Watch CBS News

Faribault Company Working Overtime To Help Power Houston

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A local company is hard at work to make sure the people of Houston can get power back in their homes and businesses.

Trystar in Faribault has provided equipment to help power major events like the Super Bowl and the Ryder cup. Now they're helping during the Houston flooding disaster, keeping up with demand to help those in need.

On a normal work day, Trystar's corporate office coordinator Anne Frank would be doing her office based job at Trystar -- but this isn't an ordinary work week.

"We've been working crazy hours," she said. "The guys on the floor -- they came in at 5:00 [a.m.] yesterday, and we didn't leave until 6:30 [p.m.]."

She's on the assembly line because the company has been slammed with business. People are working around the clock to ship out electrical cables and portable power boxes to Houston.

Rick Dahl is the CEO of the Faribault based company.

"Peple do need food, they need water, they need gasoline, they need access to bank accounts, and when electricity goes down, they get none of that," he said.

This week, Trystar is shipping out enough power-generating equipment to power up 60,000 to 75,000 homes or businesses every day.

Semis are being loaded up and shipped out five times a day to make the trip to Texas. Sometimes, the destination is already underwater when they get there. Anne says right now the days are long, but everyone wants to do what they can.

"There's a couple guys that were saying, 'Hey, you have to stay in the office because someone has to answer the phones,' and they were like, 'Well, why?' Because everybody wants to be out here." she said.

Trystar expects its business to last much longer in Houston compared to other hurricanes because the clean up effort will take much longer.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.