• Born in West Point, Nebraska, and has five brothers and sisters — Tim, Becky, Denise, Kim and Chris.

• Married for 19 years to Diane; father of Rus, Dani and Kylie.

• His favorite coworker is Gary Martin, whom he has worked with for 15 years. Martin is trustworthy, thorough and does good job, and Hamel really enjoys his company.

• He is inspired by his family and his customers. He enjoys the feeling he gets when he turns someone's lights back on. He also enjoys that not everyone in the world can do what he does.

• His coworkers would describe him as experienced, trustworthy, loyal and a great friend.

• He enjoys hunting, boating and camping with his family and spending time with friends.

• The tools that he can't live without are his climbers, his belt and a sharp chain saw.

Early Years

My first job was working as an apprentice lineman for Pike Electric in Neunan, Georgia. I spent seven months working for the contractor on distribution, supply and power projects. I was hired as an apprentice lineman for the Omaha Public Power District, and have been with the company for 21 years.

In the Family

My father worked as a lineman for Nebraska Public Power for 37 years. On the side, my father worked for the city. When he climbed the poles, I ran the hand line. It seemed like a good way to make a living, so I also decided to go to line school. I always had a close bond with my father, and he guided me to become a lineman.

Day in the Life

I worked as a journeyman lineman for three years for OPPD and now serve as a troubleshooter. I work on a crew of 14 troubleshooters and love working with them. They are such a tight group. Each day, we visit individual customers, see why they don't have power and then do what we can to restore power. If a tree falls on their service, we trim the tree and then get their service back up and running.

Favorite Project

My favorite project was when we built 3 miles of aerial cable down Pacific Street in Omaha. I worked on the job as an apprentice and learned a lot on the job. It was a fun job and a learning experience.

Challenges and Rewards

One of the challenges of working in the utility industry is trying to do the same amount of work with less people. Safety is still the number-one goal every day, and you can't put a price on safety. Whatever it takes to get the job done safely, it should be worth it.

Safety Lesson

One of my friends was electrocuted because he wasn't wearing his rubber gloves. After my friend died in 1999, I learned to never take a shortcut. Over the years, I've also had some close calls of my own. For example, when I was working on restoring power following a storm, the cross arm across the street caught on fire every time I energized the phase. When I worked on overhead switches, a large ball of fire came spreading toward me. I thought that was maybe the day I would meet my Maker.

Working Storms

One storm I will not soon forget is the ice storm in October of 1997. The storm happened over Halloween, and the city actually cancelled the celebrations. Wires, poles and limbs were down all over the city. The conditions were very harsh, and we faced a lot of problems with the ice. Right now we are also working on a major storm restoration effort. I'm working 20 hours straight because a spring wind storm with winds up to 40 to 50 mph knocked tree limbs on the wires.

Future Plans

If I had to do it over again, I would go into the power industry. It has been a very fulfilling job, and I love being outside and helping people. I have made a good living doing it. I want to be able to retire when I am 55. I then want to travel and spend time with my wife and children.