Customer Shout-Outs

​More than 200 FirstEnergy employees traveled to Texas to assist with Hurricane Laura restoration efforts.​

October 15, 2020

​The following shout-out came all the way from Orange, Texas. A contingent of more than 200 FirstEnergy employees – including line workers, fleet mechanics and corporate support personnel – recently traveled to the Lone Star State to help rebuild the electric system following destruction caused by Hurricane Laura.

The category 4 storm battered portions of the Gulf Coast with sustained winds of 150 mph, causing extensive damage and knocking out power to more than 600,000 customers in both Texas and Louisiana.

Crews from eight of our utility companies participated in the mutual assistance effort, including: The Illuminating Company, Toledo Edison, Penelec, West Penn Power, Met-Ed, Mon Power, Potomac Edison and JCP&L. After working in Texas, the crews moved to Lake Charles, La. – the hardest hit area – and spent a total of about three weeks in the region.

I wanted to send a HUGE thank you to all of your employees who traveled to Texas to assist with power restoration after Hurricane Laura. To see them working diligently in the 100-plus degree weather to get us relief from the sweltering heat touched my heart and reaffirmed that there is still much kindness and caring in the world. I can’t thank you enough for y’all’s hard work. Just know that 391,000 southeast Texans are cool and comfortable in their homes today because of you.

Joni Carpenter
Orange, Texas

JCP&L
A customer in Hardwick, N.J., called to commend Michael Hedlund, Line Construction & Maintenance 1/C, for his quality service in responding to a recent power outage.

“I just wanted you to know about the lineman who came to our house tonight to fix the problem. He communicated with us clearly. This man is a model of what you hope to deploy to resolve power outages.”

Mike, who works out of the Newton Line Shop, cleared vines from a secondary wire and transformer before closing out a fuse to restore service to the customer.