Norwich Public Utilities sending crew to Florida for hurricane recovery
Norwich — Four Norwich Public Utilities linemen will be heading to Florida on Sunday morning in response to a mutual aid call from the American Public Power Association to assist the Orlando Utility Commission following what is expected to be a direct hit by Hurricane Irma this weekend.
The four workers — John Benoit, Graham Andruskiewicz, Jeff Burgess and Tony Rizzi — will travel to Danbury on Sunday with representatives from nine other municipal electric companies in New England sending crews to Orlando. The crews expect to arrive in Orlando on Tuesday to assist with hurricane recovery efforts. There is no return date for the NPU crews at this time.
John Benoit, a chief lineman, has worked at NPU for 12 years, lineman Burgess for 11 years, while lineman Andruskiewicz has been at NPU for three years, and lineman Rizzi for two years. The four were not available for comment Friday.
The NPU workers will drive a pickup truck and a digger truck, used to install utility poles, NPU officials said, and also will bring utility equipment.
“NPU is proud to be a part of the American Public Power Association’s mutual aid program and immediately responded to the call for assistance from our friends and colleagues in Florida,” NPU General Manager John Bilda said in a news release announcing the assistance. “The organizations that we will support in the days ahead could very well return the favor in Norwich some time down the road.”
NPU will be reimbursed for all expenses, including wages for employees, by OUC once this critical assignment is completed, Bilda said.
OUC is the second largest municipal utility in Florida and the 14th largest municipal utility in the county, NPU officials said. The utility provides electric, water, chilled water and lighting services to 246,000 customers in Orlando, St. Cloud and parts of Orange and Osceola counties. OUC has approximately 1,100 employees and maintains more than 2,300 miles of electric lines and 1,700 miles of waterlines.
The American Public Power Association is a collection of more than 2,000 community-owned, nonprofit electric utilities, serving more than 48 million people, or about 14 percent of the nation’s electricity customers.
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