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HOUSTON — Eric Trice knows the routine of disaster. The 55-year-old lineman is packing his clothes. Maybe he'll spend a little more time with his two grown sons before he leaves. “Go make that money,” says his wife. He drove from his hometown of Evansville, Indiana in his bucket truck.
As a lineman, Trice has worked through three blizzards and two hurricanes, repairing electrical infrastructure and getting power back on. When he got a call for help around Houston after Hurricane Barrell's high winds disrupted the system, he said yes. Most people do, he said. Only something like marriage can come in the way.
“We like to re-empower people,” Trice said.
Trice is among thousands of linemen working across Southeast Texas after wind, tree limbs and in some cases entire trees took down lines and poles. Trace works as an employee of Centerpoint, a Houston-area utility company that lost power to more than 2 million customers after the hurricane.
The inability of the electrical infrastructure to withstand the storm left Texans reeling. Residents threw out spoiled food and slept in cars to try to stay safe without power in the dangerous heat. Centerpoint struggled to communicate when the power would return. A graffiti artist scrawled “CenterPointle$$” on the street. A photo from the Houston Chronicle shows a skeleton posing next to the sign, “Waiting at Centerpoint.”
The utility is responsible for maintaining power poles and lines in the area and now faces serious questions: Did CenterPoint trim the trees properly? Did he maintain and enhance his equipment as he should have? Not many people here think so. In an interview with the Chronicle, the CEO defended the system working as designed. State regulators promised a thorough review.
The sheer size of the failure exposed a terrifying truth: The electric infrastructure here is vulnerable to storms that are likely to grow stronger as climate change, and to make the system less resilient to withstand them. It will cost a lot of money. That puts residents at risk and puts the onus for recovery — and even saving lives — on utility officials and linemen like Trice.
Trace has loved electrical work since childhood. His uncle was an electrician and sometimes took him along to work on houses. He started as a groundsman, memorizing tools so he could pass them to the linemen. He learned to climb poles and went through an apprenticeship program that taught him to handle dangerous wires.
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With 31 years in the industry, Trice drove nearly 850 miles to Texas on Tuesday. Or so he thinks – the days are blurring together. Since he's been here, he's been reporting for duty at 6 a.m. at Sam Houston Race Park, where he eats a hot breakfast and gets his instructions. He takes maybe a 20-minute break for lunch and eats dinner when he finishes a 16-hour shift. He continues to work even though he is tired, knowing that he will rest at the end of it, maybe in two weeks.
“We're in storm mode, and we keep going,” Trice said. “You go to this hotel, you take a shower and you walk out, and your alarm clock wakes you up, and you get back up and leave.”
On Saturday, he worked to replace two broken poles in the northwest part of the city. He and his team had to strip the wires from the poles, pull out the old poles and put in new ones. This process takes time because other workers have to locate the gas, water and sewer lines to make sure they don't mess them up.
Power has been restored to 1.8 million Centerpoint customers since the hurricane hit, but about 450,000 were still without power as of Sunday morning, according to the utility.
The linemen have faced the wrath of a frustrated community. Earlier in the week, a man allegedly threatened an electrical worker with a BB or airsoft gun, according to ABC 13 . More than 100 linemen were reportedly evacuated from one site after shots were fired, CenterPoint President and CEO Jason Wells said in a video. Posted on Saturday.
Trace said people have also thanked him and prayed for him. Driving his truck last week, he was afraid to look at the car next to him if the driver wasn't happy with his driving. But when he turned around, he saw a child with thank you written on it.
Disclosure: Sam Houston Race Park has been a financial supporter of the Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization funded by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Sponsors have no role in Tribune journalism. Find their full list here.
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