Echo Powerline crews restored power to storm victims

Earlier this year two late-season hurricanes slammed into coastal communities in North Carolina and Florida.

There to help residents get their lights on and their lives back to normal were crews from Echo Powerline, an Avoyelles Parish utility distribution line maintenance contractor.

Hurricane Florence struck the Atlantic Coast of the Carolinas, causing widespread flooding and damage.

“We had 54 men in North Carolina, including 18 bucket trucks and nine digger derricks,” Echo Powerline Director Cory Bernard said. “They were there from Sept. 11 to Sept. 23.”

A few weeks later, super storm Michael tore up the northwest Gulf coast of Florida, with winds that had not been seen since Camille in 1969.

The crews came back from Florida on Oct. 19.

Bernard, of Echo, said the Bunkie-based company was contracted by Duke Energy for the power restoration work in both states.

“The men worked 16-hour days,” he said. “Some stayed in trailers and others slept in their vehicles. The crews were served meals in a tent.”

Bernard said most of the damage in North Carolina was due to flooding after Hurricane Florence.

The damage in Florida was caused by the high winds Michael packed.

“We worked primarily around Port St. Joe, 30 miles east of Panama City,” he said.

“Michael caused a lot of damage there,” he continued. “We felt bad for those people. We did what we could to get their power back on as soon as possible and we talked to the people to express our sympathy for what they were going through.”

General Foreman Greg Evans of Fifth Ward went on both out-of-state operations.

“Florence was a rainmaker,” Evans said. “It just stalled over the Carolinas and dropped a lot of water on them. It was nothing near the damage we saw with Michael in Florida.”

In both cases the crews arrived a few days before the storms hit “and rode them out and then went to work,” he said.

Although he and the Echo Powerline crews work on three or four storm projects a year, they were not prepared for what they saw in Florida.

“It was just total devastation,” Evans said. “We had to start from scratch -- setting poles and stringing wires. There were some homes that were too badly damaged to have power restored to them. The power was back on, but they had trees on them or damage that would not allow the power to be turned back on to their homes.”

In one subdivision of 50 homes, “about 10 had to wait for service to be restored until they were able to have other repairs made,” he said.

Evans said the “hurricane season” is probably over, but he doubts his crews and others in the company’s line of work will have much time to rest.

“We’re expecting a bad winter this year,” Evans said, “so in January and February we will probably be going to Oklahoma and Kansas for ice storms.”