Thanks to city employees, volunteers for storm response

The City of Jackson has done a great job of recovering from the June 21 disaster event. The quick recovery was the result of a strong effort from a large group of people.

I was traveling to Houston for my nephew's wedding on the afternoon of the storm. By the time we landed in Texas at 5 p.m., my phone was blowing up with text messages and calls. City Administrator Jim Roach called and gave me a status update. It was all hands on deck and city crews were responding quickly.

It is a little scary when you find out that 100% of the city is without power. The first concern always is personal safety, followed by the status of public utilities and services. When no injuries were reported, the priority became that of municipal services.

The Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's office took over the 911 calls until power at the public safety department's call center could be restored with backup generators and extra personnel. Power started to be restored over the next few hours after the event insuring that our water and sewer systems and firefighting capabilities could continue to operate properly.

Calls went out for mutual aid to our Municipal Power Utility Association partners for assistance. Poplar Bluff and Rolla responded with trucks, equipment and workers who arrived promptly that night. The Cities of Waynesville and St. James also sent electric crews later in the weekend.

The removal of tree debris and replacement of electric poles and power lines began quickly, along with the rerouting of service throughout the electric grid. Because of mutual aid and the quick response time, electric service was restored quickly with 75% of customers back in power within 12 hours. Some problems took longer because of the location of the electric infrastructure. One difficulty was getting trucks and workers over highly saturated ground to the downed poles and lines.

Some neighborhoods suffered worse than others and the city park was especially hit hard with many large trees down. It is sad to see so many majestic old trees in the park that have provided shade and beauty for generations destroyed in an instant. But we will clean up and plant replacement trees in the coming years.

The staff will soon be conducting a post-incident evaluation of the city's response plan to learn what worked well and what changes are needed for improvement.

I would like to thank all our City of Jackson employees for their efforts during this crisis which meant being on call over the weekend; 100% of the employees were involved and many served roles which were much different from their regular jobs.

I would also like to thank all of the volunteers who assisted in cleaning up the city park so that we were ready for the Municipal Band concert last Thursday night and the Rockin' the Rock Garden event on Friday evening. Also, thanks to the local churches that prepared and served meals for the crews over the weekend.

Many thanks to our customers who were patient as we worked to restore power and collect the debris left by the storm. Finally, thanks to those who handled their own debris, either by taking it to the city's yard waste pits or to their own brush pile for disposal.

City crews will continue to pick up curbside debris until the task is complete. Please continue to use our website and Facebook page for updates or call City Hall. Our Facebook page has been used extensively as a communication tool as we now have more than 5,000 followers.

The Jackson Independence Day Celebration is Thursday. I hope to see everyone in the city park for a day of celebration and fun.

Dwain Hahs is the mayor of Jackson.