Storms and rumors of storms

Daryl Jones, Manager of Black Warrior EMC

June 14, 2023 was the beginning of a long streak of devastating storms that crippled our system. Five different rounds of severe storms came through over the next five days. One storm brought winds over 90 miles per hour in our Ralph, Knoxville and Fosters areas.

Other storms ravaged Greene, Hale, Marengo and Choctaw counties with winds over 50 miles per hour. The multiple day events sent our crews back into the same areas that had already been restored previously several times. When our crews came to work the morning of June 14, they had no idea that the next day they would have off would be June 24, 2023.

Our emergency action plan was activated and our priorities were restoring power to infrastructure such as stores, hotels and city and county water systems. A request was made for mutual aid on Friday night following that storm near Ralph that left thousands without power. Unfortunately, most of the other cooperatives in the state were unable to help because they were fighting the same storms. Thankfully, crews from Arkansas and Georgia arrived late Saturday evening.

Fortunately, beginning on June 19, 2023 some of our other districts began to clear up and send help to our Eutaw district. Our men in the field worked 16 hours a day until the final few (then worked 14). Our office was open 24 hours a day until June 22, 2023 as the staff rotated shifts.

After looking back over my 40-year career here, I rank this event about the fourth worst as far as outages, duration and expense. Hurricane Ivan was definitely the worst. It required a four-week restoration effort. The blizzard of ‘93 would be second followed by Hurricane Katrina.

Our crews were tired but persevered until the last lights were on. We are very proud of our employees and their dedication to our members. To our members, we thank you for your patience, kind words and offers of kindness. It is a pleasure to work for you.

Before I leave you this month, I would like to mention this heat wave that is occurring as I write on June 29, 2023.

Our system is seeing some record usage for this time of the summer. Extreme heat warnings and advisories are in place. The bill you receive around August 1, 2023 will likely be considerably more. Air conditioners are not cycling as they normally would because of the extreme heat, causing them to run continuously.

By the time you read this, I hope my predictions of a long, hot summer have been proven wrong.