Chatham’s Village President says his community reached a milestone Friday as power was fully restored to residential areas, although sone individual issues may remain. Dave Kimsey said the village sustained heavy damage from the derecho that moved through the area.
“The path of the storm, the most intense area, came through the part of the village that has the oldest, largest trees and the power lines that are still above ground. That complicates everything,” he said.
At the peak, outages totaled approximately 2,600 of the more than 6,000 Village of Chatham electric customers.
Chatham had a line from a substation on the south part of town that had to be rebuilt, a big project. Outside crews helped the village’s electric department make repairs, which finished ahead of previous estimates.
“They’ve put in a monumental amount of work. We’ve consistently been on the front end of those estimates.”
Kimsey also gives credit to improved weather that allowed solid progress.
The first task after the storm was to check and make sure everyone was accounted for and get roads opened. That required a substantial amount of tree and brush removal.
“We started on that main feeder line, and then priorities were making sure emergency services had power, and retirement homes and support centers that are in the village,” Kimsey said. “Then we worked from the source and began building outward through the system.”
He said the work going forward will include stabilizing repairs that were made, while additional cleanup will be ongoing for a while.
Despite the inconvenience of power outages, Kimsey said residents were understanding and helpful to one another. The Chatham Jaycees provided meals to line crews. Others chipped in with food and resources for those in need.
Kimsey was at the office of his full-time job in Springfield when the derecho moved through. He raced back to Chatham after the worst of the storm passed.
“It was still raining and there were residents out there cutting limbs with neighbors. That was since (the storm) happened and they are still out helping each other,” he said.
“It has been a trying week,” he added. “I’d give a tremendous thank you to our community the collective way they’ve responded to this.”
