These heroes put it all “on the line”

This season we want to take a moment to thank the men and women who brave the elements to restore power when it goes out: the linemen who work for the utility companies. They’re the ones who get called in the dead of night to leave the warmth of their beds to repair the damage Mother Nature sometimes brings to our community.

One of these courageous individuals is Mike Strickland, who celebrated his 41st anniversary in October with Liberty Utilities (formerly Empire District Electric Company) and has served the last 34 years on a meter service truck, based in Noel, Missouri. At age 62, he is the oldest, and longest serving lineman with Liberty.

“When he started as a lineman,” Debbie, Mike’s wife of 34 years said, “they only had radios in their trucks for communication and a pager for after hours customer outage calls. There was no call center at that time for outage calls; our home landline phone number was printed in the phonebook for customers to call whenever there was an outage. When Mike was out working, I would take the outage calls and then relay the information to the Joplin office so they could radio him on the truck to tell him where to go next.”

Empire wives were paid $20 a month for their assistance until an official Call Center was eventually created in Joplin. Of course, technology progressed and now linemen carry company cell phones with them all the time and have laptops and internet in their trucks, in addition to “smart meters.”

As a lineman on a meter service truck, you’re on call 24/7, performing meter service work, installing new services, doing maintenance duties, and restoring customer outages. And the lineman’s job does not stop for extreme weather conditions. In fact, that is often what provokes the need for their services. Working in the dark by headlamp or spotlight, working around equipment and high voltage hazards, and often working alone at night in stormy/icy weather are just some of the dangers of the job.

The most difficult work Mike recalls were the two major ice storms in 2005 and 2008. Crews from New York, Kentucky and several other states were called in to help restore power. With hundreds of customers without power, our brave linemen were only sleeping about four hours a night for the first ten days. Meals were delivered to them by Empire Office employees in the affected storm area until power was restored to local restaurants so they could reopen.

“I remember that first ice storm well because it happened at Christmas time,” Debbie said. “Our son was seven and his gift from Santa was at a store in Neosho. It was the day before Christmas and I’d been unable to reach Mike for hours. So, I called the storeroom because I had a 7-year-old with no “Santa gift” for Christmas morning! The guys at the storeroom assured me that they’d pick up the gift for me and deliver it to our house if Mike wasn’t able to.

“I went to bed with no gift for Grant, and no Mike. At 2:30 am I heard the back door open and with a ledge of ice frozen across the shoulders of his Carhartt jacket, Mike came in pushing the dirt bike from Santa. We had Christmas about four hours later and then we said goodbye to him again. That day he had a bag of chips and a coke from a convenience store for Christmas dinner.”

Mike was one of many linemen who worked tirelessly until power was restored in that ice storm. But it was the Joplin tornado that caused the most devastation and loss of life Mike had ever experienced.

“Our daughter, Whitney, graduated from McDonald County that day at an outdoor ceremony on the football field,” Debbie explained. “The winds were terrible and graduates were holding onto their caps, but we had no idea what was happening until we got home and Mike’s phone began ringing off the hook with outage calls while friends began calling me to tell us that spin-off tornadoes were headed our way and we should take shelter.

“As he was heading out the door I had to ‘strongly persuade him’ to stay and shelter with the family until the storm had passed. There was so much devastation it was hard for the utility trucks to even find their way around at first because street signs and landmarks were all gone, too. A town devastated by the loss of life, homes and businesses was emotional for everyone—including those working the aftermath of the storm.”

Throughout the years Mike Strickland lived this lifestyle without complaint and endured it all selflessly to provide for his family and serve his community. We’re grateful for everyday heroes like Mike who brave the elements in the middle of the night to restore power, leaving their families to help yours.