Out-of-State Help with lan
 

Here's a story I think everyone in Florida should know about the clean-up help with Hurricane lan.

My nephew in Wisconsin is a line man for Wisconsin Electric Co.
He and 13 Fello workers along with their electric trucks with cherry pickers volunteered to drive to Florida from Wisconsin to help with the cleanup.

I just got off the phone with my nephew.

After arriving in Vero Beach after the 4th day, they were told to take their trucks and go back to Wisconsin.

Apparently, Florida electrical unions are supported by retail business, and will not allow other union workers to intervene.

Now if you hear anyone complain down south about not getting their power back in time, here's part of the reason.

I'll bet this story isn't going make it in the Florida newspapers. :popcorn:

A lot of equipment and manpower was turned around because it simply wasn’t needed. If they didn’t get there until the fourth day I’m sure a majority of power restoration was already complete. What was left could be handled by local resources. You can’t believe that if something like what you state really happened that the MSM wouldn’t be all over it. They were making up all kinds of stuff as it was to try to discredit the state’s response.

Played Southern Oaks last Tuesday.
Noticed dozens and dozens of electrical trucks heading North.
Related??

:confused:

Has power been restored to the majority of people who lost it and the remainder will finish in a day or two?

I doubt it.

The latest numbers I can find from around noon today are about 8,200 without power statewide. That’s down from over 2.6 million. That’s well above 99% restored.

:laugh: You sure make it tough for people who want to stir it..... throwing facts around like that. ;)

Back in Massachusetts we were without power for 13 days after a severe early season Ice storm. Out of area crews came but were restricted in their activities. Apparently overtime pay for the local union was more "important" than restoring power.

Found an article from 5 days ago - only 100,000 left without power - i am sure they are all connected now or at least 99% are connected.

Was this the first hurricane in FLA that millions were without power? Is this union line workers thing new?

I know (my dad worked for an electric utility) - you don’t just get in a truck and drive to a hurricane. There are agreements in place between the utilities - because, you know, driving from Wisconsin to FLA could result in an accident, which hits workers comp….. and lots of other legal things that I just don’t want to waste my time on.

Why did they go to Vero? It’s on the east coast, about 2 hours south or Orlando. Hurricane hit the west coast, and crossed the state around orlando.

I never ask why Vero

As of 10:00pm tonight (Tuesday) there are 7,808 customers without power in the state. 4,044 of those are in the Jacksonville area unrelated to the hurricane. So basically less than 4,000 costumers without power. Assuming they are all hurricane related it’s still a recovery rate of 99.84%.
Do we really want to whine about a few crews that made the trip for nothing?

For some unions such as longshoreman all they care about is themselves

The 8000 left with power currently can’t even get to their own home by anything but boat. Can’t fix the lines if you can’t use the roads.

Mutual Aid Agreements are in place and updated annually between utilities (cooperatives, municipalities and investor owned) to assist quickly in a time of need. No utility company just “shows up”, and lineman are asked by their own utility - who has already communicated with the utility service provider in need - if they want to go and work. Like another stated, many legal issues go into having these things in place prior to any need. Florida has enough experience with hurricanes and knows exactly what they are doing.

Just returned to TV from driving from Minnesota. Once in Florida on I10 and I75 I saw hundreds of lineman trucks headed north. What an impressive display of logistics. Thanks to all who came to our aid, staged before the storm and made quick work of getting us back with power.

It was in the national news feeds. An apology was issued and the FL county is reimbursing Wisconsin $200,000 for expenses.

My experience is that unions appreciate help from fellow union members, even if the workers belong to a different union than theirs. They only object to non-union members doing union work.

Maybe not overtime for the local cruise, as much as the out-of-state cruise are paid from the minute they step into their vehicle and leave their home state 24 hours a day until they return to their home state. It is more economical to put the local cruise on overtime

My uncle has a home in Ft. Myers. He says there are hundreds of immigrant worker teams cleaning up after the hurricane. My uncle asked some where they came from? Venezuela was the response. They showed him maps with Lee County and the state of Florida emblems on them. The maps are used to send the crews to specific neighborhoods as part of a coordinated cleanup effort. :mademyday:

An article from 2018 explaining who pays for the costs. It says that the power companies have disaster funds that pay for visiting repair crews and equipment.

Who pays for out-of-state power crews, equipment, supplies? | AP News

Since I work at one of the power utilities, and have been on storm duty, and seen first hand how they work, I would say that they are restricted due to what the company can do and what the contractors can do. My street was without power for an extra day because the contractors couldn't perform the fix, due to my company's internal paperwork issue. So the company had to do it. However, many contractors work with the company with the contractors' management in the storm room with us to manage who does the work. These contractors have agreements and requested ahead of time for coordination. . . just like Mexico beach, the linemen aren't going everywhere because they can't get everywhere due to roads being blocked and no poles left to hand wires on. .

All depends upon where you are in MA, who your distribution company is, and how much they can afford. All storm related work, in the millions, are paid for out of pocket, and then a reimbursement is requested from future rate payments from the customers. If you don't have the cash to pay the contractors, they aren't going to get much work. Plus, there are state reciprocity agreements, etc. so just showing up isn't a guarantee of employment, and life for most not in the path is most likely back to normal electrical operations at the moment.

To the person who questioned, "why Vero Beach"?? The hurricane crossed over the peninsula to the Atlantic side. We just didn't hear as much about the damage over there but areas did get hit. I think Orlando and suburbs depending on the areas then all along the eastern coast. as it headed north. Daytona and Daytona Beach were affected. We just heard more about the gulf side as it seemed more devastated there (still is, I think).

Why are you talking about cruises, I thought we were talking about utility crews. 😉😜

And the disaster funds are funded by ratepayers.

Nevertheless, Wisconsin, thank you for your kindness and concern for Florida and your willingness to help out.

Some states allow rate payments ahead of time called storm funds, other states required post storm re-imbursement. MA is a post storm reimbursement state, NY is a prepayment state.

Both are funded by rate payers, but there is a huge cash flow imbalance between NY and MA. . .

And who pays when storm is predicted to be large, and nothing happens, and the utility has prepositioned contractors in place at a cost in the millions? I have been in the storm room for that as well. The utility does. . in the future rate request increases in base rates.

Articles seldom discuss the differences between states' regulator, who controls the utilities rate's to local customers. And I read on a twitter finance post by someone involved in the debt restructuring that one of our subsidiaries went bankrupt in late 1999. Asked one of the lifers here, fact check true, and the regulatory required the utility with the lowest cost of generation due to hydro, to also purchase solar generation at multiples higher, but not pass on costs to the customers. .

There are finance stories everywhere. .

You can’t “just be kind” anymore???!! We all suffer because of the mighty dollar!!