Hundreds of electric crews flood Bootheel to help power restoration efforts

PORTAGEVILLE, Mo. — Crews on the ground helping Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric Cooperative rebuild its storm-ravaged system topped 900 on Sunday morning with the cooperative working on an additional 110. As the all-out repair effort continues, power was restored to an additional 100 members on Saturday. In addition, the Caruthersville port facility now has power.

"We added up yesterday, and the men working have 6,000 poles changed out," Manager Charles Crawford said. "We will hit 7,000 without any trouble."

Progress, measured in miles of line, continued with another substation south of Portageville re-energized Saturday. The cooperative now has power to four of its 14 substations, the connection point between M&A Electric Power Cooperative's transmission lines and Pemiscot-Dunklin's distribution lines.

"We've got making people progress just about everywhere now," Crawford said. "Every substation is covered and we've got people in all those new towns we picked up making sure they are ready when we get power."

He said repair work is almost complete in area served by the Maplewood substation, with crews finished changing out broken poles and restringing wire. "We've still got to hook up transformers and services but as far as the lines go, they are all back up. And it's moving like that all across the system."

With a goal of 1,000 workers assisting the cooperative's staff, the challenge is finding housing and meals for this army. Materials continue to pour into the area and are being spotted in rural areas where they will be closest to the action.

Crawford said significant progress should be made over the next week, though not all power will be restored by then.

SEMO Electric

As of Monday morning, there were still 3,286 members in the SEMO Electric Cooperative area without power, according to the cooperative's website.

Officials said a total of 141 crews are working in the SEMO Electric Cooperative area and they estimate 90 percent of the coop's members will have electricity by the close of business Wednesday. By Feb. 18, SEMO Electric Cooperative will have all of its members electricity restored, officials reported.