Premium Utility Contractor works hard to get the lights back on after disaster strikes.
Beyond utility poles, cables, and transformers, this task includes bringing proverbial beacons of hope to a community’s darkest hour.
Premium will go wherever storms strike. The team — from the executives to line crews — counts community service as part of their duty and will jump at any opportunity to lend an extra hand.
In Texas, in 2024, a one-two punch of a “derecho” windstorm and Hurricane Beryl slammed the Houston area and kept Premium crews busy for weeks.
Partnering with CenterPoint Energy, Premium became well acquainted with the communities where they worked. Many locals were without power for days in the heat of the Texas summer. Where the restoration took the longest, Premium went beyond the core task of restoring power and helped distribute food to people in need.
Workers felt a strong need to give their temporary neighbors a sense of hope and community. Distributing food was one way to do that.
When Hurricane Helene doused the Carolinas with devastating flooding a few months later, Premium did double duty, augmenting local utility crews while also partnering with the Grey Bull Rescue Foundation.
As floodwaters submerged neighborhoods and overwhelmed local resources, Grey Bull identified the most urgent needs and deployed airboats to reach residents stranded in their homes. Premium Utility Contractor jumped in to assist. President Jake Meeks personally joined the rescue efforts, navigating the boats alongside Grey Bull volunteers to help evacuate families and ensure everyone reached safety.
Premium also helped rebuild infrastructure in a region where washed-out roads and mudslides stranded entire communities. In one case, Grey Bull flagged the need to repair a culvert in the small Appalachian town of Green Mountain, North Carolina. Premium was happy to oblige.
Emergency generators
After Helene and countless other storms, Premium helped bridge the gap between disasters and power restoration by distributing emergency generators.
People are sometimes without power for days or weeks, disrupting their normal routines. Hotels are often at full capacity, leaving residents with nowhere to take a hot shower, clean their laundry, prepare food, or tackle any number of daily tasks. For people who rely on certain medical devices, long power outages can be deadly. A donated generator can be lifesaving while crews patch the larger power grid.
Premium crews work hard to get generators into the hands of those who need them to provide a sense of normalcy and comfort in otherwise harrowing times.
Hyper-local help
Alongside regional responses, Premium can be laser focused on more localized disasters. When a 1,000-year flood slammed Oxford, Connecticut with 15 inches of rain in 24 hours, utility crews were part of the response. They helped repair lines but also lent their time to a pair of families who lost their shared driveway to the floodwater.
One of the residents was an older man with a heart condition who required emergency medical help at his home three times over the past year. Suddenly, if he called 9-1-1 again, paramedics would have no way of getting to his front door.
Premium donated a skid steer and bucket truck to rebuild access to the driveway. Several Premium employees and local community members volunteered their time.
Critical communication
Then, there’s communication. Premium has been near the front lines of devastating disasters and works hand in hand with local emergency crews.
When wildfires scorched entire neighborhoods in and around Los Angeles in early 2025, Premium worked with Cal Fire — California’s wildland firefighting service — to deliver supplies to victims and firefighters. Premium, in turn, worked with SpaceX to provide dozens of Starlink devices that enabled crews to communicate when other networks failed.
Charity events
Premium has participated in the annual Special Olympics Cup golf tournament in Thornton, New Hampshire, visiting with Special Olympics athletes and golfing to support children and adults with intellectual disabilities across New Hampshire.
Last year, Premium collected coats for children in need of warm clothes during cold New England winters. Workers collected more than 700 pounds of clothing and distributed that haul to five sites across Connecticut.
No stranger to brutal blizzards and nor’easters, Premium plans to continue this tradition for years to come.
When disasters strike and systems need repairs, Premium prioritizes safety and efficiency while never forgetting a sense of duty to everyday people. With the resources available and a direct line of sight to people who need help, Premium runs on instinct to assist.
From utility restoration to community service, charity events, and hands-on disaster response, Premium has woven service into the very fabric of the company’s DNA. As new storms spin through communities, Premium expects to continue its legacy of service for generations to come.
