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City Water, Light and Power crews are returning to Springfield today after a nearly two-week long trip working to assist the City of Douglas, Georgia following damage by Hurricane Helene that occurred across Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and the Carolinas. Two CWLP crews and a supervisor have been working in Douglas, a town of 11,000, where a lot of damage occurred.
CWLP Crews were assigned to make repairs to larger circuits on major transmission lines and poles to restore power to the largest groups of customers first, which included priority facilities needing power including the Wal-Mart Distribution Center, US Post Office, and grocery stores, before moving on to the smaller system repairs that serve smaller pockets in residential neighborhoods. Damaged homes and businesses, flooding, lack of cell phone service and lack of water supply were among the initial challenges the community encountered and a lot of rebuild work remains.
Like in Springfield’s June 29, 2023 derecho, mutual aid agreements are employed to allow utilities to pool resources to restore power more quickly while staying safe when a big disaster hits. When widespread damage occurs companies need to temporarily up their crews in order to restore power as quickly and safely as possible.
This mutual aid trip to Georgia is being coordinated through the American Public Power Association and the Illinois Municipal Utility Association
