U.S. helps La. power up
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While many Louisiana residents evacuated out of areas left in the dark by Hurricane Gustav, utility workers from all over the state and the nation have been filing in.
Entergy and DEMCO spokesmen say that, aside from their company crews, workers from surrounding states and as far as Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and even Canada, have come to assist in the recovery efforts.
DEMCO is part of a cooperative association. Entergy has mutual agreements with companies around the country.
The Greenwell Springs Baptist Church is running like an extended home for more than 450 of the nearly 2,500 workers with DEMCO and their cooperative affiliates.
Green cots with colorful sleeping bags slung over them were packed into the church’s gymnasium, youth center and Sunday school rooms.
DEMCO workers are also being housed at a Methodist church camp in Istrouma, a Girl Scouts camp in St. Francisville, and the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales. Some workers are staying at the DEMCO headquarters or in hotels.
Shawn Lipscomb of Dixon, Mo., a lineman for Gascosage Electric Cooperative, said it was pretty rough the first couple of nights.
“The longer we stay, the better it gets,” he said.
Some out-of-state workers said they were more familiar with ice storms in their areas. They were not used to the gators and snakes and variety of bugs Louisiana’s swamps have to offer.
“We usually don’t need waders,” Lipscomb said.
Darryl Johnson of Paducah, Ky., a lineman for Jackson Purchase Energy Corp., said he was told he had about an hour to get his stuff together and get on the road. He had to leave while his daughter was in school, he said.
“You know you’re going but you don’t know when you’re going,” Johnson said.
Not having enough clean clothes at the time to take with him, Johnson said he had to stop at stores along the way.
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