To put this into perspective, an online EEI report detailing major storm restoration survey results from 1989 to 2003 revealed that the median average peak number of customers out was 215,500, with all customer power restored in a median average of five days. All of Sulphur's approximately 23,000 customers were out of power for a minimum of seven days. There were still customers out of power after 24 days. For Entergy, it was like trying to catch a 2000-lb fish on 20-lb test line in a rowboat. They just had to hang on for a while until the fish got tired and they could get some assistance to get it on land.

One of the more personal moments of the trip was when I received word about the town of Hackberry, especially along the Holly Beach area. As I made my way down to the beach, I encountered a man at one of the checkpoints who was keeping everyone but local people or restoration forces away. We talked about what was ahead. I will always remember him telling me that he wasn't looking for someone else to take care of him. He had lost almost everything he owned. He knew when he moved there with his family that this could happen. He said he would work to regain and rebuild what he had lost.

To me, that is a snapshot of what has made America great. That is why we leave our families, travel hundreds of miles and work in less than ideal conditions — so we can help others in their time of need.

This still didn't prepare our team for what was ahead. For the last 5 miles (8 km), not a single pole was standing. Wire was all over the roads and bay areas. At the beach, all you could see was a couple of vehicles that were covered in sand to within a foot of the roof. Imagine what a sandcastle looks like after a wave hits it, and you get a picture of what happened to the houses and other personal belongings that were in the way of this storm.

After our assessment, we turned our energy to assisting with the daunting task of rebuilding the system. Our teams were integrated into Entergy's line and service unit, and we also began helping lead tree and line crews to work sites, assisting feeder bosses with daily duties, and continuing to provide information to local office management about lines restored. Materials to replace damaged equipment became a concern considering the enormity of damage. “I've been through several storms, and I haven't seen anything of this magnitude,” Fontenot said.

Entergy suggested we investigate a list of potential no-load transformers, which could possibly be used to replace the existing damaged transformer population. Entergy crews had used this strategy during Katrina. The idea was promising, but “the problem for us was geographical perspective,” Duhon said.

Duhon could generate a list, but actually locating the transformers was the challenge. “It wasn't a good feeling,” Duhon said.

During Katrina, the process entailed marking up physical maps in order to locate the no-load transformers, a process which took days. This time around we had a better idea. There was a list of approximately 416 transformers showing no revenue in the accounting system. The transformer information was also stored in the GIS system as a device location (DLOC) number. We were able to translate the DLOCs into latitude-longitude coordinates and import the locations into Microsoft Streets and Trips software to establish a map point where these transformers were located.

A two-person team was then dispatched with a laptop computer, Microsoft Streets and Trips, and the map of the no-load transformer locations. One of the Gulf Power crews scouting for transformers said they drove to the first location they'd been given, rolled down the window and the pole with the transformer on it was standing right beside the car.

So we compiled and printed maps of the no-load transformers by distribution feeder and gave these maps to local line and service management to determine the need for the transformers as power restoration progressed in the weeks ahead. This allowed personnel totally unfamiliar with Entergy's distribution system to conceive, design, implement and document more than 100 replacements for damaged transformers within a three-day period.

Entergy was a great host and a first-rate operation. Even as we prepared to leave, we knew the work had just begun for the local personnel charged with returning the electrical system to pre-storm status. It was a very happy day with some sadness when our team met for the last time before departing Lake Charles to return to our loved ones. Happy because the majority of people had their electrical service restored, but sad because we were leaving teammates we might never see again.

In our last meeting together, I thanked the team members for their dedication and for representing our core values of integrity, excellence and teamwork. I had been surrounded by the best people that any team leader could imagine. We formed a unique bond after spending some 24 days together in adverse conditions. I told them that in the years ahead, when we might not have seen each other since this day, I would never forget them or our time in Lake Charles.

Larry Shaver is an engineering manager and storm team leader based in Synergetic Design's Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., office. He is a registered professional engineer with 32 years of distribution engineering experience. He earned his BSEE degree from North Carolina State University. Prior to joining Synergetic Design, Shaver was the logistics leader for a utility storm team from the mid-1990s to 2005. lshaver@sdiraleigh.com