Time for Old Man Winter to go South
I don’t know how you may feel, but I’m ready for Old Man Winter to visit the Earth’s southern hemisphere.
I definitely believe we have had our fair share of cold, wet weather. After all, we do live in the South.
As we transition from winter to spring, we know several things will happen.
First, we can expect to continue to feel the effects of the cold temperatures. Your power bill has been and will still be higher than normal until we see some milder weather. I’ve read comments on our social media already expressing displeasure about this, but it is an unfortunate fact of life. When temperatures are cold, especially extremely cold, our heating systems must work harder and run longer than they do during milder weather. And they consume more electricity.
Second, springtime in Alabama usually means unpredictable weather. In fact, historically March and April have brought some of the strongest storms our part of the country has experienced.
In my 23 years with Coosa Valley Electric, 2 tornadoes have ravaged our area. The first struck in April of 2011, cutting a swath of destruction that started in the Vandiver and Sterrett areas, and after a pause, continued into the Ohatchee community. The second hit in March of 2021, nearly 10 years to the day, within 10 miles of the first and followed an eerily similar path.
While we can hope and pray that calmer conditions prevail, we have no reason to believe they will. So, we prepare for the worst.
In years when we haven’t had tornadoes, we have had torrential rainfall, extreme thunderstorms, and even hurricanes — or at least the remnants of hurricanes.
At times, we have been caught a little off guard by the intensity of storms, even when we know one is coming.
In October of 2020, category 3 Hurricane Zeta made landfall in southeastern Louisiana. We didn’t expect that the late-season storm would pick up speed over land and move so quickly toward the north and northeast.
Its extremely fast pace meant that it maintained much of its gusto when it struck our area. This left us with widespread damage and the largest-ever percentage of members without power. Out of the nearly 17,000 consumers we were serving at the time, only about 500 still had electricity. The damage took nearly a week to repair.
Storms are going to come and go and leave their mark, some more so than others. The important thing is when the storms do hit, we are prepared to pick up the pieces and repair the damage.
This month we are planning to do a tabletop exercise to review our disaster recovery plans. In addition to ensuring we have an adequate stock of materials should Mother Nature throw her worst at us, we want to make sure we have good relationships with our suppliers. It’s important we know they can and will deliver us the materials and equipment we’ll need to restore service.
As well, we must make sure we all know our jobs when the world turns upside down. We can’t just come in and do our daily work. In those moments, it’s “all hands on deck” to support our workers in the field.
We must make sure they have the materials, equipment, vehicles, and fuel they need. We also must ensure they get the food and rest they need to work effectively.
If the damage becomes too great for our people to handle alone, we must coordinate work with crews from our fellow cooperatives. In those cases, we arrange for housing and food while they are with us. If they are with us for longer periods, we sometimes must provide laundry service.
Regardless of what weather we experience, we must make sure all of us are prepared to respond and do what we need to do to get our lights back on as quickly as possible.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide you with services.
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