SLEMCO Lineman’s heroics in storm caught on viral video

LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) – A video of a local lineman posted on the weekend of June 14th has blown up on social media. Mary Laurent, Slemco communications coordinator said the purpose of the video in light of the hellacious weather happening was to let customers know and understand why one of the most difficult things for them to do is to tell customers exactly when their power will be restored.

“Each service man has a list of people that he needs to go to and take care of the outages. So when he gets to one, if it’s going to take longer than it’s going to put the next one further behind. So they have to improvise to get the work done safely and still get it done as quickly as possible so that the customer gets their power back on and so it was just an example to show that, and it kind of took on a life of its own,” she said.

The man in the video is a Kaplan Service Center employee and who is familiar with the area. She said the area is down by the coast; South of Erath and lineman work in that area regularly. He was swimming in a flooded sugarcane field. 

“There were several different things that needed to be fixed before they could turn the power back on. So he had already worked it from the other direction and then had to come around on this side and rather than go all the way back to the other side, he made the decision based on his experience, based on what he saw, based on what he knew were safe to do. He made the decision to go from this side, this time to do it and that took him in a little bit of water. Well he was already wet up to his waist because he had walked through the water from the other side. So it was just a matter of getting there to the pole so that he could close the fuzes and come on back out,” she explained. “We often say this is not a job, it’s a calling and it’s true because just as the video shows, they run into all kinds of stuff. It might be, you know, water that they have to go through. It might be a pole that’s snapped in half because there’s a car wrapped around it. There’s so many things that they have to really go in ahead and just do a heroic effort to get the power back on and that’s what they do. That’s what they sign up for.”

Laurent adds they miss family activities and holidays as the nature of the job is tough. She said the workers are tough and rugged and oftentimes a lot of people don’t tend to understand that all the time. 

“It’s not really like the wild, wild used to be but in a way, it is. It’s not an office. It’s not something that’s cut and dry. It’s always different but they absolutely, always adhere to our safety policy. They always, absolutely adhere to being safe around each other and the equipment that they use, they’re not going to do anything to endanger themselves or their coworkers and the benefit of experience, knowing the area and knowing what needs to be done, you know, that makes a big difference,” she said. “They never know what they’re going to have to do, but they get the job done safely, efficiently and as quickly as they possibly can because people need their power back.”

Now while the video looks like it’s unfamiliar to somebody who’s viewing something on TV or viewing something on Facebook she explained it doesn’t mean it’s unsafe. 

“Trust me, we have policies, we have protocols, and they all follow those protocols and their policies because they want to get home safely to their family at night,” she said. 

Overall the video is to inform customers exactly why they can’t always say it’s going to be an hour. It’s going to be half an hour, because where lineman go and where they serve it’s not always she said, “cookie cutter city street blocks. It’s rugged, it’s farmland. It’s out in the country sometimes and sometimes there’s a lot of water. Sometimes the roads are blocked, sometimes the bridges are out and we have to find a way to get the job done and that’s just what we do.”