Rural Missouri - February 2025 - 4

RM | COOPERATION
Black River Electric Cooperative felt the full brunt of Winter Storm
Blair that struck Jan. 4-6. This photo shows Black River Electric lineman
Tom Tyndall working by moonlight to energize an ice-covered line
during the storm. Photo courtesy Chris Turner, Black River Electric.
Black River Electric Cooperative, Fredericktown. Citizens
had 13,016 outages centered on Cape Girardeau and Perry
counties, while Black River's 12,199 outages were spread
across its system from Shannon to Bollinger counties.
Both cooperatives were hit hard with heavy ice that
broke poles and brought down trees located outside their
rights of way into power lines. Strong winds undid much of
the work completed Sunday.
" It was a busy weekend for many of our cooperatives
across the state as they worked to restore power following
the winter storm that moved through Missouri and
brought major challenges, " says Johnie.
Fresh crews from electric co-ops out of harm's way
were dispatched to assist Citizens and Black River. SEMO,
Pemiscot-Dunklin, Howell-Oregon, Ozark Border, Ozark,
Gascosage, Se-Ma-No, Webster, Southwest and White River
Valley electric cooperatives worked alongside Black River's
crews after repairing their own outages. Cuivre River and
Crawford electric co-ops sent linemen to help Citizens.
The winter storm blanketed much of Bollinger, Cape
Icy outages
P
Co-ops battle ice, wind and snow as
Winter Storm Blair pounds lines
rayers, words of encouragement and thanks from
grateful members fueled a long week of difficult
work for hundreds of electric cooperative linemen
repairing damage caused by Winter Storm Blair in
early January.
A Sac-Osage Electric Co-op member shared her thanks
with this post on the co-op's Facebook page, one of many
from grateful members: " We appreciate our electric company,
in good times and especially in bad times. Many
prayers went up yesterday as the long, cold day continued
into the night. "
Johnie Hendrix, vice president of risk management
and training for Missouri Electric Cooperatives, and his
team in Jefferson City tracked statewide electric cooperative
outages that peaked on Sunday, Jan. 5, and stood at
26,013 the next day. Most of those outages were located in
an area served by Citizens Electric Corp., Perryville, and
4 RURAL MISSOURI | FEBRUARY 2025
Girardeau, Iron, Madison, Perry and Reynolds counties
with snow, sleet and ice, weighing down trees and snapping
poles and lines for the two neighboring co-ops.
At SEMO Electric Cooperative based in Sikeston, an
all-day effort Sunday had most of the damage repaired
by nightfall. Its CEO Sean Vanslyke posted this report
on Facebook during the height of the storm: " It's almost
9 p.m., and we're out west of New Hamburg. It's dark,
cold and rainy. The track machine is hard at work, and
Team SEMO is fully engaged in restoring power to those
still experiencing outages. Our crews have been on the
job since early this morning, around 7-7:30 a.m., and it's
shaping up to be a long night for them. We're delivering
pizzas to keep them fueled with something warm to eat. "
SEMO's repairs were hampered by strong winds that
undid much of the work. By Monday, only 57 meters
remained without power, a significant improvement from
more than 1,000 outages the previous night.
Elsewhere, Intercounty Electric Cooperative, Licking,
restored power to 1,100 members still out on day three of
the storm. Half of those were located in Wright County,
with the rest spread over its large service area.
Laclede Electric Cooperative, Lebanon, was another system
hit hard by the storm. At 10 p.m. Sunday its outage
numbers were at zero. That would quickly change. More
damage soon sent the linemen back into the fray. But by 7
a.m. Monday, all of the co-op's meters were turning.
Osage Valley Electric Cooperative in western Missouri
saw around 5,700 outages, but was able to cut those numbers
down to size as power supplier KAMO Power restored
service to substations affected by the storm. Their efforts
were compounded by many broken poles.
Members experienced more issues in the wake of the
storm caused by car accidents, galloping lines as ice fell
off and additional trees that came crashing down. Despite
bitter cold, dangerous roads and ice-covered poles, repairs
continued until every member was back in service.
Rural Missouri - February 2025

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