LONGVIEW, Texas — The efforts start in the middle of the night. SWEPCO sent out 306 crews bound for Florida Tuesday around 4 a.m.
Hurricane Ian will not impact Texas, which is why SWEPCO external affairs manager Mark Robinson said it’s time to step up for other communities who will need their help.
Robinson said the crews will stage as close to the storms path as possible. Once they arrive, they’ll get to work surveying how many broken poles and cross arms there are and how many wires are down.
Crews could be there for three days or three weeks. It all depends on the damage.
“They've slept in hotels, they've slept in tents," Robinson said. "They've slept in trailers, and they've slept in resorts. It's all over the board.”
These linemen work 16 hour days. Though grueling these deployments are still in high demand. Robinson said nearly every employee who’s able to go, does.
"When that power comes back on for the first time, it really does change your life a little bit," Robinson said. "And so that's very rewarding for our employees when that power comes on and those customers come out and they're just happy and they're giving them hugs and candy bars and coffee.”
SWEPCO is asking East Texans to direct any support to emergency organizations that assist storm victims locally.