Fishel Teammates Restore Power
after Virginia Blizzard

On December 18th, a blizzard passed through southwestern Virginia dropping 24-30 inches of snow with wind gusts of 40 - 45 mph, knocking out power to over 29,000 Old Dominion Power (ODP) customers.

"I received a call from David Guy, EON-US Director of Restoration, for crews to restore power in the City of Norton, Virginia. Old Dominion Power is a subsidiary of our customer, EON-US and he was managing the entire restoration effort in Norton," says Rich Mauldin, Louisville Area Manager.

A convoy of bucket trucks, derrick diggers, bulldozers, backhoes and 34 Teammates made the 275-mile trip through freezing rain and icy road conditions.

On Friday, the crews arrived in Corbin, Kentucky in whiteout conditions. "They spent the night in a parking lot to wait for visibility to improve," says Kenny Thompson, Division Manager. On Saturday, the crews guided the trucks and equipment into Norton over two-lane mountain roads, which were barely passable.

Once on site, a command center was established to coordinate the repair effort with ODP. Job packages were distributed daily and the crews relied on the trucks GPS units to locate the remote sites.

Norton is located in the Appalachian Mountains at an elevation of 1,400 to 4,200 feet above sea level. The crews had to navigate through snowdrifts as high as four feet and wind chill factors below zero. Bulldozers and backhoes were used to help pull equipment in and out of the remote locations as they set poles by hand and re-strung downed cable.

The restoration effort took approximately eight days. The crews worked through Christmas Eve and weren't released from the job until the afternoon of Christmas Day.

"I was extremely impressed with the dedication of these guys," says David Guy. "They stayed and hunkered down in probably the harshest conditions they've ever worked in. Even though it was cold, muddy and they were away from their families, not a single one of them ever complained."

"It says a lot about the caliber of people we have at Team Fishel", says Mauldin. "They gave up spending time with their families' over the Christmas holiday to get electricity restored for others."