After receiving the call for help, 18 linemen from Singing River Electric’s three offices traveled north on January 26 to help Pontotoc Electric Power Association after the winter storm.
Of Pontotoc’s more than 20,000 meters in North Mississippi, nearly 15,000 were without power when our linemen arrived. They worked primarily in the Bruce community in Calhoun County.
“Besides the freezing temperatures being a challenge to work in, ice is starting to melt which makes it difficult to drive trucks anywhere other than on roads because the ground becomes soft and slushy,” said Safety Supervisor and crew leader Ryan Evans. “They are removing many treetops that froze and fell on the lines and will need track machines to access numerous broken poles. The progress is slow but steady.”
Our linemen relied on track machines and ATVs to more easily access outage locations in the freezing, icy conditions, and some outage locations required some good old-fashioned pole climbing. They returned home on February 5.