After a devastating line of storms swept throughout the southeast the night of April 19 and into the morning of April 20, more than 9,000 members of Covington Electric Cooperative in Andalusia, Alabama, were without power, and many had extensive property damage. In the spirit of cooperation among cooperatives, CHELCO sent six line technicians to help with storm restoration on April 20.    

The six CHELCO linemen left from the CHELCO Operations yard early Monday morning and worked each day at Covington Electric until all power was restored Wednesday night. 

Starting Wednesday, the CHELCO crews began working in three two-person service crews to focus solely on power restoration, after much of the structural damage was repaired on Monday and Tuesday. On their Facebook page, Covington Electric Cooperative expressed their appreciation for co-ops like CHELCO who have stepped up to help them with their recovery efforts. 

“We started out with almost half of the entire CEC membership without service following the severe storms on Sunday night, and tonight (Wednesday) we are so very happy to report that we have gotten power restored to every CEC member in homes that can receive electric service,” the post said. “CEC would like to thank our employees and every assisting contract crew (Lee Electric, Asplundh, Harper Electric and HTC) and cooperative crew (Southern Pine, Escambia River, West Florida and CHELCO) for helping us meet this challenge with determination and dedication.”   

As of Thursday morning, all Covington members whose homes are able to receive power have access to electricity once again.   

CHELCO is a not-for-profit electric distribution cooperative serving more than 53,000 member accounts in Okaloosa, Walton, Santa Rosa and Holmes counties. 

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