More than 160 Kentucky Electric Cooperative employees and contractors are participating in the massive effort to restore power to large sections of Louisiana. Thousands of line workers have come to help out following Hurricane Ida’s march through New Orleans and nearby communities. Kentucky Electric Coop Spokesman Joe Arnold said it’s not surprising early estimates put full power restoration at weeks from now. “You can’t distribute power until the transmission system is up in the first place. So, the transmission has to be restored first and then the distribution that goes to the individual homes, the businesses is secondary. So, this is a mammoth project,” said Arnold.
Arnold said Kentucky Coop crews responded to three different storms in the southeast U.S. last year. Arnold added a second wave of coop workers could be asked to help out in Louisiana.
Ida knocked out power to close to a million people on or near the Gulf Coast. Joe Arnold said generators can provide power, but they also require a great deal of attention to safety. “You have to be so careful because electricity is certainly dangerous and that has to be very carefully installed and used so you don’t back feed the lines,” explained Arnold.
Arnold noted back-feeding can create a real safety risk to workers. The Coop representative added 60 transmission poles along with another 300 power poles are down in the Baton Rouge area alone.
