HENDERSONVILLE - After Tropical Storm Helene last year, “just about everything that could be on the dirt was on the dirt,” electrical lineman Raymond Pierce said: wires were lying right on the ground, pretty much every major transmission line was out of commission, wooden poles were snapped or ripped out of the wet earth.

For weeks and months, he and others like him were in the hills and mountain valleys of Western North Carolina, climbing poles, replacing transformers and making all the repairs needed to get the power back on for millions of people left in the dark.

Seven Western North Carolina power line workers, who all worked to restore the demolished power grid after Helene, are now headed to “the Super Bowl of linework,” the International Lineman’s Rodeo, Oct. 18 in Overland Park,

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