Lineman helping restore power in Florida one week before wedding

JONES COUNTY, Miss. (WDAM) - A crew of 19 Dixie Electric linemen are in Florida helping with power restoration after Hurricane Milton.

One of these men, Brady Creel, is scheduled to be married in less than a week.

“The first hurricane that hit Florida and the Carolinas and Georgia, we kind of expected that he was going to get called out,” said Emily Holder, Creel’s fiancée.

The couple said they knew Creel’s time to go would come. They just hoped it wouldn’t be so close to their wedding day.

“Two crews before his crews went for Helene, and then when they said there was another bigger hurricane brewing, it was kind of something we knew was going to happen,” Holder said.

Holder and Creel have been planning their wedding for the past 14 months. Now, less than 14 days away from their ‘I do’ date, Creel is in Wauchula, Florida, helping to restore power after Hurricane Milton.

“It’s what he wants to do,” Holder said. “He’s always going to be the type of person that gives to others. So I just kind of pray about it as it goes,” Holder said.

She says her fiancé was given the option to sit this trip out, but he chose to put the needs of others before himself.

There’s still a plan to make sure he’s back in time to say his vows.

“I have an aunt who’s just making the extra trip to get him,” Holder said. “It’s like an hour and a half extra for her, and then she’s going to drive him home.

“So, it was very kind of crazy at first, because I was like not thinking about somebody else being able to do it and me having to make the 20-hour round trip to get him home.”

With their wedding planned to go off without a hitch, Holder said her thoughts are with the other women whose linemen partners won’t be back as soon.

“They’ve been doing it longer than I have, and they just know like, one, he has to provide,” Holder said. “Part of what they signed up to do was to go when people need help like that.

“But, two, I mean, there’s an end in sight at some point. They’ve just got to make it until they get home.”

The couple’s wedding still is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 19, Holder said..

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