Thanks but no thanks—-the message to OGE crews

It turned out to be a short mission of mercy for the 36 Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company workers who thought they were headed to Illinois Tuesday to help snow-bound residents without electricity.

The workers loaded into 32 brightly-colored OGE trucks and left before sunrise from Oklahoma City, thinking they would help utilities in Illinois with the task of restoring electrical power to hundreds of thousands who lost it during the weekend blizzard.

But somewhere in Missouri, the OGE workers got the word—their help wasn’t needed!  Illinois officials informed the utility that they felt their own utilities could handle the issue at hand.

So the OGE truck drivers made a u-turn and returned home. Here’s how OGE announced it:

OG&E crews got as far as Missouri before learning their mutual assistance in Illinois was no longer needed. The crews had left from Oklahoma early this morning with the intent to travel to Schaumburg, Illinois, in response to an assistance request from Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd).

ComEd reports the change in assistance needs is due to more local resources that were made available and that a significant number of customers have had power restored since this morning. Currently, just over 40,000 customers remain without power which is down from approximately 180,000 earlier this morning.

The OG&E convoy includes 32 OG&E trucks carrying 51 line crew members and support personnel. Crew members are expected to arrive in their respective districts this evening.