Posted: 9/25/07
Tri-County Electric recovers
from August 2007 floods
By Tom Murphy
Special to the Caledonia Argus
"We were strong before the flood and we will be strong after it."
Those were the confident words of Tri-County Electricís President/CEO Brian Krambeer last Friday. The co-op, with $70 million in assets, sustained about $6 million in losses after the August 19 flood that struck Rushford. The companyís 35,000 square foot headquarters was flooded by four and a half feet of water, which included the 9,000 square foot office located on two stories in the front of the building.
The flood disaster was the second big shock the co-op has experienced in the last six years. General manager Bruce Meistadís unexpected death came six years ago and that was when Krambeer was elevated to his current position.
"We are waiting to see how FEMA and the state of Minnesota do in providing assistance," Krambeer said. "It will not make us whole, but it will soften the blow.
"By no means did this impair our operating performance," Krambeer noted. The disaster forced a new look at strategic planning. "We will be looking at a new headquarters building, implementing technology efficiencies, and looking for economies of scale," he said of the evaluation that is taking place. A special board meeting is set for October 4 to make decisions.
Krambeer elaborated on the plan saying the new technologies will likely be part of the improvement, "Everything we had is gone," he pointed out the economies of scale portions may include partnering with other co-ops.
The current main office in Rushford has been gutted; inventories have been completed; and the building has been cleaned and sanitized.
Power was restored to nearly all of the 2,000 customers who experienced outages within a few days after the flood. The co-op has 12,800 members in Fillmore, Houston, and Winona counties and seven municipalities it serves. Because virtually all of the trucks were lost in the flood, employees used their own vehicles and four wheelers to provide initial service in the floodís aftermath. "Our employees responded phenomenally," he praised. Between leased and rented vehicles, a minimum level of the original 25 units are back in place.
Bids on the new service vehicles will be opened soon and the co-op is working with vendors to see if the booms can be salvaged. Krambeer said, "Those suppliers have been very supportive of us."
The co-opís consultant of six years was amazed at what has been accomplished in the recovery, Krambeer said. Even though a disaster plan was in place, it may have never been anticipated that level of destruction to the companyís central office and fleet.
"Our people were working to put the system back where it was. All the while, many of them had lost their homes," he said of his 57 dedicated employees. "The recovery worked extremely well."
Within 24 hours, the operations center was moved to Caledonia. Phones into Rushford were able to tie into the system and be served out of Caledonia, he reported. Customer records had been backed up off site. All of the data was restored.
By Monday, Dairyland Power had brought a mobile tower and added that unit to Tri-Countyís own microwave tower at the new temporary offices at the Rushford airport. "We have the equivalent of a T1 line internet in operation," Krambeer said.
He specifically cited co-ops from Freeborn-Mower, Peoples of Rochester, Riverland of Arcadia, Dairyland of La Crosse, Hawkeye Tri-County of Cresco, and Adams Land O-Lakes from Wisconsin Dells for assisting in the recovery. "One of my messages gave me the assurance, ëthese are the times when the co-op spirit really shines,í " Krambeer recalled.
"I never thought I would see the day when a John boat would float through the Tri-County Electric warehouse," Krambeer recalled of that Sunday. "We had to get to our trucks in Caledonia. Before that, our linemen came into the warehouse in a boat and literally dived for their gear that was in their flooded trucks," he said.
Krambeer said the disaster was shared by all of the employees. "I am surrounded by extremely talented people. The day-to-day things are handled by department heads," he said. "All of our people are truly shining stars. They have proven they are our greatest asset," he said.
"Weíll be stronger because of this experience. Weíll also be a better co-op," he predicted. "More than ever, we achieved our goal of being the model of efficiency and providing quality service to our members," he promised.
Caledonia Argus
314 West Lincoln St.
P.O. Box 227
Caledonia, MN 55921-0227
507/724-3475
E-Mail: editor.argus@ecm-inc.com