In the early hours of August 28th, GUC Electric and Logistics crews left Greenville in response to a call for assistance from Lafayette Utilities System (LUS) in Louisiana as they prepared for Hurricane Ida. Our crews staged at the Cajundome on the 29th where they waited out the storm. Ida did not impact the LUS service area as much as they had anticipated, so LUS arranged for our crews to travel with them to assist in Houma, LA, a community devastated by Ida. 

As a community-owned utility, GUC is part of a network of municipal systems that have mutual aid agreements designed to help each other during urgent situations such as this hurricane event. GUC crews assisting with this mutual aid trip include: Underground (UG) Distribution Supervisor Ryan Hardee; UG Crew Leader Bobby Adams; Substation/Communications Supervisor Lee Ausbon; Overhead (OH) Service Crew Leader Keith Stancil; Troubleshooter Crew Leader Mark Howery; UG Maintenance Crew Leader Mike McGowan; Line Clearing Coordinator Robbie Mooring; UG Lineworkers Daniel Dilda and Stanley Roberson; OH Lineworkers David Bunch, Justin McLawhorn, Nick Proctor, Gavin Smith, and Calvin Whitehead; Substation Lineworker 

Billy Clanton; Substation Control Engineer John Powell; Master Mechanic Simon Stroud; and Nick Whitley with ElectriCities. 

We will cover this story in more detail after our crews return. In the meantime, you can follow their mutual aid journey on GUC’s Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts.