'The Flooding Is Terrible:' Oklahomans Assist In Hurricane Helene Recovery Efforts Across Southeast

Hundreds of Oklahomans are helping communities as they recover from the impact of Hurricane Helene, and more expect to be deployed soon.

PSO crews from Northeast Oklahoma are part of a 450-person group, from several states, now working in Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee.

Travis Andrews, a PSO Supervisor, said his group is now in Pembroke, Virginia, where flooding has washed out roads

“The flooding up here is terrible. We've got roads flooded you know, where we can't get around. The terrain is mountainous, it's nothing like Oklahoma, for sure," Andrews said.

OG&E sent employees from Shawnee to the Southeast to help with power restoration, and now one group is working in Waynesboro, Georgia, which had both major flooding and wind damage.

“This is probably not so much a restoration effort, as a rebuild,” said OG&E Supervisor Chris Bristol. “Because we're having to go in and completely rebuild entire lines which takes time, especially when you have to clear damage out of the way to do it, but we're here for the long haul.”

Bristol said some of the OG&E employees with him were on the fourth mutual aid deployment this year.

Oklahoma's Task Force 1, composed mainly of Tulsa Firefighters, was deployed in and around Tampa Bay, Florida, but is moving to Newton, North Carolina, to continue search and rescue work in areas mainly impacted by flooding.