Xcel Helps Out Ice-Ridden Oklahoma
By: Import User
Updated: December 14, 2007
The Midwest is suffering from major weather damage. From accidents to power outages, it's been a devastating couple of days for Oklahomans, with almost a half million homes and businesses still without power. But Xcel's Steve Deaton says that's exactly where Xcel Energy steps in: "We've got alliances with all the other different utilities and we help each other when it's more than you can handle." When they got the word Wednesday morning, a crew of 21 Xcel workers, with 8 from the South Plains, packed up and headed out to the ice-ridden Oklahoma City. Says Deaton, "That is a massive undertaking to get everything like that back up and running, so it's gonna be some long hard days, but believe me, these guys are the cream of our crop, these guys are trained unbelievably well and they just kinda put it in a different gear when it's storm damage." And the decision to go wasn't even a question for this local company. "Oklahoma Gas and Electric was really good about helping us in 2006 when we had the wildfires up in the panhandle, so we're kinda returning the favor on that right now." Deaton says the crew is on hand to help until the work is done:
"Ready to work, ready to roll, they work extremely long days, 16 hour days, 7 days a week, til they get evrything put back up." He says Oklahoma can count on Xcel: "It's reassuring to know that even if you get hit by something massive, there's some options, and you help each other, so it's not a stand alone deal."
