Faribault, Minn. business powering Hurricane Harvey relief effort
FARIBAULT, Minn. (KMSP) - With the flooding taking place in Texas, tens of thousands are still without power. Now, the efforts to energize the relief effort are in part coming from a Minnesota business in Faribault.
At Trystar, every available worker is helping to push out much-needed power cables to the devastated region.
"What they are doing is they are manufacturing electrical cables and assembling the ends, getting things ready to help power up temporary generators that are all rolling down to the State of Texas and the Houston area," said Chris Dahl, Trystar President.
Trystar workers always have enough cable on the shelf to ship out for a disaster. With Harvey, it was gone the day the storm hit. Now, there's no time to waste.
"We know they're waiting on us,” said Dan Karlgaard, Senior Vice President of Trystar. “Every minute counts, so you got to get down here and get dirty, help out."
They've been at it 24 hours a day, for a week.
Even Christian Lujan, a sales manager, jumped into the assembly line.
"It's pretty much been all hands on deck so far," said Lujan.
That's because for him, it's personal.
"I grew up in a small town just north of Orlando and I think it was Hurricane Charlie and we were without of power for a good week,” said Lujan. “So the importance of this isn't lost on me, of all people."
What they're shipping out is desperately needed.
"Between 60,000 to 75,000 homes a day is what this is capable of powering up,” said Dahl. “So naturally, it's going to bigger facilities and everything else, but it's an impressive number when you sit back and look what's going on in Houston and just the totality of the devastation the neighborhoods. I mean, it's kind of a nice group effort here to put together there to help."
It’s powering the hurricane relief, one power cable at a time.
"And as hard as these people are working and as difficult as this job is, to go home and watch the news and see the destruction, it makes it a lot easier to wake up and do it again tomorrow because you're helping," said Dahl.
About two to six truckloads a day are all leaving Trystar and heading toward Texas. It's a pace they're going to try and keep up through the relief effort.