Utility crews from Iowa are helping restore the power after the recent winter storm left more than 300,000 homes in the dark across Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Geoff Greenwood, spokesman for Des Moines-based MidAmerican Energy, says a team of 36 line workers and support staff was sent to Oklahoma on Friday, but that area didn’t end up seeing the ice, snow and severe winds that were anticipated, so they redeployed to Louisiana.
Greenwood says, “They moved and headed down to the Shreveport area, initially, to help Southwestern Electric Power Company with their storm cleanup down there.”
The MidAmerican crews have moved again and are now in the area of Hornbeck, Louisiana, about two hours south of Shreveport.
“This area was very heavily impacted by ice, so the ice built up on trees, it built up on power lines, it took down infrastructure,” Greenwood says, “and our crews are helping the local utility restore those customers that were hit hard in that area.”
MidAmerican is part of a nationwide mutual aid network that lets utilities send crews to each other during emergencies. Greenwood says the partnerships help speed up restoration efforts when communities need it most.
