Storm views from our boots on the ground

YEC employ­ees work togeth­er as a team to get the lights back on. To give you a glimpse of what it looks like from those work­ing on the lines, we inter­viewed five oper­a­tions depart­ment employ­ees. Although their job titles, skills and years of expe­ri­ence are dif­fer­ent, they all have a com­mon goal to look out for you—our valu­able mem­bers.

Zack Smith, Michael Hill, Bran­don Fite, Tom­my Huff­stetler and Matt Craven all empha­size the impor­tance of being pre­pared to stay safe and focused dur­ing storm work. When asked, all of them dis­cuss keep­ing their equip­ment in good shape, stock­ing their trucks with mate­ri­als need­ed to make com­mon repairs, inspect­ing their per­son­al pro­tec­tive equip­ment (PPE) to ensure it’s in work­ing order, stock­ing up on water and snacks and mak­ing sure they have spare clothes, espe­cial­ly dry socks.

As far as equip­ment goes, 11-year employ­ee Michael Hill points out that one of the most use­ful tools dur­ing storm recov­ery is a chain­saw.

“In a storm, your chain­saw can be your best friend,” Hill says, “so I always make sure it is sharp and run­ning prop­er­ly.”

Tom­my Huff­stetler also talks about the neces­si­ty of charged bat­ter­ies and work­ing lights since many out­ages occur at night.

Just like our employ­ees look out for you, they also look out for each oth­er. Fite, who has only been at YEC for a year, enjoyed work­ing and learn­ing dur­ing the last storm.

“It was a great expe­ri­ence,” he says. “I had a great teacher, Matt Craven, lead­ing me and show­ing me the ropes. I thought it was also great to see how all the guys had the same goal of mak­ing sure our mem­bers are tak­en care of and hap­py.”

That same pre­pared­ness also applies on the home front. Smith, a 14-year employ­ee, adds, “When we have the lux­u­ry of time to pre­pare, I will make sure my fam­i­ly is safe, has a plan and is pre­pared with sup­plies if need­ed because, chances are, I won’t be there with them. That helps me focus on my work when the time comes.”

Being pre­pared helps, but storm recov­ery is hard work.

“Some­times it’s tough; you real­ly have to dig deep. Storms can be very phys­i­cal­ly, men­tal­ly and emo­tion­al­ly drain­ing,” says Craven.

While our safe­ty pro­grams and pro­ce­dures help safe­guard our employ­ees against haz­ards, their real moti­va­tion to stay safe lies with being able to go home to their fam­i­lies and help­ing their neigh­bors.

Huff­stetler says he looks for­ward to “going home to my fam­i­ly the same way I left them and help­ing the com­mu­ni­ty in a time of need.”

Craven adds, “We are moti­vat­ed to always do all that is pos­si­ble for the mem­ber, but we also want to get home safe­ly to our fam­i­lies. My wife and kids are always on my mind, too.”

At the end of the day, they want to get the lights back on—no mat­ter the chal­lenge. Smith says, “For me it’s reward­ing to over­come the chal­lenges and help peo­ple get back to nor­mal after being with­out heat, AC, lights, water and so on—possibly for hours or days.”

And it helps to know, as Hill says, “When the lights are on you get to go home to your fam­i­ly.”

They speak for every­one at YEC when they say they want to get the lights back on as soon as pos­si­ble.