Beyond the call of duty

KAMO Power line supervisor braves icy roads to rescue ambulance stranded in winter storm

A thin layer of ice quickly turns a familiar road into a formidable adversary.

On January 22, Kevin Orduno, KAMO Electric Cooperative (KAMO Power) line supervisor encountered some of the worst road conditions he had seen in his 24 years at the cooperative.

“The kind of ice we had that morning was impossible for anything to be on the road,” Orduno says. “Even a salt truck ended up on its side.”

Nothing, not even a gas station, was open until noon that day. The Missouri Department of Transportation listed most of the Ozarks as experiencing winter weather conditions. The only vehicles Orduno saw out on the roads were power line crews and ambulances. Orduno was at the top of a hill near Mildred, Missouri, when he noticed a Taney County ambulance had gone off the road into a ditch.

“I told them I had a winch and asked if I was allowed to help them,” Orduno says.

A second ambulance came to respond to the call the original ambulance was dispatched to and went into a ditch slightly farther than the first one.

Orduno and one of the drivers worked on getting the least problematic vehicle unstuck and that ambulance made it to the potentially life-threatening call.

Orduno is the first person to say he doesn’t think there is anything remarkable about his actions, but his small act of service made a big difference for the person needing help.

“This good Samaritan made a significant difference in that patient’s life,” Johnathan Tudor, Taney County Ambulance District, told  KY3 news in Springfield, Missouri.

Ted Hilmes, KAMO Power executive vice president and CEO, agrees.

“Kevin’s quick thinking and selflessness not only showcases his exceptional problem-solving skills but, more importantly, his heart for those we serve,” Hilmes says. “In that moment, and many others, Kevin went beyond the call of duty, embodying the spirit of the cooperative.”

KAMO Electric Cooperative, Inc. (KAMO Power), with headquarters in Vinita, Oklahoma, is a generation and transmission (G&T) cooperative providing power supply resources for 17 member distribution cooperatives in northeast Oklahoma and southwest Missouri.