Bandera Electric Cooperative, Inc. (BEC) responded to calls for help from two East Texas electric cooperatives after the damaging impact of hurricane Ike. Stephen Williams, BEC Member Services Advisor, went to Livingston to work with Sam Houston Electric Cooperative (SHEC) on Saturday, September 13. Also, five BEC employees went to Houston County Electric Cooperative (HCEC) in Crockett including: Robert Rodriquez, Brad Downum, David Ross, John Hernandez and Javier Salazar.  

Williams went to SHEC to help the co-op record the events of the restoration process with photographs, video and on-the-scene reports. SHEC was especially hard hit as they experienced a total system blackout. On Saturday, September 13 no power was flowing to the 66,000 members served by SHEC. Some of Williams’ work, including a day-by-day account, is published at the Texas Electric Cooperative (a statewide association of electric cooperatives) website (http://www.texas-ec.org/) and at the SHEC website (http://www.samhouston.net/)

 Governor Rick Perry was at the SHEC headquarters in Livingston on September 18. ”The cooperative folks and Entergy are doing a whale of a job getting power back on,” Governor Rick Perry said.  

The extensive damage to the electric system in East Texas prompted an extraordinary response. Over 3,000 contractors, tree trimmers and cooperative employees are in the area working long hours to get the power restored.

BEC crews have been working 14 hour days in the Crockett area. HCEC had about 8,000 outages representing 42% of their members. “Much of the damage has been from trees falling on power lines and broken cross arms,” said Melody Pinnell, HCEC manager. “Progress has been steady, but debris removal is a slow process.”

 Due to the extent of the damage, crews will need to work in East Texas for several weeks. BEC will be sending a relief crew to HCEC which will include employees Mark Busby, Danny Queen, Don Davis, Garrett Clark and Jon Williams. The relief crew will allow the first group to return to the Hill Country and get some rest.

 “One of the core principles co-ops live by is cooperation among cooperatives,” said Arlen Williams, BEC operations manager. “It is like a family, when one cooperative is in trouble we all pitch-in to help.”

 BEC is a fast growing electric cooperative located approximately 45 miles northwest of San Antonio in the Texas Hill Country. The Cooperative serves over 28,000 meters with in excess of 4,000 miles of distribution line and almost 104 miles of transmission line.