POWERGRAMS

16 "Many of the newer engineers at the time had not worked a major storm restoration effort like this." But the company adjusted on the fly. Herschel Hale, Tavel's predecessor, was called in as a contractor to help Tavel coordinate contractors. It proved a daunting task. Many electric utilities that normally would have rushed to help Alabama Power were already helping Florida Power & Light navigate the damage from Bonnie, Charley and Frances. "I remember Don Boyd (retired Storm Center director) on the Southeastern Electric Exchange calls navigating through some very intense conversations trying to get Florida to release some companies to come help us," Tavel said. "If it were not for the respect Don had throughout the industry and his masterful negotiating skills, it would have been days before we could have goen the help we needed." More than 4,000 outside linemen from 27 states were brought in. For all its bluster, damage ($18 billion) and death (67 died in the Caribbean; 25 in the United States; none in Alabama), Ivan was the catalyst for a sea change in the way Alabama Power did business. Then-CEO Charles McCrary made a bold prediction: Power would be restored to 99 percent of customers in eight days. Nearly 60 percent of the company's customers had no electricity aer Ivan struck. "At that time, we never made promises like that," McCrary told Powergrams when he retired in 2014, "but I knew we could do it and the customers needed to know what to expect. It set a precedent and was a real turning point." And the employees kept McCrary's promise. Ivan was also a turning point in the relationship between Alabama Power management and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Lineman Bobby Turnbloom died near Lay Dam when ejected from a bucket truck as he worked to restore power. It kickstarted the company's now- renowned strong relationship with the union. "When we lost Bobby Turnbloom, that tragedy brought us together and the dialogue was opened," said Casey Shelton, business manager, IBEW System Council U-19, speaking in the same 2014 Powergrams article. "Charles had the foresight to understand that if we could just learn to communicate, we would see we all want the same thing, and that's a safe and fair working environment for employees. What he's done at Alabama Power in terms of that relationship is legendary throughout the industry." Another change was discontinuing use of the Saffir-Simpson scale, which measures intensity of sustained winds to predict the extent of hurricane damage. The company changed to the Hurricane Severity Index (HSI) for restoration planning aer Ivan. "HSI uses equations that incorporate the intensity of the winds and the size of the area covered by Hurricane Ivan caused major damages across Alabama in September 2004.

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