For Immediate Release
Contact
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Betty Kennedy: 609-625-5567 betty.kennedy@pepcoholdings.com
Long Restoration Effort Expected
Mays Landing, N.J. - Atlantic City Electric and its sister companies have committed about 175 personnel to assist Mississippi Power in the restoration of electric service in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
An additional 56 linemen, supervisors and support personnel, along with trucks and equipment, will leave Thursday morning for the approximately 1,100-mile journey. This assignment is indefinite because utilities in the affected region are still assessing the damage to their systems and have not determined how long these employees'' services will be needed.
Those leaving Thursday are in addition to about 120 contract personnel that were sent previously.
This initiative has been coordinated with several mutual assistance groups in which Atlantic City Electric, Delmarva Power and Pepco, subsidiaries of Pepco Holdings Inc., are members. Under the mutual assistance arrangement, member utilities help other utilities recover from disasters.
"This is a humanitarian crisis on a massive scale and we're just grateful we can send our crews to help in the recovery," said Mike Maxwell, PHI Vice President for Emergency Preparedness. "The Gulf Coast utilities came to our aid during Hurricane Isabel and we will do the same for them."
Maxwell said the second wave of assistance is being sent to Mississippi after coordinating with other utilities in this region. "We are confident that enough resources are available within the region to respond to our customers'' needs if we are impacted by a significant storm," he added.
Atlantic City Electric continues to monitor the progress of the recovery from this natural disaster. Katrina has caused catastrophic destruction along the Gulf Coast and left an estimated 2 million customers without power.
Atlantic City Electric, a public utility owned by Pepco Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: POM), provides safe, reliable and affordable regulated electric and natural gas delivery services to more than 500,000 customers in Southern New Jersey.