On Tuesday, Sept. 12, Wake Forest Public Works & Utilities Director Mike Barton and a crew of 11 men from Wake Forest Power traveled to Florida to aid in the power restoration efforts after Hurricane Irma. They were scheduled to go to Lakeland, Florida, about 30 miles east of Tampa on I-4.
Monday Barton reported by email, “We actually ended up in Bartow, FL. (About 10 miles southeast of Lakeland.) Lots of trees down which caused lots of broken poles, cross arms and a whole lot of services to put back up. On Saturday, Bartow had 184 lineman and tree trimmers on the ground working this event. We will definitely be here through today with a strong possibility of moving up to Lakeland to help them tomorrow. I won’t know until later today.” Three hours later he added: “We just got released from Bartow and now heading to Lakeland.”
The others in the Wake Forest Power crew are Brett Phillips, Jason Shambley, Chad Champion, Chris Terrell, Hugo Mier, Joe Shearin, Zack Goldsmith, David Thieman, Jason Walter, Lonnie Wilson, and Chris Keith.
Before he left, Barton said, “We are fortunate that Hurricane Irma will not significantly impact the Wake Forest area, so we are anxious to help a sister public power community in Florida.” The 12 men are expected to continue to work at the recovery effort for at least a week.
Wake Forest is a member of ElectriCities’ mutual-assistance group that works cooperatively to restore electric service to public power customers when a natural disaster causes large-scale power outages. Mutual assistance allows member utilities to pool their resources to help restore power to customers faster.
- A segment of WRAL-TV’s coverage of Hurricane Irma and its aftermath that aired at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 18, featured the way the Bartow residents welcomed and feted the linemen from North Carolina’s municipal electric systems, even washing their dirty clothes as well as feeding and clothing them. The featured linemen were from Wilson, but the Wake Forest crew has been getting the same hospitality.
