Lexington utility company mobilizes to help after Hurricane Laura strikes Gulf Coast

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Hurricane Laura is expected to strengthen into a “catastrophic” Category 4 hurricane before it makes to make landfall in Texas and Louisiana late Wednesday into early Thursday.

Utility crews are already preparing for the damage the storm will leave behind.

Lexington utility company Davis H. Elliot Electrical says they’re ready to help and their employees are already on their way.

“We’ve got about 250 employees from the Davis H. Elliot Company that have already mobilized and are reaching their staging areas at the moment,” said business manager Tucker Nelson.

Nelson is coordinating the storm response efforts for Davis H. Elliot.

“About 50 to the texas location and then another 230 or so to the Louisiana staging location,”

Nelson says teams of employees were prepared to mobilize as soon as the company got the call for help.

“You’ll have a general foreman and a team lead that will lead your different crew makeups for distribution and power lines,” Nelson said. So, a foreman, a lineman, two apprentices, and a groundsman and that will be the crew makeup that will go down there to try and restore the power after the storm.”

Officials with the Davis H. Elliot tell us it’s important to them to help as many people as they can wherever they’re needed.

“Any storm in the Gulf, up the east coast, ice storms in the wintertime, we hit all storms that could potentially knock out any kind of power,” Nelson said.

We’ve also reached out to Kentucky Utilities and they confirmed that they are also sending employees and contractors down to the gulf to help in the recovery efforts.

Copyright 2020 WKYT. All rights reserved.