MINNEAPOLIS – Six days have passed since then Hurricane Helene has made landfall along the Gulf Coast and many communities in the South are struggling to recover.

More than 1.1 million homes were still without power in the Carolinas and Georgia as of Wednesday evening, according to PowerOutage.us.

“You know the event is bad when you come from Minnesota and drive a day and a half to get there and provide assistance,” said Joe Miller, communications director for the Minnesota Rural Electric Association.

The sheer amount of wind and rain has left millions of people in the dark, and the terrain is only making things worse.

“It’s a very mountainous region in the Carolinas. In order to even get there to make repairs, trees fell and lines failed. They don’t even come through, so there’s a lot of work just to restore some of those areas,” Miller said.

That’s why more than 70 road crews from 18 different electric cooperatives in Minnesota are joining power plant crews from at least 15 states to get the job done.

“Any time you’re dealing with power lines that you’re not familiar with, that’s one aspect of it. The other aspect of it: When it’s on the ground, it’s all messed up and messed up, it’s a really challenging process when you have to pick it up. “Try to put all those pieces back together,” said Dan Meier, operations manager at Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric.

Steele-Waseca in Owatonna is sending four road workers. They are among the last Minnesotans to make their way to South Carolina. Meier said this is the first time his team has deployed so far away since Hurricane Katrina. But despite the dangerous task that lies ahead, we do not hesitate to help.

“It’s one of the seven cooperative principles – cooperation between cooperatives,” Meier said. “In these times it is essential that we help each other. If we need help, they will send help here too.”

Meier said it’s unclear how long his crews will remain in the state of South Carolina, but it could be up to three weeks.