After a series of relentless rainstorms knocked out power to their South Texas homes, Tiele Dockens and her neighbors faced sweltering temperatures with no air-conditioning and a rapidly rising creek that threatened to block help from reaching them for days.
With floodwaters ranging from about 6 feet to 14 feet deep, there was no way for lineworkers from San Patricio Electric Cooperative to get their vehicles into the isolated section of the small town of Papalote to restore power. But, working together, Dockens and the co-op came up with a creative solution to bring two linemen into the neighborhood on paddle boards.
“I was so thankful that they were willing to try it,” says Dockens, whose neighborhood was hit by three consecutive rainstorms in late May. “There’s nothing worse than being stuck back here without power, especially with 100% humidity and temperatures in the 90s.”
Dockens and her neighbor, Kayten White, hopped aboard Dockens’ two boards and paddled about a quarter of a mile across the swollen creek to reach co-op crew foreman Joe Cruz and apprentice lineworker Brenden Walton on the other side. White then joined Dockens and her Australian sheep dog, Bodi, on one of the boards, leaving the second one free for the two linemen.
“When we pulled up, I wasn’t expecting paddle boards,” Cruz said. “I had talked to Mr. Dockens earlier, and I must have misunderstood because I was expecting some kind of boat.”
The two linemen quickly evaluated the situation and determined that the creek was safe to cross.
Luckily, Walton had ridden a paddle board before, although he said that “using it with two people was a little squirrelly.”
“I was fairly confident we could do it,” he said. “I just figured let’s give it a shot and see what happens. We crossed just fine.”
While Walton sat at the front of the board and paddled, Cruz sat behind him with their equipment, including an “extendo stick”—a telescopic hot stick that can be used to replace fuses from the ground.
Once they crossed the creek and arrived on dry land, Dockens was able to drive them the remaining few miles to the power pole and fuse near her house at the end of a county road.
“They fixed the fuse in like five minutes,” Dockens said. “I was so thankful. It can get awfully miserable here pretty fast at this time of the year, and I’ve got some elderly neighbors and a little preschooler nearby who were also without power. You’ve got to look out for each other when you live out here.”
Without the paddle boards, it would have been at least a couple of days before the floodwaters would have receded enough to allow a crew to drive in and restore power, Cruz said.
Walton said he was happy that the adventure turned out so well.
“The whole thing was pretty cool,” he said. “It would have been unfortunate to leave people there for days without power when it was so hot. It was fulfilling to get out there and fix it so they didn’t have to suffer any longer.”
Dockens, who has lived in her home for about 20 years, said the co-op has always done a great job of responding quickly after a storm.
“Their lineworkers are just the best,” she said.
Cruz said gratitude from members like Dockens “makes us love our jobs even more.”
“Any of our linemen will go above and beyond to help our members; it just happened to be us this time,” he said. “It’s why we do the job.”
Erin Kelly is a staff writer for NRECA.