Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
Nov. 14, 2005
Donald Sawruk - President -
906-632-5150
EDISON SAULT'S RESPONSE TO NOVEMBER STORM
Edison Sault Electric Company’s entire electric service territory – from Sault Ste. Marie on the east to St. Ignace south and west into the Garden peninsula – was hit extremely hard by high winds which caused many scattered electrical outages starting early Sunday morning and extending well into the late evening hours and on into Monday morning. Reports being taken by customer calls showed that very few areas were not affected by outages. During the 16-24 hour Sunday workday, records show that over 1,500 customer calls were taken and answered by Edison Sault staff. Some crews which came in at 8AM on Sunday went home this morning at 7AM to get some much needed rest. After an 8 hour rest period, these crews will report back to work later today.
Electrical repair work crews, along with office, dispatching personnel and workers from Northern Tree Service, began mobilizing early Sunday morning and worked late into Monday morning. For most of Sunday about 50 of Edison Sault’s total of 60 employees, along with several Northern Tree service crews, worked very diligently to restore power and answer customer calls. The company was also helped tremendously by local and regional fire and police personnel who assisted by maintaining vigil over electrical lines which had fallen due to high winds and tree action.
Pockets of customers still need to be restored as of 7AM Monday and crews will be coming in today to try and get these customers back on. Edison Sault hopes to be able to restore power to those remaining customers sometime today.
President Donald Sawruk remarked “We want to thank our customers for their understanding and patience during this recent storm event. Most everyone who we talked to on the phone was concerned but very courteous towards our employees. I also want to recognize all the mentioned fire and police personnel who assisted us throughout our service territory. Finally, while acknowledging that they were just doing their jobs, I am very proud of both the Edison Sault Electric and Northern Tree Service employees many of whom worked 24 tiring hours throughout the night to restore electricity. We do know that there are still customers out there who do not have power and we ask for their extended patience. We encourage anyone without power to call us starting at noon today."
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