Kentucky electric co-ops plan response to help as Milton barrels toward Florida

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – Restoration efforts are still underway more than a week after Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on several states.

Hundreds of linemen from Kentucky have been boots on the ground in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia ever since.

With Hurricane Milton rolling in, WKYT checked in with Kentucky Electric Cooperatives to ask about their plan.

“There are more than 160 co-op employees, which is in addition to hundreds of contractors who have been released by the co-ops,” said Joe Arnold with Kentucky Electric Cooperatives.

Arnold says more than half of the 26 electric co-ops in Kentucky sent crews to devastated sites, primarily in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

“It’s like a military operation. You’re trying to assess all the needs, where things are most critical and you’re going to move troops, linemen, around depending upon what that need is,” Arnold said.

Arnold says KY Electric Cooperatives’ role is to coordinate the deployment of the state’s individual co-ops.

He says even with Hurricane Milton barreling toward the Gulf Coast, Kentucky crews will likely stay where they are so as not to walk out on North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

“The concern from a macro-sense that we’re seeing right now, is the Florida co-op crews have been very helpful and part of that team of more than 20 states that have sent crews into North Carolina and South Carolina, for instance,” Arnold said. “Those crews have to be called back to help with their own local co-ops. That’s going to create a void.”

Arnold says some crews in Kentucky could be called to Florida, but the co-ops still have to keep ample resources here.

“You can’t send everybody, unfortunately, because you have to take care of the folks who are back home here as well,” Arnold said.

Arnold says that for those asking what sending our linemen elsewhere does for us, it’s not only our civic duty but also that it gives them real-world training to be better equipped to handle future emergencies here.

“These same cooperatives came to our aid here in Kentucky after windstorms and ice storms,” Arnold said. “We know some of these linemen that are working shoulder-to-shoulder there. This is very personal to them. I think it’s been hard on them. I think they’re seeing a lot of suffering.”

Arnold said when crews here packed up to go, they packed for several weeks. He says they’re working up to 15 hours daily and living in tent cities to help reconstruct utility poles and more.

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