Linemen from the Cullman Electric Cooperative and Cullman Power Board have joined relief efforts to restore power to those in communities affected by Hurricane Helene.

Helene has been declared as the second-deadliest hurricane in the U.S. behind Katrina since it made landfall in Florida last week with at least 215 confirmed deaths as of Thursday, Oct. 3. President Joe Biden visited disaster areas in North Carolina — where the majority of deaths have occurred — on Wednesday and deployed 1,000 active-duty soldiers to join the North Carolina National Guard to assist in delivering supplies, food and water.

According to a press release from the Federal Emergency Management Agency more than 9.3 million meals, 11.2 million liters of water, 150 generators and 260,000 tarps have been delivered to the region so far. More than $20 million in flexible, upfront funding has also been approved to assist survivors to jumpstart their recovery process.

Communities in South Carolina and East Tennessee have also received a helping hand from Cullman County linemen as they work to restore power to the nearly 800,000 homes which remain without power as a result of Hurricane Helene.

Seven workers (Robert Vincent, Ashton James, Tyler Johnson, Davey Vest, Zac Holmes, Garret Bagwell and Joe Billiot) from the Cullman Electric Cooperative were deployed Friday, Sept. 27, to assist the Edisto Electric Cooperative in Bamberg County, South Carolina where more than 1.4 million power outages were reported.

Co-op communications Manager Brian Lacy, said this initial crew were scheduled to return home by the end of the week before another crew would take their place.

Cullman Power Board director Allison Bright said it sent a crew of eight workers (Cody Malin, Blake Overton, Haydon Twilley, Justin Davis, Brandon Harbison, Madison Pearson, Ronny Duke and Clint Reeves) to East Tennessee early this week through Electric Cities of Alabama, a coalition of the state’s municipally owned power providers. Bright said communication has been difficult as crews work to restore services in the area but what reports she has been able to receive have said the progress workers have made has been good.

Bright couldn’t say with any specificity as to when the crew would return home, but said supervisors in the area are monitoring workloads to ensure safety. If needed, she said crews would be swapped out.