Phone: 2622522552
LOCAL 2150
Puerto Rico storm restoration
Posted On: Feb 19, 2018

I’m proud of the various rolls that local 2150 members play in providing and restoring power and gas energy to individuals and businesses.  Line workers are involved in restoration following natural disasters.  Line Crews restored power following particularly strong 2017 hurricanes Irma and Maria.

Please read the letters written by two local 2150 members with two different perspectives of the restoration efforts in Puerto Rico. 

Hinginio Lebron works at SPX along with 5 members who have family in Puerto Rico.  When Hinginio’s mother’s power was restored, the others’ families were still waiting for power.  Read his story:

To all my brothers and sisters of Local 2150,

My name is Hinginio Lebron; I am the Chair person for Unit 13. I want to share my personal story as to how Hurricane Maria affected not only myself, but also my family, coworkers, and friends. My mother, who is 82 years old, has lived in Guayama, Puerto Rico (PR) for over 25 years. Guayama is a very small town that is on the Southern side of the island. My step-father passed away two years prior; my mother has been living on her own, and taking care of her home and her property independently. My mother's brother lives about two blocks away from her, and my son lived about an hour and a half away, on the Northern side of the island, in a city called Guaynabo. My son was transferred to PR for a job assignment.  My mother is very involved in the church, and the members have become a part of her family also. My mother has always had family and friends around her.

On September 7th, 2017, Hurricane Irma touched down in PR. This was a category 5 hurricane. Myself and my entire family were extremely worried for my son and his family, my mother, and other family members. PR was devastated by this hurricane!  We were blessed that all of our family members that were living in PR were lucky enough to maintain their homes, power, and communication. Soon after was when we saw on the news that Hurricane Maria, which as also a category 5 hurricane, was going to hit PR! It felt like all myself, my wife, and my daughter could do is sit in front of the TV and talk to my son about preparations, and how they felt emotionally after just going through a hurricane two weeks prior. If there was ever a time when a parent could feel helpless, this was it!

Hurricane Maria hit PR September 19th, 2017. We completely lost communication with both my mother, son, and other family members. We continued to call them, day in and day out with my siblings doing the same. We soon found in the news that all the cell towers on the island were damaged except for one. We had no way of finding out if our loved ones had even survived the hurricane, and everything that we saw on TV left us feeling scared, worried, and hopeless. My wife finally received a phone call from our son on September 21st, 2017. We learned that the cell tower that was still intact was close to their house, and people were trying to come from all parts of the island just to use their phone. Their actual home survived the hurricane, but anything that was outside their home did not. We also learned that the hurricane left many of the roads impassable, and the government imposed a daily curfew, which meant that our son couldn't go and check on my mother.

Days turned into weeks, and we still had not heard from my mother. We weren't able to ahold of her brother either. My daughter remembered that she was friends on Facebook with the son of my mother's brother. She sent him a message asking him if she was OK. Two weeks later she finally got a response letting us know that my mother survived the hurricane, and that they are helping each other. That was a huge sigh of relief! My mother grew up on the island at a time before there was electrical power. My mother is very resourceful, but to not have the basic everyday things that we are now accustomed to: power for our refrigerator, lights, phone, stove, washer and dryer...not many people would be able to survive this at the age of 82 or even 22.

The last thing that I'd like to share is that my mother just recently got her power back. She is now able to resume her life in her community prior to losing power. Because of this, I'd like to thank the contractors and WE Energies brothers and sisters from Local 2150 who took their personal time to go to Puerto Rico to help in providing relief to some of the residents without power. 

Sincerely,

Hinginio Lebron

Jeff Selin is a Safety Liaison working for We Energies.  Read Jeff’s report on his experience supporting We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service crews in his roll as safety liaison:

28 day report for Puerto Rico storm restoration in the San Juan region.

I was fortunate to be asked to go along to support crews in the Safety Liaison position as they completed storm restoration in the San Juan region of Puerto Rico.      

Joe Zauner and myself were able to split up the original 6 week assignment.

It was determined that I would be able to go down with the advanced team on Jan. 9, 4 days ahead of the crews who were to arrive on the 13th.

The advanced team included Bruce Sasman, Craig Kahoun, Joe Young, Steve Farrel, Peter Klafka, Dan Papiernik, Bob Gruber, and myself Jeff Selin.  The advanced team used the days before crew arrival to onboard, acclimate, and get the “lay of the land” for the first work packages.  During the first few days it was apparent that Con Ed and the New York Power Authority had done extensive ground work and developed a very good relationship with the Puerto Rican Electric Power Authority(PREPA).  The work dispatch process under the New York host utility was very well thought out, and worked well. The Con Ed group was excellent to work with.

The IBEW 2150 and IUOE 420 crews arrived on the 13th of January in the early evening. There was a short introduction and expectation meeting held that night.

Sunday started with breakfast and then the on boarding process with the Con Ed folks.  This included information on the work, safety, and island information. The second half of the morning included more info on work , schedules, and any other misc. topics to be discussed.  The crews were then taken to the first neighborhood to see the work to be done.

Monday it was learned we could get the line trucks out of the port, a relief because other utilities waited as long as 2 weeks to get trucks out.  All crews spent the first half of the day fueling and making sure the equipment survived the ocean trip.  Monday afternoon the crews actually got out and started on some of the restoration work.

Over the next 3 weeks of crew work I felt fortunate to be able to assist crews of both IBEW 2150 and IUOE 420 in the safety liaison position. In many ways it was as if I was starting out in the position all over again. The majority of the people I did not know.  Joe Zauner has laid out the ground work for the position with the 2150 crews from the south (non Fox Valley/Iron Range) which made that somewhat easier.  The 420 folks were all new to the Safety Liaison position.  After explaining the thoughts and duties of the role, and then visiting and working with the crews I believe it was well received given the feedback by individuals at the end of my tour.

All of the crews responded well to the extra PPE requirements by the New York Host utility to keep people safe.  When the crews got into the work I think there was a better understanding of why the extra PPE was needed.  We were strangers in a strange world, different system, lack of maintenance, lack of materials. The work crews did and are doing safely is incredible. It is a grind, a long storm in WI is 6 days, storm work in Puerto Rico is 6 to now 8 weeks for some.

Overall the trip was very humbling and very rewording to myself and I am sure to others doing the work.  This is like no other trip in the history of the two utilities, and I think the learning curve went well.  There are a lot of good things that will come out of this trip, IUOE 420 and IBEW 2150 crews got to know of each other and some “cross pollination” of work ideas. It comes down to line guys doing line work and restoring power, and was awesome to witness the cooperation of the brotherhood of the line trade, and of the 2 Unions working together.

One of the last things I did in the a.m. group meeting was to walk around and to call by name al 51 folks by name. There was only one screw about and it involved calling one of the line crew leads the nickname of one of the ops supervisors. The crowd laughed loudly.  In reality they do look similar, and I owe Chico (forever to be called Chris) not Vito a beer or two.

I would like to thank again the leadership of IBEW 2150 and We-energies for the opportunity to be in this safety liaison role and to support both 2150 and 420 crews in the Puerto Rico storm restoration.

The people we met in Puerto Rico are awesome. For anyone to have so little and give so much, whether food, water, and soda, to working crews is just incredible. The people of Puerto Rico are great.


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Contact Info
IBEW Local 2150
N56W13777 Silver Spring Dr.
Menomonee Falls, WI 53051
  2622522552

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