BY KYLE TROUTMAN ktroutman@cassville-democrat.com
Would you prioritize work if multiple trees had fallen on your home, or you were about to leave on a mission trip, or you had a newborn in the NICU?
On the week of May 26, three linemen did just that.
The men, two Barry Electric employees and one Ozark Electric employee, responded to an early morning windstorm left more than 12,000 in the county without power, about 7,000 of which were Barry Electric customers in the Cassville and Exeter areas.
Kevin Holloway, Barry Electric operations manager, lives west of Cassville Municipal Airport and was woken up by the storm, which brought winds of 80-plus miles per hour and 2-inch hail.
“The thunder woke me up, so I got up and looked at the radar and saw the storm coming,” he said. “I looked out the window and the hail had started, then the power went out. I was getting a flashlight when I heard a tremendous crash. “A tree had fallen into our front porch, then some other trees by the garage fell and hit the end of the house. My girlfriend was at the house and sitting right where the tree hit. We couldn’t get out our front door because the limbs were blocking it.”
Despite the challenges presented by damage on his property and nearby, Holloway was able to get to work.
“I got dressed and tried to get to work, but I had a tree down over my driveway and had to go through my neighbor’s yard to get out,” he said. “Lines were down everywhere in the road, and when I got into the office, I started calling guys in to clear lines and make the roads safe.
“At work, power was out, and we have generators but something was wrong with them and only parts of the building had light. The first thing we focused on was getting the hospital up and running, then we did more damage assessments and called crews to come assist. We had eight guys from Southwest Electric, four from Ozark Electric and additional people came from Kiowa, Laclede and New-Mac.”
One of those employees called in was Barry Electric’s newest lineman, Andres Garcia, who lives in Purdy and has worked for the company for two years. North of the storm, Garcia did not have any damage, but he got an early morning phone call.
“I got called in by Kevin at about 4 a.m.,” Garcia said. “He said there was a big storm and I needed to head in. I didn’t realize how bad it was, and I had to reroute my normal drive because trees were down on the road. Even on Highway 37 there were wires down. I went a different route and saw a couple of poles down on Rodeo Road. That’s pretty much when I came to realize how much damage there was.
“Once I got in, me and Brian Robbins were dispatched out. We started in Exeter, which got hit pretty hard. There were six poles down all in a row by Vollenweider Metal Works.”
Later that day, the crew from Ozark Electric joined in the effort. One of the linemen, Chad Conner, left his home in rural Willard to help, also leaving behind a newborn baby in the NICU.
“I didn’t know anything about the storms, and my wife and I were in the process of adopting a baby that was born on May 24 and still in the ICU,” Conner said. “He was supposed to go home the day I got the call, but they said he’d have to stay longer, so I went down to Cassville. He got to come home the next day, but I was in Cassville from Sunday to Thursday.”
While in the area, Conner said most of his work was clearing trees, the size of which were shocking.
“We rolled up and started working on the double circuit poles, and I was kind of like, ‘Holy crap,’ at first,” he said. “The amount of trees down and how big they were was pretty crazy. Most of our work was cutting trees off lines, especially the fiber lines because those don’t break.”
Because of the tension on those fiber lines, Conner said they presented a significant danger.
“We were cutting one tree on a fiber line down in a valley, and we made a cut and that line slingshot that log somewhere,” he said. “No one at all knew where it went. We were fortunate because we were under the tree and working on lines under that kind of tension is dangerous.”
For five days, Holloway, Garcia, Conner and 74 other local and traveling linemen worked virtually non-stop — 16-hour work days — restoring power and removing as much debris as possible.
“We changed the threephase poles first, and we shut down at about 10-10:30 [Sunday] night because we had to get some rest,” Holloway said. “Then, we started again at 6 a.m. the next morning. You put your head down and just go. You’re tired, but you strive to get the job done and get the power back on. The linemen take a lot of pride and satisfaction in restoring power.
“We had good help and outreach from the community with food, and we all worked really well together. I’m proud of our community and all the guys who worked on lines.”
Garcia said that outreach and support helped the linemen power through.
“You get tired working 16-hour days, but we knew people were looking out for us all the time and reassuring us,” he said. “That made me feel comfortable. Especially during storms like this, we try to restore power as quickly as possible, but we also want to stay safe. I felt confident because we take a lot of safety measures.”
By Thursday night, Barry Electric had power nearly 100% restored, and the linemen were able to direct their focus back on their personal lives.
“We had everyone turned back on by Friday, and then I had to come home and spend the weekend cutting wood and stacking brush,” Holloway said. “But, we were able to stay in the house. We got a generator for the sump pumps in the basement, which got water in it because I had to get crews together before I could go home and deal with it.
“June 2 or 3 I probably started to feel a sense of relief and getting back to normal. I actually got to schedule some new work instead of just storm cleanup.”
While Holloway had work to do at home, Garcia went to work abroad. With Monett’s New Site Baptist Church, Garcia went on a mission trip to Agua Prieta in north-central Mexico.
“I had this mission trip planned for almost a year, and I was supposed to leave at 8 a.m. that Friday,” he said. “The Wednesday prior, I wasn’t sure I’d get to go because we still had a couple thousand without power and a lot of broken poles.
“I just prayed to God and let him handle the situation.”
Garcia’s prayers were answered, as Holloway informed him on Thursday evening he would be able to go on the mission.
“I told Kevin on Wednesday if I needed to take my name off the calendar I would, and I did end up erasing my name because I figured I’d stay and work here,” he said. “Thursday night, I walked into Kevin’s office, and he told me to pack my bags. I got really excited. It was crazy to see how God works and has it all figured out for us. You just have to have faith.”
Garcia said his group put on a vacation bible study and interacted with residents of the area.
“We just spread the word of God and the love Jesus has for us,” he said. “We also loved on some kids that may not get that often. It was a blessing Barry Electric let me go.”
About the same time Garcia received that blessing on Thursday, Conner was returning home to a blessing of his own.
“I was pretty excited to get home and hold the baby,” he said. “The hardest part was that he was not sleeping at night, so I never really caught up on sleep. But, he’s been healthy ever since he got home.”
Reflecting on the trying week, Holloway said he’s grateful for the work Barry Electric employees and their partners accomplished.
“The Barry Electric employees worked great and very hard,” he said. “They have contributed a lot, and I’m proud of them for working safely with chainsaws cutting out damaged trees. No one got hurt, so I compliment them for that.”
Conner added that despite being away from home and dealing with such a large-scale disaster, he felt supported.
“All the people were really nice, and the co-op was nice,” he said. “No one was cranky, and the ladies at the co-op did everything to help us.”
