Thanks for a job well done!

I think many of us will agree that being without electricity really stinks (and it's not just the smell from the warm refrigerators.) Many people in the greater Houston area are still without power - 12 days after Ike.

Since I do have electricity, I want to take the time to say a great big THANK YOU to all of the people involved in restoring our power. The photo above was sent to me by Gerri S. This is her godson, Jeremy, who lives in Florida and works for Florida Power & Light. He has been somewhere in the Houston area for the past 10 days doing repair work. He is away from his family, sleeping in a tent (for a while at least) and I really can't vouch for quality of the food he's been getting. If you would like to tell Jeremy thank you please leave a comment.

I received this email yesterday and wanted to share it with everyone because it lists those companies who are working long hours far from home to restore our electricity.

Over the years, CenterPoint Energy crews have restored power to hundreds of thousands of customers across the country who have been left in the dark following severe weather. Now, the company must call on its colleagues in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, which left 2.1 million customers without power, the largest outage in CenterPoint Energy's more than 130-year history.

Line mechanics, tree trimmers and additional personnel from nearly 50 different companies are in Houston to aid in the recovery effort. More than 30 states (including Texas, Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia) as well Canada have sent workers to help.

Special thanks to our partners:
Alabama Power
Allegheny Power
Asplundh (FP&L)
Asplundh (PepCo)
Baltimore Gas & Electric
Bison
Bluegrass Central Construction
BSJ Power Service
C.W. Wright Construction
City Utilities/Empire
CPS Energy San Antonio
Dillard Electric
Diversified Service
Duke Energy
Elliott
First Energy Company
Florida Power & Light
Georgia Power
Haynes Utility
High Desert Communications
J.F. Electric
J.W. Didado Electric
JBL Electric
Kansas City Power & Light Co.
L.E. Meyers
M.J. Electric
Mid America/Alliant
Midwest Energy
Midwest Power
Missouri Public Service
Musgrove Construction
Par Electric
Pike
Powerline Consultants
Progress Carolina
Progress Florida
Quanta Utility Services
Riggs Distler
Sheldon Electric
Southern Company
SPE
Tampa Electric
Team Fishel
Thiro USA
Utilicon
WE Energies
Willey Construction
Xcel Energy
Xcel/Colorado