Our 4-man crew has safely returned from assisting South River Electric Membership in Dunn, North Carolina. Line Foreman Duane Jones and Linemen Anthony Jarboe, Brad Smith, and Jon Metz left last week arriving on Friday. A total of 17 Illinois electric co-ops sent crews to assist. SREM has 43,000 members. By Friday night, 26,000 members were out of power as numbers continued to climb. Crews had to wait until the winds were below 30 MPH before they could do any bucket work. By Saturday, outages had reached 30,700. North Carolina, as a whole, had 230,000 cooperative members out of power. After restoration began, numbers dropped to 25,300 for SREM on Saturday and to 16,200 on Sunday. Duane reported on Tuesday that outages were down to 1,500 and it was still raining off and on. Trees were still falling due to flooding and soft ground causing new outages. Our crews came across rattlesnakes and black bears in this new territory. Crews were finally released on Wednesday morning. Thank you, Duane, A.J., Brad, and Jon for all your hard work! That’s what you call Cooperation Among Cooperatives — one of our Co-op Principles!