Thank a lineworker this week

April 15, 2024 | Jason Kuiper | OPPD employees, T&D

When storms hit or disaster strikes and the power goes out, they are the first responders, regardless of time or day. They put in countless hours maintaining the power lines that power our lives.

They also install new transmission and distribution lines in communities throughout OPPD’s service district as demand for power continues to grow.

April 18 is Lineworker Appreciation Day, a time to honor the employees who do this vital work.

OPPD has 141 linemen, including crew leaders, journeymen apprentices and troubleshooters. They are part of a tight and proud group of workers who do a dangerous job. And they sometimes do that job under the most extreme conditions – blazing heat, pouring rain and frigid winter storms.

So take the time and join us in thanking lineworkers for all they do. Below is a gallery of OPPD line crews through the years.

Above left: A crew works in a backyard in Omaha after a major storm knocked out power in July 2021. Above right: Crews work to restore power in the bitter cold of Winter Storm Gerri in January 2024.

This mutual aid team spent nine days in September 2023 working in the sweltering heat of northern Florida. Hurricane Idalia knocked out power to roughly 556,800 electricity customers in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.

About Jason Kuiper

Jason Kuiper joined OPPD as a communications specialist in 2015. He is a former staff writer and reporter at the Omaha World-Herald, where he covered a wide range of topics but spent the majority of his career covering crime. He is a graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha and has also appeared in several true crime documentary shows. In his free time he enjoys cooking, spending time with his wife and three children, and reading crime novels.

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