Rural Missouri - August 2024 - 4

RM | COOPERATION
photo courtesy Britney Mulcahy, SEMO Electric
With nearly 500 downed poles, including these near Dexter, more than 150 lineworkers from across Missouri were dispatched to neighboring
cooperatives in Missouri and Arkansas to restore power to tens of thousands of members following multiple severe storms that caused damage
over the Memorial Day weekend. Final workers weren't released until a week after the storms rolled through.
Co-ops answer the call
Mutual assistance program gets the power restored quickly
M
emorial Day is associated with parades, family
gatherings and honoring fallen military men and
women. But for tens of thousands of Missourians,
the 2024 holiday will be marked by memories
of damage and destruction caused by severe storms.
The Memorial Day weekend storms left a trail of 500
broken poles - including 30 transmission poles. The
hardest hit included Barry, Black River, SEMO, Ozark Border,
Howell-Oregon and M & A electric cooperatives. While
employees of those co-ops shifted into high gear, a team
of reinforcements was called in to help. More than 150
lineworkers from as far north as the Missouri-Iowa border
showed up to assist with outages in southern Missouri, as
well as Arkansas.
" The goal with sending in crews from the other co-ops
is to get the lines back in the air as quickly and safely as
possible, " says Craig Moeller, storm coordinator for Missouri
Electric Cooperatives.
Every electric cooperative has an emergency plan, and
part of the planning for major outages includes mutual
aid. Way back in 1948, Boone Electric Cooperative Manager
R.J. Martin had a great idea. His plan: when a storm
knocked out power lines for one of Missouri's electric
cooperatives, they would call on electric cooperatives out
of harm's way for assistance. Ironically, his co-op would
be the first to call for help when a winter storm blanketed
4 RURAL MISSOURI | AUGUST 2024
Missouri with ice in January 1949. Boone Electric's appeal
was answered by Farmers' Electric Cooperative in Chillicothe,
which sent one truck and three men.
Today all it takes is a single phone call to the Missouri
Electric Cooperatives office in Jefferson City to get
men and machines on the way. Through this time-tested
Mutual Assistance Program major outages are now measured
in days instead of weeks.
The statewide team works closely with the National
Weather Service to share information with co-ops in the
storm's expected path so they can be ready. Trucks are
loaded with materials, and employees prepare for spending
their nights at the office or out on the lines.
It's all hands on deck as the storm passes through and
operations personnel assess the damage. If it's bad enough
the call for help goes out, specifying how many extra lineworkers
and what type of trucks are needed. Within hours
of the call help is on its way, because neighboring crews
have already been put on alert.
In the days before R.J. Martin proposed his plan, co-op
members weren't quite so reliant on electricity. In fact, it
wasn't unusual for an electric co-op to learn about an outage
via postcard. These days electricity is essential. That's
why one common denominator can be found whatever
the issue: electric co-ops are never alone, no matter what
Mother Nature sends their way.

Rural Missouri - August 2024

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