Media Contact
Whitney L. Duvall,
Manager of Communications, 502-563-3481; 502-514-3442
Safety Information for News Crews
At Owen Electric, we understand the importance of keeping our members up to date about storm and outage conditions-- however, our primary concern is keeping our crews focused and safe.
Whether it's during line construction, accident scenes, or outage restoration, power lines pose numerous hidden dangers. While our linemen are trained to identify and avoid these electrical hazards and work safely, it's critical that everyone else stays clear of the work area and equipment.
Aside from the risk of serious injury, spectators can divert a lineman's attention from their current task. When working with wires carrying 14,400 volts of electricity, linemen must be able to focus their thoughts on what they're doing.
Following a storm, debris and broken or fallen tree limbs can pose numerous additional risks. Downed or low-hanging lines can still be energized and deadly. 'Getting the story' should never get in the way of maintaining your own personal safety.
If you have any questions about an Owen Electric work site, please ask one of our linemen for the best place to position a vehicle, camera or reporter to maximize safety of news crews and linemen and to minimize distraction.
Owen Electric provides many tools on our home page that can provide updates in a timely manner, including our real-time outage viewer and news scroller, as well as our Facebook and Twitter pages.
If you have any additional questions concerning an outage or the state of the restoration process, please call Whitney Duvall, Manager of Communications, for up-to-date information.