APS crews ready for start of monsoon season

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - Twenty-five feet up in a bucket truck gives a different perspective on what APS crews deal with when a monsoon storm hits.

The winds that blow in often take down power poles, like these, Valley-wide.

"We'll at least have a couple per year where we have major outages, where we have multiple poles down, and that's kind of where we bring all of our resources in to try to get everyone back on," Scott Kahrs said.

APS crews gathered at their training facility this morning for last-minute preps for the season that officially starts tomorrow.

Safety is the key, says lineman Scott Kahrs, but customers are of the utmost importance, as well.

"How quickly is APS alerted and how quickly are crews dispatched?" I asked.

"It's immediate, if we have a big event like that's going to open up a big area, we're going to be notified through our system," Kahrs replied.

Kahrs is a trouble shooter. He heads out first, assesses the scene, and determines how to fix the outage.

"Over a certain size outage, we actually create an incident command and then we have a whole order of who to contact," he said. "We actually have storm books where we have all the resources within the company, so if we need poles, equipment... we know exactly who to contact."

The number one thing customers need to remember is to stay away from downed poles and lines. They can be dangerous and APS says if you experience an outage during a monsoon, call right away because they might not be aware of it.