Helping Hands

A fresh, clear Monday morning at the tail end of April, and United Cooperative Service’s Cleburne office buzzed with more activity than usual.

Members of the line crew readied themselves and their equipment as they waited for more to arrive. Once all called were accounted for, the team huddled for one last discussion before leaving in a convoy of five trucks. 

United sent 11 crew members out from various offices into Tri-County Electric Cooperative’s service territory to assist with electric restoration efforts after strong thunderstorms April 25 spawned high winds, tornadoes and knocked power out to thousands of members.

Restoration crew members from United included Kane Montgomery, line crew chief in Cleburne; Traccer Henry and Alex Lawyer, journeyman linemen in Burleson; Emory Allen, apprentice lineman III in Stephenville; Kyle Harris, line crew chief in Stephenville; Wrangler Hogg, journeyman lineman at Possum Kingdom Lake; James North, first class lineman in Mansfield; Payden Henderson, line crew chief in Granbury; Joshua Simmons, journeyman lineman in Mansfield; Matt Simmons, journeyman lineman at Possum Kingdom Lake; and Bud Boenisch, line crew chief at Possum Kingdom Lake.

Montgomery said he learned about the need to help Tri-County earlier that morning. Having plenty of restoration experience, especially after hurricane damage, he said he expected to find typical tornado damage that impacted a smaller area than, say, a hurricane. However, that damage will be more severe within that one centralized spot.  

“This is part of the reason why we’re at the co-op,” he said. “We’ve got to help each other out and I like to help people in need. If it happened at my house, I’d want somebody to come and help, too. Members are usually happy to see us. It takes some time to get their lights on, and they usually understand. Usually, people come out and offer us something to drink and stuff to eat. You get to help people, and that is fun. It feels good to help everybody out, and you get to work with other guys you don’t get to work with all the time.”

Joshua Simmons, a journeyman lineman in the Mansfield office, had just arrived after completing pole-top rescue training earlier that morning. He said he was warmed up and ready to climb more poles.

“Seems like a big mess over there,” he said. “A little bit of chaos, a little bit of everything. Downed poles, broken wire, torn up houses, everything. It’s a good time to help out, you know? I mean, we’re co-ops. We like to help each other out.”

Tri-County’s website states its service territory includes 16 counties north of United’s territory. It serves about 105,000 members and 140,000 meters. 

The co-op’s service territory sustained severe damage from the April 25 storm that devastated areas near Runaway Bay, Springtown and Azle and killed two people. The National Weather Service recorded four tornadoes from this storm alone in Jack, Wise and Parker Counties. 

With outages exceeding 13,000 members at its worst, about 4,600 were still out of power on Monday, April 27, according to a Tri-County news release. United’s restoration crews said they battled fallen trees and branches, debris from homes and other buildings as they worked to replace downed utility poles and broken lines damaged by flying debris.

Though crews would make serious headway on that Monday and bring outages down to about 2,500, the co-op would receive a second dose of Mother Nature on April 28 that would spawn five tornadoes in Montague, Palo Pinto, Parker and Johnson Counties. These storms produced high winds and large hail, driving Tri-County’s outage numbers up well past 4,000 again. 

An EF-3 tornado tore through Mineral Wells that night, too, injuring several residents and flattening parts of the town. 

Following the three-day restoration, Payden Henderson, line crew chief in Granbury, said he saw some storm damage as he arrived at Tri-County’s Azle office to deploy south of Springtown, where the real damage had occurred.

“We were working south of Springtown most of the time,” he said. “We saw quite a bit of damage—houses torn up, sheds flipped over, car ports completely torn up, a billboard that was completely flattened, a lot of damaged trees—there was quite a bit of damage. We were changing out poles, stringing wire and hanging transformers. It was a good feeling to get people’s lights on, knowing they’ve been out for several days. To get their power back on and help them get their lives back to normal is always a good feeling. And working with the Tri-County crews, all of the linemen we were working with were good linemen, you could tell.”

This was the first restoration experience for Traccer Henry, a journeyman lineman in the Burleson office. He said he signed up not only to help but also to expand his career experience.

“I had an interaction with a guy who had been out for about five days, and we were able to get him back on,” he said. “It was pretty rewarding to do that, and he was pretty thankful for that. I enjoy helping people and getting the lights back on and making their day better. It’s a little different working a restoration than your everyday work because you’re rebuilding stuff. It’s challenging.”

Catherine Huckaby, Tri-County’s communications manager, said that the co-op was appreciative of the assistance United crews gave following the storms. 

“Restoration following widespread storm damage requires long hours and coordination across many crew, and we are grateful for everyone who contributed to safely restoring service to our members,” she said. “Mutual aid support reflects the cooperative principle of cooperation among cooperatives during times of need.”

Not only is assisting in the restoration the neighborly thing to do, it’s also part of United’s guiding principles to cooperate among cooperatives, said United CEO Cameron Smallwood.

“One of the things that makes a co-op special is the idea that we help when other co-ops need it most,” Smallwood said. “I am really proud of the crew who went to Tri-County to help get their members’ electric service restored. I’m always proud of all our restoration crews who are willing to leave their families behind and go out there under treacherous conditions to help others in their time of need. That really does embody exactly what it means to be a lineman, and we’re blessed to have them working here at United. We never have to look very far to find employees here who are willing to do that.”