After spending just over a week in Florida, four linemen with Manitowoc Public Utilities have returned home.
Jake Zipperer, Kline Vogel, Sean Thomas, and Ed Kakes packed their bags and drove down to Florida shortly after Hurricane Milton made landfall to help the residents of Lakeland get their power back on.
Lakeland, which is about an hour due east of Tampa, was directly in the path of the hurricane, which is estimated to be one of the top ten most costly storms in U.S. history.
Vogel tells Seehafer News they brought “two bucket trucks, one large truck, one small truck, very diverse fleet.”
Zipperer is a veteran of hurricane relief efforts, as he has traveled to Florida three times.
“Initially, going into it, it looked like it was probably the most devastating…that I saw,” he revealed. “And to be honest, I thought it was going to take a lot longer than what it actually took to get everybody back up in power. But we had a lot of crews down there, and everybody from Wisconsin worked very efficiently and was able to get everybody up in a very reasonable manner.”
MPU Workers Among Many Helping in Florida
Thomas called it a “great experience”, noting they got to “see how other crews operate, different methods and things like that, and everybody worked together really well. Everybody clicked on there.”
The guys tell Seehafer News that MPU asked for volunteers to make the trip, and every single lineman signed up.
“The whole reason you want to be a lineman, at least why we all went to school is to this is like our one time to shine,” Zipperer said. “Loved being able to help people out. And there’s nothing more rewarding than going and helping some people in need.”
In total, 22 municipalities that are a part of the Municipal Electric Utilities of Wisconsin provided assistance, with 47 individuals making the trip.
