Oakland City Storm Response

Services:

Distribution
Emergency Response

Location:

Oakland City, Indiana

Date:

November 2024

Braving the sWAmp

Scope

Emergency repairs on a 138kV line, including replacement of broken cross arms and restoration of a damaged OPGW line.

On November 14, 2024, Duke Energy contacted Service Electric with a request: An OPGW line was down, and cross arms were broken on a 138kV line running through a swamp. The challenge? Accessing the damaged structures in difficult terrain.

Superintendent Beau Bailey met with Duke Energy on-site the following day to assess the situation. Initially, the team considered using amphibious equipment to replace the pole, but acquiring the necessary machinery would take weeks. Instead, the team determined that the best course of action was to manually replace the cross arms and repair the OPGW as quickly as possible.

Rising to the occasion, Derek Kennedy and his team from Indianapolis—Sam Headlee, Tyler Warren, Jose Zamores, Darrell Faulkner, Andrew Lustig, and Cole Lyles—drove two and a half hours south to Oakland City to assist. Together, with Beau and Derek, they worked for 12 hours in waist-deep water and mud to restore service.

Access to the site was made possible thanks to Duke Energy’s Sherp all-terrain vehicles, which allowed the team to navigate the swamp. Without these specialized vehicles, reaching the damaged structures would have been impossible.