Photo courtesy of Morgan Hawk

After the Chicagoland area was hit by severe storms including at least 24 tornadoes last week, dozens of Alliant Energy employees from Iowa and Wisconsin went to assist.

In all, it was 71 employees, including some from Washington, who helped ComEd, a northern Illinois energy company. At one point, approximately 430,000 ComEd customers were without power as a result of the storms.

Mutual assistance like this is part of a voluntary partnership between regional energy providers. During restoration events, these partnerships enable companies to increase the size of their workforce and return power more efficiently.