KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A rural Missouri electric cooperative is among those sending crews to the Gulf Coast to help with relief efforts following Hurricane Ida's landfall Sunday afternoon.
Four linemen from Platte-County Electric Cooperative and three trucks will leave for Mississippi on Tuesday and arrive in New Orleans by Wednesday.
"I believe Ida is probably the 10th-strongest hurricane to hit the United States and, obviously, it's going to take some time for us to get everybody back on," said David Deihl, Platte-Clay Electric Cooperative CEO.
Deihl told KSHB 41 that 130 linemen from 30 different cooperatives in Missouri are leaving Tuesday for New Orleans to help restore power to the city.
Deihl said his crews also responded to Hurricane Laura last August.
"A year ago, about this time, we were on the west side of Louisiana, we were down there with Beauregard Electric," Brad Mick said. "I did the first leg of it; we were down there for 10 working days. They actually had three rotations on that storm to put all those lines back up."
Platte-Clay Electric linemen will spend 10 working days in New Orleans working 16-hour shifts.
Lenexa-based nonprofit Heart to Heart International also is sending people to help with relief efforts.
"We're getting ready to send a team of volunteers and medical personnel down to Louisiana to assist with the response," said Dan Neal, vice president of operations for Heart to Heart International.
Heart to Heart will take on non-COVID-19 related cases and offer assistance to doctors and hospitals unable to take people in at this time.
