The Power of Connections

CREC linemen are often enlisted to join disaster recovery crews across the region in helping to restore the connections in affected communities as quickly as possible.

Helping Other Communities Reconnect Following Natural Disasters

CREC has and will always have its share of ice storms, tornadoes, flash flooding, and other natural disasters that disrupt power. There are also times when such weather has minimally impacted CREC’s service area, or not at all, but has devastated other neighboring communities. While taking care of restoring power to CREC members when needed is the cooperative’s priority, CREC linemen are often enlisted to join disaster recovery crews across the region in helping to restore the connections in affected communities as quickly as possible. These individuals voluntarily travel hundreds of miles and work around the clock to help fellow electric cooperatives in their time of need. The disaster recovery trips, which support a Mutual Aid plan originally established in 1948, are coordinated by the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives (AMEC). The organization’s role includes recruiting people and resources as well as coordinating support from the state and federal emergency assistance agencies, electric cooperative associations in other states, and the NRECA. “Because Missouri is in the center of the nation, we get invited to go a lot of places where hurricanes and other large storms hit, including Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia,” explains Rob Land, vice president of risk management and training at AMEC, who oversees the organization’s emergency assistance procedures. “We can always rely on Cuivre River Electric to step up and provide support,” says Land. “I do not remember a time when they haven’t responded with at least one or two crews of linemen.”

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