Potomac Edison’s Jim Painter was among the FirstEnergy employees who spent more than two weeks helping Entergy restore electric service in Louisiana following destruction caused by Hurricane Ida. While away from home, Jim missed a special occasion – his wife celebrated her birthday, which included an Eagles concert.

“Any FirstEnergy employee on the utility side of our business will tell you that it’s just part of the job,” said Jim, director, Operations Support, who has nearly 30 years of service with the company. “We’ve all missed holidays, birthdays and other family events during our careers. I’m thankful that my family understands that it’s the nature of the business – when customers are out of power, we work to restore it as safely and as quickly as possible. When we’re providing mutual assistance, that can mean helping customers who live more than 1,000 miles away.”

According to Entergy, Hurricane Ida made landfall on Aug. 29 with sustained winds of 150 mph, a tremendous storm surge and major flooding, making it one of the most devastating storms to hit the region. The category 4 storm knocked out power to nearly 950,000 customers in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi.

The FirstEnergy contingent, which included line workers, fleet mechanics, corporate support personnel, vegetation workers and line contractors, numbered more than 500 people. The group faced multiple challenges during its 16-day deployment, which ended on Sept. 13. Jim said the first week was the hardest, with line crews initially waiting for materials and fuel for their trucks, then commuting several hours between the job site and their hotel, and working in hot, humid weather conditions.

In some of the neighborhoods, our crews essentially rebuilt the electric system from the group up – as every utility pole was either damaged or knocked over.

“During morning safety meetings, we reminded the crews to watch for signs of heat stress and to stay hydrated,” he explained. “We also emphasized driving safety, since our employees were traveling in an unfamiliar area where many of the traffic signals had been destroyed by the hurricane – and for the ones that remained standing, there was no electricity to power the lights.”

Jim added: “We also had to watch out for dangerous local wildlife – such as alligators and snakes – that had been displaced from their normal habitat due to the high-water levels.”

FirstEnergy crews worked in the St. John the Baptist and Jefferson parishes, both located just outside of New Orleans. Although the working conditions were rough, residents in the area made our employees feel welcome with a big dose of southern hospitality.

“We had residents – some who had been without power for more than a week – offering our employees cold water, hot pizza, and even gumbo to thank them for their efforts,” continued Jim. “People were very grateful for our assistance and showed it in many ways. It made our crews feel great and gave them energy to continue their work.”

Crews from all of our utility companies were part of the massive mutual assistance effort. “In some of the neighborhoods, every utility pole was knocked over, but our crews never lost their focus and completed their work safely,” Jim said. “Our employees take a lot of pride in helping the community, and we appreciate how they represent our company.”

John Huber, director, Emergency Preparedness, echoed Jim’s remarks. “Our crews not only worked in some of the hardest-hit areas from the hurricane, but they dealt with COVID-19 mitigation measures and were away from their families for more than two weeks. We thank them for the sacrifices they make and for their dedication to helping people in need.”

John added: “Our peer utilities in Louisiana were very complimentary of the FirstEnergy team’s efforts, safely and efficiently providing assistance.”

Employees who remained at home did an outstanding job responding to outages caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, John pointed out. “The storm led to historic flooding and knocked out power to about 175,000 customers in West Virginia, Maryland, eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Our employees rose to the occasion and restored service to those customers quickly and safely,” he said.​

Louisiana residents showed appreciation of our line workers’ efforts in many ways, including writing messages of thanks on the Styrofoam containers used to provide meals at the staging sites.