By Rita Shirley LeBleu

Last month, Jeff Davis Electric Co-op (JDEC) connected the newest Substation in Creole to the 105 miles of 230kV transmission line that’s been built post Hurricane Laura.

Thursday, July 9, the family from whom JDEC acquired the land and for whom the station is named, the Wayne and Suzanne Sturlese family, including Telesha Sturlese Bertrand and Tony Sturlese, JDEC CEO Michael Heinen, Board members James Doxey, Wilson Dean Landry and Martin Zaunbrecher, employees Brennon Labouve, Heath Lemieux, Kain Miller, Tara Guinn and Ben Hetzel and Louisiana Procurement and Contract representative Matthew Melancon marked the occasion with an official ribbon cutting.

“The station will feed part of Creole and part of Grand Chenier to separate the load on any additional work that comes into the parish,” said Ben Hetzel, Director of Safety for Jeff Davis Electric.

All of the JDEC substations below the Intracoastal Waterway post Hurricane Laura have been engineered and constructed to the 500-year flood plain plus one foot, according to Hetzel.

“They are constructed in this manner to allow JDEC to get to work restoring electricity as soon as the water has receded below the equipment, and so the equipment will not sit submerged. The steel poles which begin at the Chalkley Bulk Station in South Lake Charles are engineered to withstand 165 MPH winds. These poles carry the 230 kV transmission feed to the stations on the coast,” Hetzel said.

The station is on land that has been in the family for at least four generations. Suzanne and Wayne Sturlese now live in Grand Lake because of the hurricanes. Other family members not at the ribbon cutting include Brandi Sturlese Landreneaux, Courtney Sturlese and John Sturlese.