LINDEN — Tipmont is sending crews and equipment to assist in Hurricane Helene recovery efforts. The storm is expected to make landfall Thursday evening as a category 4 hurricane and create widespread property damage in the southeastern part of the country.
An estimated 40 lineworkers from 12 of Indiana’s electric cooperatives will leave from Clark County REMC Thursday, Sept. 26, to assist Cobb EMC near Marietta, Georgia. Cobb EMC provides electric service to nearly 200,000 residential and commercial consumers in five Georgia counties.
Traveling from Tipmont are: Adam Crabb, foreman; Matt Bassett, lead lineman; Jason Phillips, fourth-year apprentice; and Christian Guimond, first-year apprentice.
Because the national network of transmission and distribution infrastructure owned by electric cooperatives has been built to federal standards, line crews from any American electric cooperative can arrive on the scene ready to provide support, secure in their knowledge of the system’s engineering.
“We take care of needs at home first, but our crews are eager to help those in need,” said Joe Banfield, operations manager for Tipmont. “They take tremendous pride in representing Tipmont and the state of Indiana. They represent us well with how hard, professionally and safely they work.”
The responding lineworkers also represent: Clark County REMC (Sellersburg), Decatur County REMC (Greensburg), Hendricks Power Cooperative (Danville), Henry County REMC (New Castle), Jay County REMC (Portland), JCREMC (Franklin), NineStar Connect (Greenfield), Northeastern REMC (Columbia City), Orange County REMC (Orleans), RushShelby Energy (Manilla) and South Central Indiana REMC (Martinsville).
“Every cooperative in the Indiana electric cooperative family is an integral part of a state and national network of hundreds of fellow cooperatives,” said Ron Holcomb, President and CEO of Tipmont. “It is incumbent upon us to work together and help one another in times of disaster, to make sure our power delivery systems are repaired as quickly, safely and cost-effectively as possible.”
The Indiana electric cooperative mutual aid program is coordinated by the safety, training and compliance team at Indiana Electric Cooperatives. The program provides cooperative assistance in service restoration from storms or other events that result in significant power outages.
