Several local organizations are in varying stages of preparing to send aid to the Florida coast in response to Hurricane Matthew.
Hurricane Matthew, which was a Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale as of this morning, is expected to impact east Florida throughout the day as it moves north toward Georgia and South Carolina. A Category 3 hurricane brings sustained winds of 111 to 129 miles per hour.
As many as 300,000 people already lost power because of the storm by 5:30 a.m. Eastern time, according to an ABC News report.
4-County Electric Power Association has 15 men and nine trucks on standby to go to Florida once the storm has passed, marketing and public relations spokesperson Jon Turner said. Workers and equipment, split into two crews, will go to assist the Sumter Electric Cooperative in central Florida.
The crews are expected to leave Saturday morning. What type, and how much, work they end up doing depends on what sort of damage the storm brings, Turner said.
“In a hurricane situation, you’re going to have a lot of downed poles and power lines,” he said. “They’re probably going to be repairing or replacing poles or wire and trying to get power back on as quickly as possible.”
Turner said 4-County’s crews will be part of a deployment from across the southeast to help the hurricane-affected areas.
“Typically what happens is they’ll try to stage people who make the most geographical sense,” Turner said. “Several Mississippi cooperatives will be sending people. Cooperatives in Alabama will be sending people — I’m sure they’ve got people lined up in Virginia and Tennessee. It’s a long way to go, but if the entire state of Florida is affected, they’re going to need a lot of people to get stuff back together.”
Other area utilities
Columbus Light and Water General Manager Todd Gale said the power company is waiting to see what sort of damage Hurricane Matthew causes.
Gale said a number of Tennessee Valley Authority power distributors in Mississippi have agreed to send help to Florida. They’ll stage in Tallahassee until it’s determined where help is needed.
“We’re going to see what happens because it looks like it’ll be a long, drawn-out thing,” Gale said. “We’re a smaller group. When we go and send two crews, that leaves us kind of vulnerable, so we have to pick and choose.”
Gale said CLW has sent crews to South Florida in the past to assist with hurricane recovery.
Starkville Utilities Department General Manager Terry Kemp said the department isn’t currently planning on sending crews to Florida, but he is monitoring the situation along with the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association. He said Starkville Utilities can deploy assistance to the region if needed.
“We’re prepared,” he said. “We have people who are constantly on call and standby here, so we’re not changing that. If something should happen, we should be able to mobilize people from here.”
Kemp also noted that Starkville Utilities has mutual aid agreements with all municipal power providers in Mississippi and could provide assistance locally if a municipal provider sends help to Florida, then encounters a local need for assistance.
Salvation Army to offer aid
Salvation Army Columbus Commanding Officer Alan Phillips said the group is preparing to deploy a two-man disaster response team over the weekend.
“We’ve talked to all of our guys — not only operational personnel but office and support staff,” he said. “They’re aware of what’s going on and we’ve got an emergency plan in place so that if something were to happen we can bring people in.”
Phillips said the team will head to Florida in a disaster response vehicle with enough food and supplies to serve on-site for two days. After that, they’ll pull from available resources and continue to serve meals. The response units are equipped to serve 400 to 500 meals a day, he said.
He added the group is part of a territorial deployment, which pulls from several Salvation Army divisions across the region. Once assistance groups arrive in Florida, they’ll be directed to areas that need help.
Phillips said Hurricane Matthew may generate a bigger need for aid than recent flooding in Louisiana did. As such, he said Salvation Army will probably ask the community for donations to help victims.
“I think there will be a call for donations once they get people out,” he said. “Things like bottled water, non-perishable food, baby items, towels and clean-up things. We won’t be asking for food yet.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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