Ameren Illinois Crews Help Restore Power in Flood-Stricken Vermont

One of the 101 Ameren Illinois workers sent to help repair power lines in Vermont says Hurricane Irene unleashed flash-flooding in the state of a kind unseen in Illinois.

Mark Drawve is an electrical superintendent with Ameren's Mattoon office. He said Vermont's terrain, with its steep hills, causes devastating floods that have cause damage, in a way that wouldn't happen in Illinois.

"Not in this form, no," Drawve said. "We're in Illinois, which is mostly pretty flat and rural. They're having the challenge of even having to rebuild whole lines, because the water just washed out complete sections of transmission lines and sub-transmission lines. So they are in the process of building brand-new lines."

Drawve said he and his fellow Ameren Illinois crew members are working 17-hour days to restore power in and around Vermont's second largest city, Rutland. The area is served by Central Vermont Public Service. Drawve said that besides washing out power lines, the flooding has washed out roads, making it hard for their crews to travel around the region.

"We sent some crews Sunday evening to areas that they knew would be impacted by the flash floods," Drawve said. "Because of that, until they get some roads repaired, we can't even get those crews back, or hooked up back with the main force. And they continue to work on those roads as we speak."

With all these difficulties, Drawve said that as of Tuesday morning, line crews had restored power to about 18,000 of the 38,000 people who lost power in Vermont. He said Ameren crews did the work for about 6,000 of those customers in the Rutland area. But Drawve said they are not used to working in hills and valleys --- and said there is talk of moving the Ameren crew to another area, and bringing in a Canadian crew more familiar with Vermont's type of terrain.