South Texas Press Association Recognizes AEP Line Crews for Hurricane Harvey Restoration Effort

Larry Jackson of STPA (center) presented the award to Omar Lopez (left) and Larry Jones (right) of the AEP Texas Corporate Communications Department during the President’s Reception.

(Story by Larry Jones)

During its annual conference, the South Texas Press Association (STPA) recognized the line crews of AEP for their outstanding and dedicated service during the Hurricane Harvey restoration effort.

Larry Jackson of STPA presented the award to Omar Lopez and Larry Jones of the AEP Texas Corporate Communications Department during the President’s Reception. AEP Texas sponsored the opening event of the conference, which is attended by weekly and bi-weekly newspaper publishers, editors, staff and family members from throughout the Central Division service territory. AEP Texas or its predecessor has been a supporter of the STPA since the very first conference was held in 1927.

“Today, if we don’t have electricity, we’re dead in the water,” Jackson said. And that phrase has seldom been more appropriate than this past year, when Hurricane Harvey left so many of use in south Texas without power in the aftermath of wind and rain, with stories to tell, but no way to tell them. We needed a lineman to turn the lights back on.

“No matter the time—day or night, weekday or weekend—if the lights go out, so do the line crews,” Jackson continued. “You’ve seen them, rising up in their bucket trucks in howling winds or torrential rains or in freezing, icy conditions—working around the clock near high-voltage power lines, until electricity is restored to every customer.

“Each year, we select a special friend of the South Texas Press Association to be the recipient of the Red Gibson Award for service,” Jackson added. “Last year was the year of Hurricane Harvey, the year of flooding, the year of displaced newspapers, the year of lost homes, lost jobs, of lost schools of lost businesses. This was also a year of compassion, a year of courage, a year of heroes. For these reasons, this year’s Red Gibson Award is presented to the dedicated line crews of AEP in recognition of their outstanding and dedicated service.”