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TECO Convoy Hits Road To Help Texas

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By STEVEN GIRARDI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 14, 2008

TAMPA - With the sun rising behind them, a dozen Tampa Electric Co. trucks rolled out of a fenced compound Saturday and headed to Beaumont, Texas, to help rebuild what Hurricane Ike tore apart.

Paul Davis, supervisor of the 71-person team, said they had no word out of Texas early Saturday, but he had a pretty good idea what they will find when they arrive Monday.

"There will be millions of people out of power. We'll face a lot of wildlife issues and heat issues," said Davis, TECO's director of transmission and distribution operations.

The TECO team is one of many from utilities across the Southeast that roll to hurricanes "to get wires back in the air," Davis said.

The linesmen, engineers, mechanics and communications technicians expect to work 16 hours a day, from predawn to sunset, for two weeks. If necessary, another team will be sent to replace them after that time, TECO spokesman Rick Morera said.

The self-sufficient convoy includes six utility trucks, two tractor-trailers, a radio tower truck and a 4,400-gallon fuel truck. They bring their own water, food and ice, and six security officers from CIS in Clearwater to protect them.

They will stay in hotels, or maybe tents, provided by Entergy Corp. Texas, the utility the TECO team will assist, Davis said. Entergy picks up the salaries and expenses, just as TECO would do if a storm were to hit here.

Davis said the team will go to Beaumont, a coastal city just northeast of Galveston and Houston, and await word from Entergy as to where they are to go. They have their own radio system, expecting local cell towers and telephone services will be out.

The crew doesn't expect much in the way of comforts, from the 1,000-mile drive in heavy trucks to the ravaged post-hurricane landscape they will have to navigate.

"We're going to see some things that are pretty miserable," supervisor Tom McRae said, minutes before their 7:30 a.m. departure from the TECO yard at 820 S. 78th St.

McRae, 50, is making his seventh storm relief trip, and has volunteered each time. Why? "In three days, I'll ask myself the same thing," he joked.

He said it still is exciting heading out to storms, not knowing exactly what lies ahead.

"It's pretty rewarding," he said, "if we can get their lives back to some sense of normalcy."

Reporter Steven Girardi can be reached at (727) 451-2333 or sgirardi@tampatrib.com.

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