TCL&P Employees Deployed To Assist With Hurricane Irma

A small crew of Traverse City Light & Power employees could join other utility staff from across the country in assisting communities affected by Hurricane Irma, the largest recorded Atlantic hurricane now barreling toward the U.S.

In a letter to board members Wednesday, TCL&P Executive Director Tim Arends noted the hurricane "appears to be a direct path to the Miaimi area" and is expected to "severely impact south Florida." Arends said municipal utilities across the country "have been asked to respond through mutual aid to the pending disaster for restoration of services" and have been in communication with one another on how to "properly assist with this impending disaster."

Arends said he had authorized sending a TCL&P crew consisting of two employees and a utility bucket truck "to be staged to assist wherever that assistance is needed." TCL&P's costs will likely be reimbursed by the utility requesting assistance or the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) "as in past storm situations," according to Arends. He noted that if TCL&P ever experienced "a major outage/storm, we would employ the same mutual aid request of our Michigan partners to assist this utility."

Details of the Traverse City crew's deployment "will be worked out as it is staged," according to Arends. "We will be sure to update the board and the public as we learn more of what our crew is doing and their expected return date."