Lynn Culp, Member Services Manager at Surprise Valley Electric Cooperative (SVEC), Alturas, California, is one of several California electric coop staff who traveled to Cameron Parish, Louisiana, in October to help Jeff Davis Electric Coop (JDEC) in its efforts to recover from extensive Hurricane Rita damage.
Culp wrote an account of his experiences; an excerpt of his account follows.
On October 17, 2005, a single security light lit a lonely spot of Hwy. 27 at Creole, Louisiana. This was the only light on in Cameron Parish south of the Intracoastal Waterway that night.
While he ate dinner that same evening, JDEC General Manager Mike Heinen took several phone calls from coop members telling him that was the most wonderful light they had ever seen. The light signified hope to the coastal residents of Southwest Louisiana -- hope that electricity would soon return to their communities, hope that their lives would one day return to normal, and hope that their homes and communities would be rebuilt and thrive again. This light was also an illustration of a small victory for a group of people who would not be beaten by Hurricane Rita.
At 2:38 a.m. on September 24, 2005, Hurricane Rita slammed the coastal communities of southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas making landfall between Johnson's Bayou, Louisiana, and Sabine Pass, Texas. The storm brought with it a tidal surge measured in Cameron Parish at more than 25 feet. Rita's wind and surge swept the coast nearly clean.
Cameron, population 2,000, is the largest community of Cameron Parish. Only the courthouse, which was designed and commissioned by President Theodore Roosevelt as a gift to the community for their duck hunting hospitality, survived the storm with minor damages. It became a rallying symbol for Cameron.
Rita wiped out most buildings, killed thousands of cattle, alligators, and turtles. The destruction of these rural gulf coastal communities was complete. I was at a loss for words to describe it. Driving through the damaged area, I saw what I thought were small cemeteries, then realized what I was seeing was the remains of a home: the concrete slab foundation and a few scattered blocks. There was no rubble to go through, everything was gone.
The crews began rebuilding an entire electrical system. An unbelievable 20 miles of transmission line was built per day as crews from the Tennessee Valley Authority punched in 15 poles an hour and crews from Mid Plains Cooperative in Nebraska framed the poles behind them. After two weeks of working on the system on the coast side of the Intracoastal Waterway, more than 90 miles of transmission line and 80 miles of distribution lines had been rebuilt of the 400 miles destroyed.
A small team of California electric coop staff spent a week in Louisiana helping the coop. I was a member of that team and worked in the office taking member phone calls, preparing connect and outage orders, and helping set up a mobile office.
We did not know when we traveled to Louisiana that our relief efforts would be for Hurricane Rita and not for Katrina. To me, and I believe many others, Rita had become the forgotten storm. When we arrived in Jennings, we realized that the blue tarp roofs and the destroyed freeway signs we were seeing, were caused by Hurricane Rita.
Hurricane Rita hit this area hard. Communities were devastated. But one thing Rita could not take away was the spirit of these people. We witnessed this spirit first hand as we joined in the work of restoring power to these communities. They fought back with all they had.
This experience left me with two main impressions. First, the awesome power of the storm was incredible. I had never experienced such devastation and complete destruction. The second impression I was left with was the resiliency of the people affected by this storm.
This is an experience I will never forget. I met some great people and it was a privilege to be able to assist them and serve the Jeff Davis Electric Coop and the people of Cameron Parish in their time of need.
As one Indiana lineman said as he got in his truck to leave for home, "This is what electric cooperatives are all about -- helping each other out."
As a cooperative and individuals, members and employees of SVEC donated $17,700 to be used to rebuild employee and member homes. In addition to part of Northeast California, SVEC serves an area that ranges north to Summer Lake, Oregon, and east to Vya, Nevada.
-- Lynn Culp (530) 233-3511
Larger structures faired better against the storm, but most were gutted, having walls blown out and the contents washed away. We walked through what was left of the JDEC district office in Cameron. The shell of the building was somewhat intact, but the interior was covered with debris from the wall and ceiling. There wasn't any usable office equipment left in the building; it had washed out the hole that was once the back wall. It was strange to see a few meters hanging on their rack undisturbed.
Ninety percent of JDEC's distribution system was destroyed by the storm. Seventy foot transmission poles were snapped off, blown over, or popped out of the ground whole. Distribution lines were washed away or left in a tangled mess of wire, poles, trees, and other debris. Substations were demolished with five-ton transformers laying on their side and equipment twisted and mangled.
Of the 10,500 meters on the JDEC system, 4,500 meters and the power lines that served them were gone after the storm. Since most of the large power and industrial accounts are located along the gulf coast, more than half the coop's load and revenue was lost.
Mike Heinen stationed people and equipment for the rebuilding process. Staff supported and encouraged each other through the difficult weeks following the storm, including a week of all staff and family living together at the coop's headquarters in Jennings. Ten employees lost their homes and possessions in the storm. Their personal loss was devastating, but all these employees showed up for work in the days after the storm, each doing their part to restore power and rebuild their system.
Electric cooperatives and contractors across the nation responded to JDEC's call for help. At the peak of the restoration process, over 700 linemen worked with the coop to rebuild their system. A huge tent city was erected at the auxiliary airport in Lake Charles to meet the physical needs of the crews who were working 16 hour days. Retired New York Police Department officers provided security for Tent City. JDEC office staff prepared breakfast at 4 a.m. each day; the linemen were out by 5 a.m. to meet their crews.
