If there’s one thing that folks in Alabama have plenty of in the summer it is big thick juicy red tomatoes. So, what’s wrong? They tell me that due to the copious amounts of rain we have experienced, the home-grown tomatoes got ‘full of water’ and burst their skins before they could ripen on the vine. It didn’t get every tomato, but it got lots of tomatoes, and consequently my ‘mater samwich’ was a rarity rather than a regular. (And by the way, it wasn’t just tomatoes---many other crops failed due to excessive moisture.)

As any weather observer knows, with these sudden summer rainstorms comes a good bit of electrical lightning and I can assure you that lots of lightning and the rain following it can wreak havoc on certain portions of our telephone network. Not that we don’t design it to stand up under adverse conditions, but millions of votes of wild electrical charges can produce effects on wiring, circuits, towers, transformers and electrical and audio gear that no one can plan for. So…we plan on what to do AFTER it happens.

At times it seemed as if we would not be able to keep up with the wire centers taken down by lightning hits. Lightning, like some other things in life, is a fickle thing. It is attracted to soil types and other characteristic areas that offer the least resistance. Those of you who live in the areas where soil types and these characteristics were favorable for lightning were the most affected, and I am sure the most frustrated.

MonCre and you both were at the mercy of the elements. Our crews worked tirelessly and sometimes under dangerous conditions to get service restored as quickly as possible. There were times when after getting a wire center back in service and on the way to correct other problems, more lightning from a second wave of storms would again take its toll and the wire center would go down again.

MonCre continues to research various methods of eliminating or at least minimizing the effects of lightning and other weather extremes on our network. We either have completed, or are in the process of adding additional fiber capabilities to our network, as well as reworking and “beefing” up the electrical ground fields at specific wire centers where electrical grounding could be part of the problem. We support full maintenance and testing of our battery backup systems in all wire centers and the Central Office on a regular basis. We are confident that our efforts will lead to improved telecommunications facilities and services our customers expect and deserve.

We may not be able to get each of you a juicy ‘mater samwich’ just the way you like it, but we at MonCre certainly hope to provide you with virtually uninterrupted telephone, wireless and computer service…as they say sometimes….come rain or shine!

Jerry McGee
General Manager
MonCre Telephone Cooperative