A little over a week after Hurricane Michael struck the Florida panhandle, electric line workers from around the country have worked together to restore power to nearly 43,000 people.
By the latest count, 8,927 people are still without power, according to Josh Booth, communications specialist at Boone Electric Cooperative, which sent eight workers down to help.
"It is just really cool to see how we help others in action," Booth said.
Jim McCarty, director of communications for the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives, said the work is almost done: Missouri line workers will probably wrap up Sunday and head home Monday.
McCarty said the Missouri line workers replaced broken utility poles and found that the wires were tangled up in the trees.
"So they've got to get saws out and cut the trees to get the wire out," McCarty said.
Missouri crews have been assisting the Talquin Electric Cooperative, which covers four counties in the Tallahassee area. According to a Facebook post from the cooperative, as of Friday afternoon, crews had restored power to:
- 55 percent of Gadsen County customers.
- 49 percent of Liberty County.
- 99.3 percent of Leon County.
- 99.4 percent of Wakulla County.
Tasha Pizarro, owner of Momma P's Ice Cream Truck in Tallahassee, Florida, treated the line workers to free ice cream. This was the third time she gave out treats to support communities damaged by hurricanes.
Pizarro said Hurricane Michael was the worst of the three hurricanes she's experienced in Tallahassee. The other two were Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Hermine. She's been in business as an ice cream truck owner through all three hurricanes.
"Anything 45 miles west of here did not exist anymore," Pizarro said of Hurricane Michael. "That's like country living, and my friends' communities did not even exist, you know? Everything has pretty much been destroyed."
Pizarro said she gave ice cream to workers from a Missouri cooperative 40 miles away from St. Louis, but she didn't know the name. They were doing well, but tired, she said.
"I heard they have 16-hour shifts," Pizarro said. "After work, they pick up clean clothes, pick up dinner and head to bed."
She said she appreciates the line workers and their families.
"They may not see them for a month or longer," Pizarro said. "We're just so thankful that they've left the comforts of home."
Pizarro said there was a community-wide effort to say, "Thank you." A lot of her neighborhood customers would leave money on the truck for Pizarro to give out treats.
"They would even say, you know, if I see tree crews, linemen, or other workers that are out there working, driving around, I could stop and either give them ice cream, Gatorade or water."
She said there are food and supply drives going on all over Tallahassee. Power was restored in most of the city towards the middle of the week, and students went back to school Monday, according to Pizarro.
"Not just here in Tallahassee, but in Florida, everyone can kind of get their lives back to normal," Pizarro said.
Supervising editor is Brendan Crowley.
