Sussex Electric joins Rita relief efforts

SUSSEX COUNTY-Putting the sixth cooperative business principle, “cooperation among cooperatives,” into action, four line workers from Sussex Rural Electric Cooperative joined with more than 40 linemen and supervisory personnel from 10 other Pennsylvania and New Jersey electric cooperatives - and two private company affiliates - to assist hard-hit Beauregard Electric Cooperative of DeRidder, La. The crews helped restore power following devastation caused by Hurricane Rita. The Beauregard cooperative, which serves more than 36,500 consumers in parts of seven parishes in the southwestern corner of the state, lost power to its entire system early on Sept. 24. Winds clocked at 130 mph toppled tens of thousands of trees onto co-op power lines in the region, which will have to be cleared before work on power lines can commence. Since Beauregard Electric owns more than 5,300 miles of distribution lines and 100 miles of transmission lines, repairs to (and in some cases rebuilding of) its electric facilities may take several weeks. The Pennsylvania/New Jersey crews, boasting a combined caravan of 11 bucket trucks, eight digger trucks, seven pole trailers, seven pickups and SUVs carrying small line materials, and one RV met up in Tennessee before heading south.