A Rockingham-based Pee Dee Electric Cooperative crew was dispatched to the Appalachian Mountains over the weekend to help restore power to thousands of Haywood Electric Cooperative members left in the dark by Friday’s storm.

Pee Dee Electric Cooperative Spokesman Bruce Simmons explained 10 men from the group’s Rockingham and Wadesboro offices are currently in the southwestern part of the state working, and should be home by Wednesday morning at the latest.

“They put them to work right away when they got up there Saturday evening,” Simmons said Monday. “They got there at about 6 a.m., and worked until about 1 a.m. Then, they got back up Sunday morning went back to work.”

Haywood Electric Cooperative Spokesman Ken Thomas said that during his 27 years with the non-profit, he’s only seen more snowfall during the Blizzard of 1993.

“There were 11 crews in all sent here to help us work on the lines,” Thomas said Monday. “At the peak of the outage, we had about 9,600 people with no power.”

As of Monday morning at 7 a.m., 2,741 members of the Western North Carolina electric cooperative remained without power, according to a pre-recorded message on the Western North Carolina electric cooperative’s main number in Waynesville.

The power outage impacted customers in the six counties of Haywood, Buncombe, Jackson, Madison, Macon and Transylvania.

“As we begin our focus in more remote areas, accessibility is more difficult and damage is greater than anticipated,” the message states. “However, crews continue working around the clock to restore power as quickly and safely as possible. We do appreciate your patience and understanding as they continue the exhausting task of restoring the power infrastructure.”

Thomas said that at 1 p.m. Monday, the number was reduced to about 2,500.

“What we’re running into mostly is that the damage is being caused by falling trees,” Thomas said, explaining either the branches or the whole tree are being toppled by the weight of the snow and the ice collecting on them.”

“As we get some lines up, trees are falling on other ones, so it’s tough to keep up.”

He explained accessibility is the major problem in southwestern North Carolina.

“This is some of the most rugged terrain in the state, or even in the country,” he said. “Even in good weather, some of these places are hard to get to.”

Because trucks are not able to access many of the locations where there is damage, linemen have to manually climb the poles and do everything by hand in many instances, Thomas said.

“We’ve got somebody in the field working 24 hours a day,” Thomas continued. “They’re working 16 or 18 hour shifts, and only getting about six hours of sleep.”

Simmons said McGhee and his workers are not only getting enough sleep, but are also having to battle the elements and a lack of food.

“It’s really, really cold, and very windy up there,” Simmons said. “He also said it’s been difficult to get anything to eat up there, because the power’s out and everything’s shut down.”

Simmons said the crew didn’t’ t receive a meal until they got off work Sunday after arriving in the mountains, “and by then they were pretty hungry.”

The body uses an excessive amount of calories keeping the body warm, as well as performing manual labor like the kind being performed by the local linemen.”

Simmons said the crews planned to spend Monday night and work Tuesday, then depart that evening, if they finished up early enough in the day.

The crews were also led by foremen Sandy Baldwin and Chip Honeycutt, and included linemen Ernest Patterson, Kenny Simmons, Chris Jacobs, Chris Baxley, Dustin Marsh, Kevin Smith and Todd Martin.

Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at pbrown@yourdailyjournal.com.