As Trent Koury steered his gear-packed truck eastbound on Interstate 10 late Saturday night — one of nearly 70 Southern California Edison vehicles stretched across the highway — the first hints of winter storm damage flickered into view.
As they entered Texas, the crews hit snow-dusted asphalt and car hazard lights blinked through the dark. But several states ahead, even heavier impacts were waiting: ice-weighted power lines, snapped electrical poles and communities facing prolonged outages.
For Koury, a Menifee-based lineman and new father, the decision to leave home wasn’t an easy one.
“I have an incredible wife Meaghan and our 3-and-a-half-month-old at home,” he said. “It’s tough. But this is what we’re trained to do: We fix things. We help people. When you get the chance to make a difference, you take it.”
On Jan. 22, SCE received a request from the Southeastern Electric Exchange — a group of 13 utilities from Texas to the Carolinas — seeking help ahead of Winter Storm Fern, a weather event forecasted to bring dangerous levels of snow, ice and subfreezing temperatures across more than two dozen states.
Within 48 hours, SCE mobilized 94 employees and 74 contract workers, including distribution and transmission crews, mechanics, safety officers, field accountants and specialized support teams. Koury and linemen who volunteered from other areas including Ventura, Ontario, Antelope Valley, Tulare and Foothill packed cold‑weather gear, gathered their tools, got the tire chains ready and fueled up the trucks.
The crews met at SCE’s Palm Springs Service Center to get their trucks and gear inspected, go over the game plan, then rolled out in two waves toward Louisiana.
“One of the hardest parts of mutual assistance is simply getting there,” said Travis Parks, an SCE principal manager of Transmission & Distribution, Methods & Governance. “We’re traveling thousands of miles in winter conditions, so we move in convoys and adjust constantly for winter conditions and issues that may arise.”
For Rebecca Relyea, an SCE senior advisor of Business Resiliency coordinating the mutual assistance efforts, the scale of planning behind the scenes is just as critical as the fieldwork.
“We manage everything, from hotels for 90-plus people, fuel stops, credit card increases, coordinating with the requesting utility and staying in constant communication with every team,” she said. “It’s massive, but our employees always step up.”
For many, including Koury, this is their first out-of-state deployment.
“There are hundreds of thousands, maybe more, who could lose power,” Koury said. “You can plan as much as you want, but you never know what you’ll find. It’s an adventure, and we’re all excited for the chance to help.”
While they have not received their work assignments yet, the crews expect to help fix broken utility poles, crossarms and transformers, repair downed wires, and clear vegetation that’s fallen on electric equipment.
As Winter Storm Fern pushes east, SCE crews continue their journey — driving through snow, across hundreds of miles, ready to restore power for communities they’ve never seen before.
For more information on how to prepare for weather-related emergencies, visit: Storm Safety Preparedness.
