VANCOUVER – Power crews from Oregon and Washington state headed to New Jersey Thursday morning to help in the Hurricane Sandy relief effort.
Linemen from Clark County and crews from Eugene Water & Electric will give workers on the East Coast a break after days of around-the-clock work. Pacific Corp crews from the Rocky Mountain area were also joining the effort.
Wednesday night alone, an estimated 700,000 New Yorkers were still without power. Officials there said it could be another three days before the power is restored for everyone.
A power company spokeswoman said when it comes to major crises like Sandy, help from people across the country is seriously needed in the aftermath.
“We help each other out when there are big outages like this,” said Erika Erland of Clark County Public Utilities. “Of course, this is one of the biggest ones yet.”
The crews had to charter a plane, in order to get around the major airline wait-lists created by superstorm Sandy.
