Clintonville linemen help restore power

When Jon Carrick and Ethan Hoffman, linemen with Clintonville Utilities, volunteered to travel to Florida to help restore electricity after Hurricane Milton hit, they didn’t know exactly what kind of damage they would encounter.

“When we pulled into Florida, it got worse as we kept heading south with the trees down and snapped poles and lines down,” Carrick said. “There were a couple of roads that had two feet of water on them.”

Hoffman added, “I was expecting more water. We ran into plenty of water, but I guess every day that storm surge (water) would drop so much. I was expecting to be in two feet of water the whole week.”

Carrick and Hoffman were among a total of 40 linemen from Wisconsin municipal electric utilities who traveled to Lakeland, Florida to help Lakeland Electric restore power to its customers. The linemen drove vehicles from their municipalities down to Florida. They left Wisconsin together, but because some trucks were slower than others and some needed fuel more often, the trucks trickled into Florida, with the last truck arriving at 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 11.

Driving a bucket truck to Florida, Carrick said it took two days just to drive the roughly 1,400 miles to Lakeland, Florida, which is located about 25 miles east of Tampa.

Carrick said the first night in Florida, the 40 linemen from Wisconsin slept on cots in a rec center gymnasium, adding that the air conditioning wasn’t working at first.

“It was warm for a Wisconsin crew,” Hoffman said. “It was actually pretty quiet. For 40 guys, I was expecting it to be a lot of snoring, but it was decent.”

They were able to stay in a hotel the rest of their time in Florida.

Carrick and Hoffman spent six days working in Lakeland. Each day consisted of 16 hours working, and eight hours of rest.
“That’s basically what they deemed safe,” Carrick said.

Meals were provided for the linemen, with breakfast being served at the baseball complex where the Detroit Tigers have spring training.

“We had breakfast there, and then we grabbed a bag lunch and ate on the job,” Carrick said. “Then we came back for supper.”

Hoffman added, “But you never know when you’re going on those (work trips) what you’re going to get (for meals). We were told to pack a lot of snacks because you never know on meals.”

Carrick said all the Wisconsin linemen were split into crews and were assigned to the same geographical area in the city.

“There were other crews from other states in Lakeland, but we basically had a section of the town and worked from there,” Carrick said.

The work consisted of replacing power poles that were snapped, restringing wires on the poles, and reconnecting power lines to houses.

Both Carrick and Hoffman said the residents who were without power were appreciative of the work the linemen did.

“We didn’t run into anybody that was mad that they were out (of power) for days or weeks,” Hoffman said.

Carrick added, “Everybody was so thankful that we were there, and that we got the power on as fast as we did.”

The “thank you” comments increased when residents found out the linemen were from Wisconsin, Carrick said.

“They were surprised we drove that far,” Hoffman said.

Working with linemen they were unfamiliar with could have easily led to some confusion during the workday, but that wasn’t the case. Hoffman said the supervisor from Lakeland Energy working with the Wisconsin linemen was surprised that they were from different utilities who hadn’t previously worked together.

“We seemed to all work very well together. We all knew what to do,” Hoffman said.

For Carrick, this was the second time he helped restore power after a hurricane. In 2012, he traveled to the East Coast and helped restore power after Hurricane Sandy. One thing he’ll remember about restoring power on his recent trip to Florida is the appreciation of the residents.

“We just got a chunk of power on and we were waiting to go somewhere else, and we had a lady who stopped and asked if she could say a prayer for us,” Carrick said. “We all took off our hats and she said probably a three-minute prayer. It was really nice. You could just tell that she was so appreciative that we were there and just wanted us all to be safe.”

Carrick and Hoffman were scheduled to be in Florida for a longer amount of time, but the linemen got power restored faster than expected.

“The bird dog (supervisor) with Lakeland utilities was so surprised, and so happy that we were there because they didn’t expect us to get everything done as fast as we did,” Carrick said. “Lakeland said if they ever have a problem again, they want the Wisconsin crews coming to help.”

Carrick and Hoffman said it was a “great experience” restoring power in Florida. They also thank the city of Clintonville for allowing them to go help residents in need.