Carmel, Ind. – Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024
Indiana’s electric cooperatives are sending crews and equipment to assist in the Hurricane Helene recovery efforts. The storm is expected to make landfall Thursday evening as a category 4 hurricane and create widespread property damage in the southeastern part of the country.
An estimated 40 lineworkers from 12 of Indiana’s electric cooperatives will leave from Clark County REMC Thursday, Sept. 26, to assist Cobb EMC near Marietta, Georgia.
The responding crews represented eleven of Indiana’s electric cooperatives: Clark County REMC (Sellersburg), Decatur County REMC (Greensburg), Hendricks Power Cooperative (Danville), Henry County REMC (New Castle), Jay County REMC (Portland), JCREMC (Franklin), NineStar Connect (Greenfield), Northeastern REMC (Columbia City), Orange County REMC (Orleans), RushShelby Energy (Manilla), South Central Indiana REMC (Martinsville), and Tipmont (Linden).
“Every cooperative in the Indiana electric cooperative family is an integral part of a state and national network of hundreds of fellow cooperatives,” said John Cassady, CEO for Indiana Electric Cooperatives. “It is incumbent upon us to work together and help one another in times of disaster, to make sure our power delivery systems are repaired as quickly, safely and cost-effectively as possible.”
Cobb EMC provides electric service to nearly 200,000 residential and commercial consumers in five Georgia counties.
“We take care of emergency needs at home first, but our crews are eager to help those in need,” said Jon Elkins, vice president of safety, training and compliance at Indiana Electric Cooperatives. “They take a tremendous amount of pride in representing their home cooperative and the state of Indiana. They represent us well with how hard, professionally and safely they work.”
The Indiana electric cooperative mutual aid program provides cooperative assistance in service restoration from storms or other events that result in significant power outages.
Indiana Electric Cooperatives, located in Indianapolis, represents 38 electric distribution cooperatives that serve 1.3 million Hoosiers in 89 of the state’s 92 counties. The cooperatives are collectively the second largest electricity provider in Indiana. For more information about the association, visit IndianaEC.org.
