what the line crews did to restore her power.

“We’ve been homeowners for 30 years now, “ Rosales said. “We really enjoy the service that United provides to people like us. The timeliness that United reported about the outages and the effort to keep us updated was something I really appreciated. Everything about United’s response to that stormy night was very professional, open and honest.”