Little Rock, Ark. — Sept. 15, 2021 — The Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas are dispatching 181 line workers and utility vehicles, along with construction and right-of-way equipment, to assist South Louisiana Electric Cooperative Association (SLECA) of Houma, La. in continued power restoration efforts.
Two weeks ago, the cooperatives sent 209 line crews that have worked 16-hour days for the past 14 days. The Arkansas crews are part of an 1,100 linemen team at SLECA. SLECA estimates that approximately 75-80 percent of its 21,000 members have service due to the efforts of the crews. At the height of the outages, more than 94 percent of its members were without electrical service.
The second phase crews include line workers from Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. (AECI) of Little Rock, C&L Electric Cooperative of Star City, Carroll Electric Cooperative of Berryville, Clay County Electric Cooperative of Corning, Craighead Electric Cooperative of Jonesboro, Farmers Electric Cooperative of Newport, Ouachita Electric Cooperative of Camden, Ozarks Electric Cooperative of Fayetteville, Petit Jean Electric Cooperative of Clinton, South Central Arkansas Electric of Arkadelphia, Southwest Arkansas Electric Cooperative of Texarkana and Woodruff Electric Cooperative of Forrest City. The crews will provide construction, repair and right-of-way assistance.
In addition to the crews and equipment, Arkansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. and ERMCO have shipped more than 7,000 transformers and truckloads of power line infrastructure materials to cooperatives and municipal electric systems that were devastated by Hurricane Ida.