Mountain Mail Reports
When the 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti in January, Richard Lopez, the engineering and operations manager for the Socorro Electric Cooperative, knew he probably was going to be on an airplane soon.
For the past 20 years, Lopez has been on multiple trips for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) International Foundation, working in various areas that have been devastated by natural disasters.
In Haiti, Lopez worked with NRECA Haiti project manager Myk Manon and Lopez was told “to bring my hardhat, gloves, boots, safety glasses and expect just about anything. So that’s what I did.”
Lopez, though, was surprised about he felt when his plane landed in Port-Au-Prince back in late February.
“I just felt numb,” Lopez said. “The devastation was overwhelming.”
And so what did Lopez do while he was in Haiti?
“The scope of work included anything and everything from working with the Dominican Republic line crew in a bucket truck to working with the Haitian crews to being an adviser and also to coordinate the energizing of these facilities.”
Lopez was scheduled to be in Haiti for two weeks and he set some lofty goals.
“When I got there, there were about 25 percent of the distribution system that had been energized partially, and I thought, well, if we can get to 50 percent, I would be happy.
“When I left, we had partially energized 24 of the 33 circuits or about 65 percent of what could be served.”
Lopez helped the factory complex, the textile export and the industrial load get back online.
“It wasn’t me that did it,” Lopez said. “It was the actual Haitian crews.”
On one of the last days, Lopez was in Haiti. It was then that Lopez realized why he was there.
“We had just reenergized the last circuit and they had just finished trimming some trees to get the line off and they called for the power to come on.
“The power came on and I heard this girl scream and I looked over and she is singing and dancing on her patio. She was really happy. She had been without power for 52 days.”
With his work done in Haiti, Lopez headed back to Socorro on March 9 and resumed his usual routine.
Lopez, though, would like nothing better than to go on another adventure.
“If NRECA feels the need for someone with my abilities, I would love to provide it,” Lopez said.
Picture: A Haitian worker restores power to one of the lines. Photo courtesy of Richard Lopez
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