Macomb Company Sends Storm Restoration Team to New Jersey

A Macomb County-based Utility Construction company sent a caravan of storm restoration experts to New Jersey to help the devastated state restore power to hundreds of thousands of residents after Hurricane Sandy has left them in the dark and flooded.

Members of LeCom Inc.’s Utility Construction storm restoration team are working alongside New Jersey Central Power and Light linemen to help restore power to the Garden State.

LeCom is a division of one of a family of companies owned by Detroit-based Lentine Group. President of the Lentine Group, Joe Lentine, is a Shelby Township resident, and LeCom's headquarters are in Warren.

A two-mile caravan of 40 trucks carrying 300 linemen departed Detroit on Sunday to various locations to stand ready to assist with restoring power to New Jersey residents affected by the hurricane which hit the East Coast Monday morning.  LeCom linemen have been working alongside their local counterparts since yesterday bringing sub-stations back online and repairing feeder lines that will ultimately restore power for residents. The linemen have been working 16-hour shifts until power is restored.

“Our storm restoration team was formed in 2005 to respond to natural disasters like Sandy anywhere east of the Mississippi River,” said Anthony Lentine, Vice President of LeCom, Inc.  “Our teams are able to mobilize within 24 hours and we’re happy to be able to help the residents of New Jersey in a time of such great need.”

Calls of thanks have been pouring in to LeCom’s offices over the last few days from grateful New Jersey residents since the Detroit-based utility trucks arrived in their communities, said Lentine.

LeCom has assisted with restoring power in the wake of other natural disasters in recent years including Hurricanes Katrina, Wilma and Rita in 2005, Gustave in 2008 and Earl in 2010 and after numerous wind and ice storms across New York, Kansas, Boston, Chicago, Maine, West Virginia and Ohio.