Senior Relay Tech Brandon Smith started Mother’s Day trying to do something special for his wife to celebrate the day. “When I asked her what she wanted to do this year, she wanted to go on a picnic at the Buffalo National River. That was an easy request to accommodate and sounded like a peaceful day,” said Smith.

Little did he know the day he planned with the family eating and swimming would turn to be anything but peaceful. Soon after arriving and getting the area setup, Smith heard frantic yelling and screaming. Not knowing what was happening, he immediately ran to investigate the noise. Around the bend of the river, he saw a man in the water getting pulled to shore. Smith immediately acted on his Entergy Arkansas training and jumped into the water to help.

“To be honest, I was worried something bad happened because the body was limp when we pulled him to shore. My instincts just kicked in and I had to immediately help get him to shore.”

Smith had noticed earlier in the day that the water was higher-than-average because it had rained a few days before, causing the waterflow to be stronger than normal. There was a fisherman wading in the river and the current caused him to be pulled under water. Two people fishing nearby tried to save him and got swept under as well. Thankfully the fishermen popped back up above the water and were able to start the rescue before Smith arrived.

“I’ve grown up around the water being an avid outdoorsman. The water can be more powerful than you think, and you must learn to respect it.”

Once the man was safely on the shore, Smith went to work. Thinking he was going to have to administer CPR, he quickly prayed for wisdom and the ability to remember his training. Smith immediately checked the victim’s breathing and heard a faint wheezing sound. From his training, he knew to roll the victim over to prepare to clear their airways. When he did, the victim started coughing out water.

Smith, who is bilingual, noticed the bystanders speaking in Spanish and calmed the chaotic scene by telling them to call 911 for an emergency and to get towels prepared to keep the victim warm. Emergency personnel arrived and transported the man to the hospital. Thanks to Smith’s efforts, the victim survived the harrowing incident.

As the scene unfolded, onlookers celebrated the extraordinary act of heroism they had just witnessed. Smith, however, remained modest about his actions, crediting his instincts and a sense of responsibility to his community.

“I’m just thankful he was ok, and I was able to perform and have a clear head. For me, I didn’t question jumping into action to help because I had a moral responsibility to help this man,” said Smith. “It was just about being in the right place at the right time.”

Being in the right place at the right time seems to happen often for Smith. This wasn’t the first time he saved someone around the water. Last year, a similar situation happened on Lake Ouachita where two children were swept away by the current and he pulled them out of the water with his brother-in-law’s help.

This type of self-sacrificing attitude hasn’t gone unrecognized, as Smith was recently awarded Entergy’s President’s Lifesaving Award for his lifesaving efforts. This award is the most prestigious award that Entergy Arkansas employees can receive.

“I thought no one knew about it because I’m not someone that seeks out recognition,” Smith said. “I sent a text message to my supervisor just to let him know about the situation if word got back to my coworkers. Next thing I know he called me and said he was nominating me for this award.”

His coworkers are proud of the lifesaving efforts and have come accustomed to his desire to serve others. Smith’s heroic act serves as a poignant reminder of the power of compassion and the potential for everyday individuals to make a significant impact. In a world often consumed by self-interest, his actions demonstrate the strength of the human spirit and the willingness to go above and beyond for a fellow human being.

“I was just doing my job. This is above and beyond anything I ever thought would come of this situation. I’m just overwhelmed and blessed.”

A modest Preston Favorite reflected on the quality he believed was most important during his 40-year tenure with Entergy. Kindness, honesty, and effort were the values that propelled him from starting as a transformer assistant making $2.65/hour to managing customer, business, and commercial accounts in every part of New Orleans.

As Entergy New Orleans Vice President of Customer Service Sandra Diggs-Miller put it, “everyone is special to Preston, and in return, Preston is special to everybody.”

After graduating from West Jefferson High School in 1976, Favorite’s journey with the company (then LP&L) began when he was hired, in part, for doing what he always does – the right thing.

“I put on my graduation suit and headed into the LP&L office looking for any job they could give me,” said Favorite. “On my way in, I noticed a piece of paper on the ground and threw it away. The interviewer asked, ‘you know how many people have gone in and out of my office today and walked right over that piece of trash?’ Just like that, I was off on the right foot.”

Favorite began as a helper at a transformer shop in Algiers, cleaning equipment and performing electrical maintenance. He performed various jobs at the shop for 17 years, working his way up to Senior Mechanic.

In 1998, Hurricane Georges devastated New Orleans. As the city rebuilt, Entergy New Orleans opened two walk-in customer care centers, and Favorite found an opportunity to pursue his true passion – making a positive impact on the people in his community.

