Amid frigid temperatures and widespread damage caused by Winter Storm Fern Jan. 23-27, electric cooperatives across multiple states, including Illinois, mobilized through mutual aid to help restore power to thousands of affected members in southern states.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) reported that co-op outages peaked at about 400,000. While Mississippi and Kentucky were among the hardest-hit states, outages exceeded 1 million nationwide.

Ice accumulation proved to be the most destructive element of the storm, snapping power lines and poles and toppling trees into energized equipment, creating outages that often lasted for days.

"Freezing rain and ice accumulation don't stop causing damage when the precipitation ends," said Joe Arnold, vice president of strategic communications at Kentucky Electric Cooperatives. "The weight on power lines and trees continues, and when you add wind, the cumulative effect becomes a slow-motion disaster."

Mutual aid crews from 21 states were dispatched to aid in restoration. Illinois crews assisted Kentucky co-ops Farmers Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation and South Kentucky RECC. Crews assisting South Kentucky RECC remained on assignment for the duration of restoration efforts and were released to return home after power was restored on Jan. 31.

Crews initially deployed to Farmers RECC completed restoration work on Thursday, Jan. 29. With critical needs shifting elsewhere, most of the assisting crews transferred to Tri-County Electric Cooperative in Tompkinsville, Ky., to continue restoration work. Those crews were released Jan. 31. All Illinois mutual aid crews are now safely back in their home territories.

"This restoration effort would not have been possible without the incredible support surrounding us. We are deeply grateful for our support teams, our members whose prayers, patience and encouragement carried us through, and the mutual aid and contract crews who traveled to assist and worked alongside our team throughout the storm," South Kentucky RECC reported on social media.

Thank you to the following Illinois electric co-ops that sent crews to aid in storm recovery in Kentucky: Clay Electric Co-operative, Clinton County Electric Cooperative, Coles-Moultrie Electric Cooperative, Egyptian Electric Cooperative Association, M.J.M. Electric Cooperative, Menard Electric Cooperative, Monroe County Electric Cooperative, Rural Electric Convenience Cooperative, Shelby Electric Cooperative, Tri-County Electric Cooperative and Wayne-White Counties Electric Cooperative.