‘This is where it pays off’

David Bailey, General Manager

On Dec. 21, 1944, German forces had encircled the town of Bastogne, Belgium, and pinned down the U.S. 101st Airborne Division. Despite being heavily outnumbered, when the Germans demanded surrender of Brig. Gen. Anthony MacAuliffe, he offered a one-word response: “Nuts.”

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When Gen. George S. Patton caught wind of this, he decided a man that bold had to be saved. Patton commanded the 3rd Army to disengage from a major battle and turn 180 degrees to march 100 miles and break the German lines. Even with some of the harshest weather conditions any army had faced during the European campaign, they entered Bastogne the day after Christmas to relieve the city’s defenders.

In the movie “Patton,” the famous general says of the march, “This is where it pays off. The training and the discipline. No other outfit in the world could pull out of a winter battle, move 100 miles, go into a major attack with no rest, no sleep, no hot food. God, God, I’m proud of these men.”

On the afternoon of Wednesday, June 14, 2023, our cooperative was hit with a major straight-line wind storm that kicked off our own long march to restoring power. When that storm had passed, about 13,000 accounts were without power, accounting for about 75% of our entire system.

South Alabama Electric deployed all of our crews to start repairs, but we also had the help of about 50 additional linemen from other cooperatives across the state of Alabama including the city of Troy utilities. Helping other cooperatives inside their own state and beyond is one of the unique strengths of the cooperative model, but it was refreshing to see a city like Troy applying those same principles. We’re happy to have such a good neighbor in them.

By Friday evening, we had made great strides in restoring power to the vast majority of those accounts. But it was a short-lived victory as another storm hit and brought those outages back to about 3,000 accounts. Our linemen continued to march forward, and by Sunday afternoon, every account that could be powered on had been.

It wouldn’t last long, as yet another storm struck our system in the early-morning hours on Monday. This time, the outage count climbed back up to 8,600. Fortunately, our crews refused to give up and had restored power to most of those accounts by late Monday night.

These repeated setbacks made everyone at the cooperative feel like we were taking one step forward and two steps back. A typical weather event will cause damage and move on, leaving utilities with the clear goal of restoring power. This wasn’t a typical weather event. But it did serve as a reminder of what an important job our employees have in restoring power.

It’s a team effort. Of course, there are the linemen out there making repairs. But the team also includes the person patrolling lines to spot the damage, someone plotting that damage on our system’s map and our dispatchers efficiently getting crews to those damaged areas. It’s the person answering the phone to take more outage reports and the one shutting down power to segments of line that need repair, knowing that a mistake could endanger their colleagues.

Keeping all those people going is also no small task. It requires preparing food to nourish those crews, delivering it to them wherever they might be in the field, finding hotels for visiting linemen and, yes, even washing some of those dirty clothes.

All of this has to be done SAFELY, first and foremost. I could not care less how fast power is restored if anyone is hurt in the process. Our goal is always to send everyone home with the same good health they had when they came to work that day. Tired, yes, but not injured.

As I reflect on all the hard work our team put in during an exhausting week, I am reminded of Gen. Patton and his words about the men of the 3rd Army. I couldn’t agree more. I am very proud of the linemen and all of the team of SAEC, as well as our friends from other cooperatives and Troy. I hope you are, too.

Until next month, we will continue to do our very best to keep your lights on no matter what challenges Mother Nature throws our way. I pray that you have a safe month. 

Mailing address

P.O. Box 449 Troy, AL 36081

Phone 334-566-2060

800-556-2060