DeRidder, LA –Beauregard Electric Cooperative, Inc. (BECi) was one of six electric cooperatives in Louisiana to send men and equipment to fellow cooperatives in Oklahoma to help restore power after an intense winter ice storm moved through the Midwest earlier this week.
Nearly 50 crewmen from six electric co-ops departed from their respective bases of operation Thursday and Friday to assist in the power recovery effort. Those Louisiana co-ops releasing crews along with Beauregard Electric in DeRidder were Valley Electric in Natchitoches, DEMCO in Baton Rouge, Claiborne Electric in Homer, Northeast Louisiana Power in Winnsboro and Washington-St. Tammany Electric in Franklinton.
The winter ice storm damaged hundreds of miles of power lines and poles in Oklahoma and Missouri and left nearly forty thousand rural electric cooperative members without power. Livestock struggled to survive without forage and National Guard resources were called in to drop hay in pastures and check on families left stranded in the ice and snow that reached four to five inches thick in certain areas.
Officials at BECi said they were eager to assist Oklahoma co-ops after dozens of Midwest co-ops sent aid to southwest Louisiana after Hurricane Rita in 2005.
BECi General Manager William Schmidt noted that more than 900 electric cooperatives throughout the country maintain mutual aid agreements with one another to help restore power after an emergency. He said each cooperative is obligated to help others, but only after local needs are met.
“Our first obligation, of course, is to our members at home,” Schmidt said. “But we can’t forget that we also have a duty to help others because they depend on us just as we depend on them when we have a disaster like Rita. We will only send the number of men and trucks that we feel we can do without for a few days.”
The mass movement of electric cooperative crews released to another region or received in times of emergency in Louisiana is coordinated by the Association of Louisiana Electric Cooperatives (ALEC) in Baton Rouge. ALEC Executive Director Randy Pierce said Louisiana’s co-ops welcome the opportunity to send help after receiving so much assistance after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Roughly 3,500 cooperative linemen from 27 states traveled to Louisiana to help restore power after those storms.
“Every cooperative in Louisiana is an integral part of a statewide and national network of hundreds of fellow cooperatives,” Pierce said. “It’s incumbent upon us to work together and help one another in times of disaster, to make sure that our power delivery systems are repaired as quickly, as safely and as cost-effectively as possible.”
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| BECi Lineman Tim Burton inspects his truck as he prepares to leave to assist other rural electric cooperatives restore power to members in Oklahoma. |
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| BECi Linemen from left to right:
Jim Craft, Darrell Crumpler, Troy Hudson, Phillip Classen, Tim Burton, Mike Ashworth, and BECi Crew Superintendent Fred Deason
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