Skip to Content

Duke Energy Linemen Hike Nearly 2 Miles To Restore Power To Asheville VA Hospital

| Energy

Photo Courtesy of Duke Energy via Southern Living

Southern Living: Linemen Hike Nearly 2 Miles To Restore Power To Asheville Veterans Hospital After Helene

…One job took on special meaning for two linemen with Duke Energy in North Carolina.

Matt Martinka, a Journeyman lineman in the Asheville area, and line apprentice Nathan Curlee volunteered to do the difficult work of restoring power to the Asheville VA Medical Center, which serves veterans in the western North Carolina region.

“I heard in the office there was a chance we could get the … VA hospital back on, and I come from a long line—my dad, my grandpa, all my nieces, I was Air Force, my son is a Marine—so I said, ‘Hey, I want this,'” recalls Martinka in a video made by Duke Energy. “I told my apprentice, and we were like let’s get this one for the VA.”

What followed was anything but ordinary. Because of washed out roads, downed trees, and the general mess left behind by the catastrophic storm, the two were required to hike 1.5 miles in the mountainous terrain of Asheville to diagnose the problems and bring energy back to the hospital.

Read the full story and watch the video on the Southern Living website.

Duke Energy is a valued member of the NC Chamber.