ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Planning for recovery from Hurricane Milton is already underway. Wisconsin Public Service was asked to send crews south to help and they answered the call.
Following a briefing and some final instructions, 25 WPS employees from Northeast Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula are packing up to head south.
WPS has a mutual aid agreement with its equivalent in Florida to help in times like these. So, when the call came in to help, WPS said yes.
“Just as we have outside crews come and help us when we have severe thunderstorms, tornadoes here in Wisconsin, this is our opportunity to be able to provide assistance and provide help to residents in communities that are expected to be impacted by Hurricane Milton,” said Matt Cullen, a spokesman for WPS.
The more than two dozen crew members all volunteered for this assignment.
“I would do this every time. I like going out, that’s what we do. We put powerlines up and when they’re down, we want to go help people get their power on,” said Todd Schoepke, who’s worked at WPS for almost 30 years. This is the first time he’s volunteered to work in a hurricane area.
The volunteers packed up their trucks with supplies for themselves and the mission ahead. Specific assignments won’t be handed out until they arrive.
According to Chad Ellis, who’s on his third deployment with WPS, “We don’t know what to expect with water levels, that sort of thing. But, we’re expecting broken poles, lots of wires down, different things like that.”
The crews have been told to expect to work 16 hour days. And their deployment is scheduled for at least two weeks.
While some in the group have experienced trips like this in the past, others are first timers.
“You’re always a little nervous,” said Ellis. He added, “We don’t know what it’s going to be like the closer we get to the hurricane area so we’ll all be staying together and doing the best we can.”
But with the skills they have they simply want to arrive in Florida and get to work.
“Been thinking about it, watching the news and you see all the devastation and the pain and suffering and like I said that’s what us lineman do, we like this stuff, we like to help out. We want to be there,” added Schoepke.
Crews are expected to arrive in Florida on Thursday night and will get to work where they’re needed the most.
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