Dennis Usher was scheduled for vacation this week.

“I was supposed to be sittin’ on the lake fishing,” said the Glenwood, Ga., resident.

Instead, he was in Dee Dias’ back yard Wednesday night, supervising his Florida-based MasTec utility crew in restoring power to about seven houses in the Colonial Heights subdivision off Trent Road.

The crew is among 16 five-man emergency utility teams that came to the city in the wake of Hurricane Irene.

The crew was on Wilson Street finishing up a job about 10 p.m. when a neighborhood resident walked up and told Usher about a ring of houses along Wilson, Stewart Boulevard and Trent Road still without electricity.

Usher and the crew finished the Wilson Street work and added another job to their 16-hour day that stretched back to 6 a.m.

A fallen tree on lines had shut down a transformer. Wearing coal miner style helmet lights, they sorted and reconnected the lines atop Dias’ house. They pulled the bucket truck into a yard next to the transformer and at 11:20 p.m., 25-year veteran lineman Dennis Rudeseal flipped the breaker using a long pole.

Like a Christmas tree, lights popped on in the winding row of homes on three streets.

It was 10 hours and eight minutes short of five days since the houses lost power early Saturday.

Dias was ecstatic and remained so Thursday morning, when the crew returned to finish work on one remaining house.

“I stayed up past midnight,” she said. “I had to, just to look at everything. I could read my book without a flashlight. And, this morning, I had coffee and thought, ‘This is such a blessed day.’”

Usher, a 30-year veteran of the utility company, has seen his share of hurricane and tornado aftermaths, from Oklahoma and Texas to Florida and Virginia.

While most local residents call Irene the worst storm ever, Usher offered his personal perspective.

“I worked Katrina,” he said. “I worked three hurricanes in five states in 2005 and was away from home for seven weeks, working pretty much seven days a week. I took a long siesta when I got home.”

Jeff Cleland, a 27-year utilities department employee who is now substation and control superintendent for New Bern, said the relentless winds brought down 150-year-old trees.

“The duration of the winds is what really hurt us the worst,” he said. “I’ve been through Fran and Bertha and I’ve never seen anything like it. It just pounded us, especially the back side.”

Usher said the traveling emergency power restoration crews take the job in stride.

“This is our job. This is what we do and our families know it too,” he said. “We know when hurricanes come, people lose power and it’s our job to get it back, as soon as possible. We don’t ask for it, but the big words — a simple thank you — means a whole lot. You know you have done your job.”

Cleland said some storm victims are emotional when they get power restored.

“There was a man across town that cried. He was holding his 4-month-old baby,” he said. “We work 16 and 18 hours and what motivates us is when we leave and customers’ power is back on.”

The crews are staged at the city utilities administration building lot on First Street. After 16 to 18 hour days, they don’t come home to the Hilton. A large box trailer has 30 bunks, stacked three high. There is also a wash trailer, with hot showers.

“New Bern has treated us well,” Usher said. “You couldn’t ask for anybody better to work with. They had their ducks in a row. When you are tired, you lie down and go to sleep.”

The 6 a.m. alarm comes early.

Charlie Hall can be reached at 252-635-5667 or chall@freedomenc.com