With natural disasters devastating south-east Asia, the Caribbean and Mexico, co-operatives across the world have shown solidarity with those affected. Co-operatives play an important role in economic development and can help in the reconstruction process.
In the USA over 1.5m electric co-op members were left without power after Hurricanes Irma struck.
In Texas Hurricane Harvey cut power for members of the Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative. However, the co-op’s response was fast. Using drones it was able to restore power within a few days. Similarly, at Jackson Electric Cooperative, a co-op drone team flew 60 missions and inspected more than 1,600 poles, saving four days in terms of time.
“We had a lot of areas inaccessible because of flooding and by using the drone’s GPS capabilities, we saw exactly where the problems were. We knew exactly what we needed and where we needed it,” Paul Bourland, line superintendent at Jackson Electric told the USA’s National Co-operative Business Association.
In Florida Hurricane Irma affected Glades Electric Cooperative, which lost service to almost all of its 16,000 meters. But linemen from Choctawhatchee Electric Cooperative in DeFuniak Springs drove 14 hours to help colleagues from Glades restore service. They assisted in replacing about 20 downed or broken poles per day.
According to NRECA, the National Rural Electric Co-operative Association, nearly 2,000 co-op employees from 25 states arrived in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina to support the restoration work in the hardest-hit areas.
