As shared in last month’s Spotlight, GUC Electric and Logistics crews left Greenville on Saturday, August 28th in response to a call for assistance from Lafayette Utilities System (LUS) in Louisiana as they prepared for impact from Hurricane Ida. Our crews staged at the Cajundome where they waited out the storm, which made landfall on August 29th in Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane. Ida caused approximately 1 million power outages in Louisiana. 

The hurricane 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 about 100 miles southeast of Lafayette that was devastated by Ida.  

Recovery Efforts 
As a community-owned utility, GUC is part of a network of public power systems that have mutual aid agreements designed to help each other during urgent situations such as this hurricane event. GUC crews, along with five other North Carolina utilities (Statesville, High Point, Wilson, Tarboro, and Wake Forest) spent 19 days rebuilding the power grid in Houma. Crews from Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, and Oklahoma also assisted in the recovery.  

Electricity, lodging, and most services were not available in southeast Louisiana, so our crews commuted to Houma each day from Lafayette. They worked 16 hours each day alongside hundreds of other mutual aid crews to rebuild approximately 90% of Houma’s grid. 

“One of our biggest challenges in the beginning of this trip was loss of cell coverage,” said Substation Control Engineer John Powell. “Couple this with the fact that we were in an area surrounded by water, and some bridges and an underwater tunnel were closed. So we had to break out the paper maps to help us reroute, and do our best to not get separated. Another big challenge with this trip was that Houma is served by three different electric utilities, and we were only authorized to assist one of them. In many cases, our crews had to work around damaged poles and equipment that belonged to a utility we couldn’t assist. Our crews made it happen, like they always do.” 

Another major problem they experienced in Louisiana was getting materials. “We learned on this trip that having adequate materials on hand in the warehouse is extremely critical,” said John. Master Mechanic Simon Stroud was also on hand during this mutual aid trip, and said he assisted our crews with pole straightening, transformer deliveries, and other tasks as needed to help the ground crews when he wasn’t needed to repair equipment. “There were only three other mutual aid mechanics on hand in Houma,” said Simon, “so we assisted each other as best we could, mostly with locating parts.” 

GUC crews who assisted with this mutual aid trip included: 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. 

Our crews arrived back in Greenville the evening of Sunday, September 19th. Their families and co-workers were on hand to greet them as they pulled into the Operations Center. Help us  thank these crews for doing what they do best - helping our neighbors in need!