Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative has dispatched a five-man crew to western Oregon to assist in restoration efforts for communities left without power after severe winter weather swept through the area.

Fellow electric cooperative Lane Electric Cooperative – based in Eugene – sent out a call for assistance on Saturday, January 13 after ice and snowstorms caused significant damage to its infrastructure throughout its service territory, leaving over 5,000 households out of power.

OTEC answered the call for help as part of a mutual aid agreement through the Oregon Cooperative Network. Over the past several years OTEC has sent crews to assist with other winter storm and wildfire restoration efforts.

The top priority of each local Oregon cooperative, including OTEC, is service to its own member-owners and the safety of the communities they serve. Before committing resources to mutual aid requests, each co-op ensures it has ample crews available for all local needs, including the cooperative’s own outage mitigation. Since OTEC currently has available resources and manpower to not only staff each district but also send aid, the decision was made to send a crew into the storm to help.

“This shows the power of the cooperative network and exemplifies the cooperative principal of “Cooperation Among Cooperatives.” said Lea Hoover, OTEC’s Director of Member and Strategic Servies, “OTEC member-owners can rest assured that if we found ourselves in a similar emergency situation, co-ops from across Oregon would be on their way to Eastern Oregon to help us.”