Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Adam Wallworth reports on life of out-of-town workers restoring NWA powerlines

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of AEP workers from Idabel, Oklahoma, at the intersection of Razorback Road and Fifteenth Street in Fayetteville, Arkansas, managing supplies for electrical contractors and out-of-town AEP employees trying to restore power to Northwest Arkansas.

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of AEP trucks from Texas passing Chic-fil-A headed west on Razorback Road after stocking up on supplies (such as a power pole) at the Razorback parking lot east of Baum Stadium next to the Pinnacle Foods Inc. plant.


 
Long days, risks just part of job for power crews
BY ADAM WALLWORTH
Posted on Friday, January 30, 2009
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/250909
Adrenaline fuels linemen working to restore power for communities beginning to thaw.
"It isn't till the third week they start getting grumpy," said Travis Alsup, general foreman for AEP Southern Electric Power Co., based in Jackson, Miss.
Alsup's crew is part of the 1,000 or so employers and contractors working to restore power in Washington, Benton and Carroll counties.
In emergencies crews can work 18-hour days, Alsup said. American Electric Power Co., of which SWEPCO is a division, likes to keep it to 16-hour days, he said, so the men have six hours to sleep and time enough for meals.
The Democrat-Gazette reports on visiting electrical workers

Adam didn't mention in his story that at least one blogger was seen working online in Chick-fil-A during the power outage on Thursday. Several people from West Fork and other outlying towns were online there on Friday morning. One man said he has had nearly every meal this week there just to use the Internet hookup and be in a warm, well-lighted building for a while.