Arkansas, Oklahoma crews heading to Florida
Linemen from Arkansas and Oklahoma are heading to Florida, where Hurricane Ian is expected to make landfall Wednesday.
Arkansas and Oklahoma Red Cross teams are also mobilizing to head to any devastated areas.
Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co., the electric company that serves Fort Smith, mobilized crews to send east on Monday. About 95 crews headed to Tampa, Florida, to wait to respond to areas with any outages.
The Category 4 Hurricane hit near Fort Myers, Florida the Associated Press reported.
Utility trucks from OGE headed to Jackson, Mississippi, Monday before heading to Tampa to await the next move to areas where help is needed and power is out.
Red Cross volunteers are standing by, waiting for word about where and how they can assist.
"We don't have anyone on the ground in Florida supporting Hurricane Ian efforts," said John Brimley, communications manager for Red Cross. "We have several individuals from the region on standby."
Hurricane Ian knocked out power to Cuba's 11 million people, the Associated Press reported. The storm is expected to cause widespread damage and life-threatening flooding across the Florida Peninsula.
Over 60 OG&E trucks carrying 95 linemen and support staff departed from a staging area in Shawnee. The group will travel to Jackson, Mississippi, this evening and then to a designated staging area in Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday in preparation for expected power outages due to the storm.
For OG&E Storm Manager Kenny McKinzie, this power restoration effort in Florida will be his last mutual assistance deployment. McKinzie plans to retire from OG&E at the end of this year after nearly four decades with the company and to lead over a dozen mutual assistance teams.
"It means so much to me to take these guys out there. It is a privilege to go to the devastated areas impacted by the storm and help people get their lights back on. There is a lot of pride in what this team can accomplish and in doing what we do," said McKinzie.
Tampa Electric requested OG&E for additional support.
“We are thankful for our dedicated crews who leave behind their own families to help restore power in other communities when they need us most. We understand the importance of having access to electricity, and OG&E stands ready to lend our resources and expertise to restore power to Tampa Electric’s customers should Hurricane Ian impact their electric service,” said Andrea Dennis, OG&E Vice President of Transmission & Distribution Operations. “Our electric utility partners never hesitate to answer the call when we face severe weather events here in our service area, and OG&E is honored to return the favor.”
OG&E is a member of the Midwest Mutual Assistance and Southeast Electrical Exchange, which dispatches mutual assistance teams in cases of widespread outages. Companies impacted by major outage events increase the size of their workforce by using restoration workers from other companies in unaffected areas.
OG&E’s mutual assistance crews are typically deployed for up to 14 days. The company will send additional support if needed. Even as the team deploys to Florida, OG&E will have the capacity to support daily operations for customers in its service areas.
This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Arkansas, Oklahoma linemen head east to help in Hurricane Ian.
