Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 27, 1960)
Crews' Courage Stamina and Skill Restore Service When the lnd begin to howl or fr!ng rain to fll. the pow company ltn news and the puwrr auj'thrt and service ujt t alert thcmwlvee for UuuMo call. Somctimt-s It's big trouble, for when It turm m-an. the weather It relentleaa f of electric utility M-rvict facilities. Like a mllltiry force, the maintenance and rontructlon crew of rcl- flc Power Light Company must be al - ready for a audden at tack along the weather front Every veteran lineman of the company can tell tales of nights and dayt epent repairing transmission and dis tribution line knocked out of amice by vudden blows from a storm. Ice l.i the worst foe. Wind la the next. Lightning and floods bring their share of troubles. Kvcn a gentle rain breaking the long late summer coating of dust on Insulators and making them conductors instead, can trigger short circuiting of lines and keep crews working all night Serious Storms Fait At times during the 50-year history of Pacific Power Light Company storm damage has been almost catastrophic, and the task of restoring electric ser vice seemingly super h u m a n. But out into the storms have gone the line crews, fighting not only the damage, but the con tinuing hazard of the storm. Such a storm was the now his toric "ice storm" of Oregon's mid-Willamette Valley In 1832. More than 100 miles of trans mission line was knocked out of service. Ice built up on lines un til they were three Inches thick, were ripped from Insulators and fell to the ground. The freezing held them to the surface, as the cold continued, and the lines couldn't me restrung. Instead of a repair Job It be came a construction Job. But what a Job! Before the linemen could climb the poles they had to chip away the ice with ham mers and axes. One crew worked m days straight, 10 hours a day. Freak wind storms have caus ed damage that practically wiped out electric service over largo ureas. One in Walla Walla In the 1930's left several streets a tangle of toppled poles and wires. Wires Sagged In the early days, winds In the Yakima valley sometimes stretched the soft-drawn alumi num wire, used in early high voltage transmission lines, until it sagged so low between the poles It almost touched the ground. The gale-like blizzards that can sweep Wyoming and Mon tana are no joy to linemen in those states when wires are down. Improved construction and better materials have lessened possibilities of storm outages, but the line crews can never conclude that the battle with the weather is over. Their trucks, mnterinls And varied specialized equipment are always geared for trouble at a moment's notice in order that Pacific Power's cus tomers will be inconvenienced as little as possible. Floods were a frequent prob lem in Oregon's Willamette Val ley in the early years. Many a lineman was also a good oars man. And mounting a pole from a boat, especially if the current were swift and the top of the pole swaying in an eight-foot circle, was a supreme test of a lineman's climbing skill. Floods and Ice also gave trou ble In the early days to small hydroelectric generating plants. Sometimes there was not enough water left flowing in the winter to turn the turbines. Pacific Tower's battle with the weather to keep power flow ing to its customers has often been at the point of high drama. At other times it has been for the line crews just steady, hard, exhausting toil. But the result has been a tradition for service despite obstacles that few com panies can equal on any com parison. Such was the credo of a young meterman, drafted during a storm emergency to track down started out In a truck, but the truck stalled in the snow. He hiked through drifts to a farm house and talked the farmer Into letting him borrow a horse. The horse didn't like it, but the me terman forced him into drifts until he was tired of rebelling then rode him bareback for miles up the line until he found the source of trouble. In Granddad's Day A "Dynamo" Did It. Today Power Giants Like This Help You Live Better Electrically! , . y . . ,i IK- Kit, ., ' !;. 1' , "V. 'l At I J i. 1 - W N . -v - luliriiiiBiiiiiwuiii mi rmumi .Sinwnniri.iii.i win'' i ium&.A-- d.u,. m i auiI Rivar In southwestern Washington. World's highest earth-fill dam is part of PPlL's newest and largest nyaroeiecinc pianr, me UW.n.w.ii r,vJBv. v PP&L Marks 50 Years of Public Service! During the past half-century, the electric switch has become the symbol of better living for thousands of customers served by Pacific Power & Light. Thanks to the efforts of hard-working "power pioneers," these 50 years have seen the light bulb of 1910 become today's all-electric home, with all it means to you in com fort and convenience. Because of the big value and many benefits of electric service, use of dependable PP&L electricity has in creased rapidly. In the past ten years alone, use of electricity in Pacific Powerland has more than doubled. And today, just as throughout the past 50 years, PP&L continues to push ahead-developing new hydro electric sites, exploring Northwest coal deposits as potential fuel for power, researching the possibilities for atomic power-to assure you plenty of dependable electricity for your better living in the years to come. EACIFIO POWER & LIG-HT T 1
