First Energy, Duquesne Light send manpower south for Hurricane Helene

First Energy is sending 200 of its workers south to help communities recover from Hurricane Helene.

Todd Meyers, spokesperson for First Energy, said the 200 would be diverted from utilities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia and Maryland. While the majority of the workers will be line workers, vehicle mechanics and supervisors will be in the mix as well.

“West Virginia and Maryland (workers) have already gone down to North Carolina and will be helping Duke Energy with what outages they may have,” Meyers said. “New Jersey and Pennsylvania (workers) will be heading to Atlanta to help Georgia Power.”

He said nearly half of the total workers will be from Pennsylvania, and they’ll head out Friday morning.

West Penn Power will be sending 19 workers, including four mechanics and one supervisor. They’ll be coming out of New Kensington, Kittanning, Latrobe, Butler, Charleroi, Connellsville, Washington and Clarion. Another First Energy utility, Penn Power, also will send six line workers from Clark, New Castle and Cranberry.

“The utility industry is built on the idea of mutual assistance for large storms like this,” Meyers said. “These same crews down south come help us during our heavy winter storms.”

Meyers said when storms like Helene hit the radar, utilities begin to make calls and discuss how much assistance they’ll need when the storm hits. The host utilities make plans of how many workers, where the outsourced workers will be deployed and how much money it will cost before they request the mutual assistance manpower.

Alyssa Battaglia, spokeswoman for Duquesne Light Co., said crews were sent to Norton, Virginia on Friday afternoon due to the impact Hurrican Helene had on the area.

“About 35 to 40 crew members and staff will head to western Virginia to help restore about 6,000 customers,” Battaglia said in an email.

Battaglia said Duquesne Light is continuing to monitor the forecast in Pittsburgh and staff accordingly.

While it seems like a sizable force from First Energy heading south, Meyers said the travelers are spread out between offices enough that no one will be left understaffed.

“Whatever could cause an outage, we need to make sure we have those line workers on hand,” Meyers said. “We need to send down enough crews that can help. In the aggregate, it makes up a pretty good force, but we’re never cleaning out entire areas.”