Alabama co-ops help with storm restoration
On Aug. 5, several Alabama crews traveled to areas of Florida hit by Hurricane Debby, which made landfall as a category 1 storm along the Gulf Coast of Florida. Baldwin EMC, Central Alabama EC, Clarke-Washington EMC, Coosa Valley EC, Covington EC, Pea River EC and Pioneer EC sent a total of 55 men, including service and right-of-way crews, to Talquin EC, headquartered in Quincy, Fla.
At the height of the storm, more than 21,500 services, or about 39 percent of its total services, were without power.
When the Alabama crews were released on Aug. 7, the men from Covington EC continued on to Tri-County EC, headquartered in Madison, Fla. The men from Covington were among more than 500 lineworkers, right-of-way and support personnel working to get the lights back on at Tri-County. After the storm passed through, nearly 19,500 of the co-op’s 21,000 meters were without power.
Another storm system blew through north Georgia on July 30. To assist in restoration there, Tallapoosa River EC sent personnel to North Georgia EMC, and Sand Mountain EC and Central Alabama EC went to Amicalola EMC, headquartered in Jasper, Ga. The Tallapoosa River crews continued on to Amicalola when they were released. A total of 27 men from the Alabama co-ops traveled to Georgia to help there.
Alabama students bring invention, ingenuity to aerospace industry
Universities across Alabama have become hubs of aerospace innovation, with student and faculty projects that offer promising contributions for the global industry.
Among the interesting aerospace initiatives going on at the state’s universities:
• The Astrobotics team at the University of Alabama recently notched its ninth win in a robotic competition held in a simulated lunar environment.
• Auburn University students also competed in an aerospace contest last spring, achieving a top 20 international finish for its remote-controlled airplane built for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Design, Build, Fly competition.
• At Tuskegee University, students are developing small spacecraft, called CubeSats, which orbit the earth while conducting scientific experiments. The school is the first and only historically black college or university to offer a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering.
• And a NASA grant is fueling the work of two University of Alabama at Huntsville researchers who are studying lightning flashes detected in space and what they reveal about developing thunderstorms.
This story originally appeared on the Alabama Department of Commerce’s Made in Alabama website.
Whereville, Alabama
Identify and place this Alabama landmark and you could win $25! Winner is chosen at random from all correct entries. Multiple entries from the same person will be disqualified. Send your answer with your name, address and the name of your rural electric cooperative, if applicable. The winner and answer will be announced in the October issue.
Submit by email: [email protected], or by mail: Whereville, P.O. Box 244014, Montgomery, AL 36124.
August’s answer: This wooden railroad water tower, in Red Bay, Alabama has been moved to the site of the future Red Bay Railroad Park that already has a caboose donated to the Red Bay Museum and will soon have a steam locomotive from the 1920s. The water tower was known to be in place by 1907 from photographs. Not one board came off the tower when it was moved. (See photo at right, contributed by Vollie Pierce of Franklin EC).
The town has a new website, redbaymuseum.org, that has been updated recently and highlights the small-town museum there. (Photo contributed by Scotty Kennedy) The randomly drawn correct guess winner is Connie Yurechko of Franklin EC.
