News : REC Crews Make Progress in Restoring Power

With 60 line personnel in the field, 40 from neighboring cooperatives and contractors, East-Central Iowa Rural Electric Cooperative made major progress yesterday in restoring power to its members. Power was restored to approximately 500 services yesterday; 400 remained without power as of 7:00 this morning. According to Steve Marlow, Manager of Operations and Engineering, “Power should be restored to most of our members today. We expect repairs to transmission facilities to be complete today. That will allow us to re-energize the remainder of our substations. Only those with severe damage to their homes or our facilities will have to wait until tomorrow before power is restored.” Marlow reported that work has been slowed by the vast amount of debris littering yards and roadways. In many cases crews had to spend 30 minutes cutting away tree limbs and removing other debris before they could get to poles and wires that needed repairing. CEO Harry Ruth said, “I would like to thank our members for their patience while repairs are being made. We understand how inconvenient it is to be without electric power. I would also like to thank East-Central’s employees and the line personnel from elsewhere who have come to assist us. They have been working in the field for 16 hours a day to restore power. I cannot say enough good things about their efforts.”