Arkansas linemen ride out Hurricane Helene, describe storm as ‘a beast’

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – While most people are following a mandatory evacuation for Helene, linemen are heading into the storm.

More than 100,000 people have already lost power in Florida and Georgia. Crews from Arkansas arrived in both states on Wednesday. They fueled up and got the food they may need for days without a store open.

General Foreman Mike Matty has been doing so since 1997, going into the roughest conditions so people can see relief sooner, rather than later.

He and 53 other line workers with the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas traveled to Keystone, Florida, which Matty said would be just east of the storm’s eye around midnight.

“They’re calling it a beast. They’re saying maybe top 10 hurricanes for Florida,” Matty said. “You got to mentally prepare for it, and a lot of the guys are on the fifth floor of the motel here, and they’re like ‘I think I’m going to stay on the bottom floor for that.”

Once the storm passes, they will be busy. For how long they don’t know. Matty told his team to prepare for a month but that is based off of experience before the storm does damage.

Linemen in Georgia will see Helene also. Chris Taylor, senior manager of Operations and Construction for Entergy Arkansas , said they sent a crew there of about 200 while maintaining a reserve for the Natural State.

“We do recognize today that there are storms that could potentially impact Arkansas, and we are prepared for those and just watching those just like around the clock,” Taylor said.

It is not their own time the linemen are thinking of first, but rather they’re thinking of the people who would be powerless without them.

“When they get power, even after two days they’re just amazed, and then you get the people who it’s been 20, 30 days and they’re ecstatic,” Matty said. “I get enjoyment out of that.”

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