Mutual Aid Work Begins to Wind Down

Sal Magana (left), Line Technician III, and Mason Wood, Apprentice Line Technician, assist with power restoration work in Tallahassee.

Working in wet conditions on Friday, OUC line crews spent the day restoring power to individual homes as the City of Tallahassee Utilities’ (CTU) Idalia recovery began to wind down.

Jeff Cockcroft, Line Supervisor, said his three crews, which worked together the day before, split up so each could be dispatched by CTU to resolve some of the smaller remaining outages.

“It’s been slow-going today because we’re moving from one place to another to reconnect a home or two. The crews are spread out,” he said. “It’s been raining most of the day, so everyone is wet.”

William Englert, Line Technician II, clears vegetation from a transformer in preparation for re-energizing a primary powerline.

OUC crews, along with teams from CTU, Lakeland Electric and Kissimmee Utility Authority, will shift from Tallahassee on Saturday to assist Tri-County Electrical Cooperative headquartered in Madison.

OUC deployed crews in 15 utility vehicles on Wednesday in response to CTU’s request for mutual aid assistance after Hurricane Idalia left nearly 40,000 of its customers without power. In the wake of Hurricane Ian last September, CTU dispatched line crews to Orlando to help OUC restore power to customers.