The Ville Platte Rotary Club met today for their weekly meeting. The guest speaker was James Las of Cleco; he is the Manager of Transmission and Distribution Support and Emergency Management. He discussed Hurricane Management Strategy.
Cleco’s Emergency Management Strategy involves assigning every employee one of several storm teams, which include Critical Care Customers, Transportation, and Sanitation.
During severe storms, Cleco utilizes crews from other utilities, such as line mechanics and tree trimmers. Utilities hold meetings prior to storm season to discuss mutual assistance issues. Contractors are also used for logistics services and security.
James Las went on to say that, during mass power outages, transmission and distribution lines are the first to be repaired, as well as restoring power to critical community services like hospitals, nursing homes, police and fire departments, as well as water wells and sewer treatment plants. He also reminded everyone to stay away from downed power lines. He said that traffic increases after a storm, also that the general public is not aware of hazards such as cleared debris placed under power lines. Las said that customers can track Cleco’s progress during power outages by going to their website at Cleco.com and clicking on the outage map.