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Six linemen from Freeborn Mower Electric Cooperative are traveling to South Carolina this week to aid in power restoration in an area devastated by Hurricane Helene.

Freeborn Mower Electric CEO Jim Krueger said the cooperative is one of 18 cooperatives from Minnesota sending help to South Carolina with about 70 linemen total.

“The footage that I’ve seen — some of the pictures and videos — it’s a catastrophic amount of damage,” Krueger said.

The Freeborn Mower crew will specifically be in the Greenville, South Carolina area, and will likely be there for about two weeks.

He said one of the seven cooperative principles is cooperation among cooperatives.

“This is just something that I think is special in the co-op industry — it’s not just the co-op industry, the whole electrical industry does this, investor owned utilities do it with each other, municipals do it — we all have mutual aid at top of mind,” he said. “When our neighbors and our co-workers are in need we just go help, and the same reverberates back when we need help.”

Other large mutual aid assignments the cooperative has been a part of include the Duluth area during Christmas 2022, when four linemen responded for a call, and they have also sent linemen in the aftermath of Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina, Krueger said.

The last big storm the cooperative needed the help from other cooperatives was during an ice storm in April 2019.

Al Stadheim, director of engineering and operations, said at that time, there were 135 outside linemen from Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin who came to help.

In this case, Stadheim said, the linemen will work seven days a week, typically 16 hours a day, with rest a critical component for safety.

The crew stayed in Kentucky Wednesday night and was expected to arrive in Greenville Thursday, after maneuvering through road closures due to washouts.

“We’re certainly proud of the dedication that our employees show at a time of need — and certainly these six will be top of mind for us while they’re gone,” Krueger said.