Iowans help in Helene recovery

Cedar Rapids, Iowa – The landfall of Hurricane Helene occurred more than a week ago, and since then, it has caused widespread harm to communities throughout the southeast. The number of fatalities has reached 215, and rescue crews are searching feverishly for the hundreds of people who are still missing because of the incident.

It is also the case that hundreds of thousands of people are without power.

Garret Gutknecht is a lineman for Alliant Energy who was recently dispatched as part of a party of four to assist in the restoration of power.

Gutknecht stated, “I received a call at approximately five o’clock on Saturday afternoon, and it informed me that we were going to take off on Sunday morning. My advice was to get home, pack your bag, and try to get some sleep.”

The entire week has been spent in Virginia, where he and his crew have been working to restore power.

A barrier for Gutknecht’s crew has been the steep terrain of Virginia, which, when combined with the fact that trees have been pushed down and flash flooding has occurred, has been a challenge.

“Either we try to get as close as we can with a UTV or we carry a lot of things in by hand,” Gutknecht said referring to the process. According to the statement, “These pole lines are extremely remote; in fact, some of the poles have to be replaced by helicopter because they are so difficult to access.”

As a result of these obstacles, it is possible that the completion of the project will take some time.

According to Gutknecht, “It was not something that happened overnight.”

In 2012, Gutknecht initially traveled to the Catskill Mountains in New York to assist with Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. He has since traveled to a number of other catastrophe sites. He is overjoyed to be in a position to assist a large number of people who are struggling.

“It’s a really good feeling when you work all day or several days in a row and you see the same people without lights, and then all of a sudden you get things ready to turn back on, and you flip that switch, and you hear all the cheers in the background,” Gutknecht said. “It’s a really good feeling.”

Given the magnitude of the task, they are taking things day by day, and they do not know how long the crew will be staying given the conditions.

Other Iowa crews, such as those from the National Guard and the Red Cross, have also been dispatched to the southeast region in order to provide assistance.