Mutual Aid: It's a good thing

[Stinky The Clown]

The hurricane is passed. Recovery is underway. Flooding and power outages were a far bigger problem than the wind damage (although that's there, too).

From North Carolina to Maine and on into Canada, Irene left a path of disruption and, yes, deaths. It wasn't the storm of the century, but neither was it inconsequential. And even now, days after it passed, the damage is still being discovered.

One good thing I noticed as I was out and about this morning was the number of out of state electrical line repair trucks. I'm not sure of numbers in other states (I expect they're similar), but in Maryland there are three times the number of such trucks as there were during Snowmegeddon, two years ago.

Those extra trucks are from out of state, and out of the region. They're here as Mutual Aid. Much as a fire company from one jurisdiction crosses the line to aid a neighboring jurisdiction, so too are these power trucks. I saw them today from Indiana, Georgia, Mississippi, Kansas, and Missouri. I also caught a case of "wave" fever, waving and honking to them as they rode in convoy with our own power company's trucks, to the site of the next outage.

It was a truck from Indiana that got our lights on 24 hours after they went out.

I'm sure this has always been going on, but I have never seen it so in evidence as these last few days.

For all the states that saw their crews thinned to come to our aid here on the East Coast, thanks! We owe ya!

[pintobean]

1. K/R

[Stinky The Clown]

2. Add another state. Tonight we saw an Alabama Power truck.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Yea and that is not arranged by the power companies

but FEMA... little known factoid... the companies file help needed and FEMA assigns them by response region, just as they do with fire, ems and police units when needed.

[Waiting For Everyman]

4. K&R And this is why Ron Paul is wrong

help needs to come from outside the affected area, to a large degree.

Adding my thanks to all those out-of-state crews, and to the local ones as well. All the repair people of all kinds are greatly appreciated.