Pepco and its sister companies are sending nearly 60 linemen and support personnel to assist Louisiana-based Cleco Corp. restore power in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita.

Convoys of bucket trucks, derricks and other support vehicles will leave Saturday morning from various locations in Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey for the approximately 1300-mile journey.

This initiative has been coordinated with several mutual assistance groups in which Pepco, Delmarva Power and Atlantic City Electric, subsidiaries of Pepco Holdings, Inc., are members. Under the mutual assistance arrangement, member utilities help each other recover from disasters.

"Our thoughts are with the people of the Gulf Coast states who are again being uprooted and we're answering the call for help from the electric utilities in the area that are still reeling from Hurricane Katrina," said Mike Maxwell, PHI Vice President of Emergency Preparedness.

The PHI companies sent a similar contingent to Mississippi earlier this month to assist in the recovery from Katrina. Additional contract crews from PHI's utilities also have been released to join the new storm relief effort.

Pepco, a subsidiary of Pepco Holdings, Inc., delivers electric service to more than 725,000 customers in Maryland and the District of Columbia.