“Going into customer service was a natural fit,” said Favorite. “I always knew my strong suit was with people. Customer service is about caring for your neighbor and doing the best you possibly can to help. I wanted to be able to do that when New Orleans was hurting.”

Favorite’s Entergy career continued for the next ten years, serving as a customer service representative on Carrolton Avenue, a customer service manager at Tulane Avenue, and a network manager in the Baton Rouge gas department, each while working for Catholic charities to help counsel young people in crisis. ����

“Because of the varied jobs Preston has had at Entergy, he is a perfect example of a dedicated, long-term employee who has developed an extraordinary career over the years and has gone above and beyond to serve his community,” said Diggs-Miller.

Through Highs and Lows

In 2005, just months after starting his role in Baton Rouge, the New Orleans levees failed, and Hurricane Katrina’s winds pushed water into the city. Favorite and his team traveled to New Orleans to work 16-hour shifts to support the system. Most days, he drove to Baton Rouge to be with his team in the morning, traveled to New Orleans to work all day, drove back to Baton Rouge at night to meet again with his team, and then home to his wife in Ascension Parish, who was housing up to 29 family members and friends who had nowhere else to go.

“In a strange way, Katrina was a high point for my career,” said Favorite. “I love this city, and I love its people. When we go through an event like that, we all get through it together.”

A Career to Remember

During Favorite’s 40 years of service with Entergy, he has powered through countless storm response events, raised more than $25,000 for Entergy’s The Power to Care program and local nonprofits, and has been a significant positive influence on workplace culture.

“I found over the years that people here really care about each other,” said Favorite. “Some of the best friends I have in the world are right here at Entergy. I’ve gone to weddings, congratulated folks when kids were born, grieved with them when their parents have passed away, prayed with them when family members have struggled with one thing or another, and they have done the same with me. That’s what the 40 years have been.”

A Life of Service

Favorite obtained an undergraduate degree from the University of New Orleans and a master’s degree from the University of Holy Cross during his time at Entergy and is on his way to becoming a Provisional Licensed Professional Counselor. He plans to continue to help those around him by offering counseling services to those that need someone to talk to.

From picking up a piece of paper in 1976 to being handed a plaque in 2022, Favorite closed the final chapter on a 40-year Entergy career of hard work, dedication and, above all, kindness.

“I just like trying to stop some of the bad stuff that goes on around here. If you can save someone’s house or save a life, then it makes it worthwhile,” Widner said.

On the morning of July 26, Widner heard a call on the radio that there was a child in the Arkansas River. Lucky for him, he already had his boat hooked up to his truck.

“My wife owns a scanner, and when I heard that there was a child in the river, I just told her that I’ve got to go.”

On the way to the boat ramp, he contacted a few other members of the Dardanelle Fire Department, and they jumped in the boat with him. They were in the water in less than five minutes.

“I kind of knew what I needed to do, and I was very familiar with the area of the river because I have fished it a lot,” Widner said.

Once they were in the water, they headed to an area called Council Oaks, where the child was last seen. After about 20 minutes of searching, they got a report that someone had seen a “body in the water” near the River Front Park area about a mile downstream.

“Since he worded it that way instead of saying, ‘We see him, and he’s swimming,’ my initial thought was, oh no, we are doing a body recovery instead of a rescue. When we saw him initially, he was dead still, floating on his back, but when we got within ten feet of him, I saw him paddle like someone would in a swimming pool, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, he’s alive’!”

Another member of the fire department, Steve Troyke, who was on the boat with Widner, reached down and pulled the child up to safety. Once they returned to the boat ramp, Troyke took the child to his dad.

“Seeing him with his dad is the biggest deal. His dad was absolutely ecstatic. I won’t forget because it made you feel so good, and the relief on that guy’s face was well worth any risk we put out trying to get the child,” Widner said. “I have two kids of my own, and if I can do anything to save a child there, I’ll do it. There is nothing greater in life, in my opinion, than helping someone out or trying to save a life.”

Authorities say that the child has autism and was playing with his grandmother at Council Oaks Park when she suffered a heart attack. They believe he entered the water as a coping mechanism from the trauma because he has a swimming pool at home and loves to be in the water. In total, the child floated a mile downstream.

“I told the guys, I may never win a tournament out of the boat, but today, we caught the best catch we could ever catch. I can waste all the money in the world on fishing stuff, but it will never equal saving a child’s life.”

Widner said it was a team effort. This is actually his second river rescue. He says his mission is to make someone’s worst day just a little bit better.

“You had a hundred people here trying to help this little boy that no one knew. But it didn’t matter; we were here to help out.”

Just minutes earlier, Morehead was driving to work in New Orleans East, when drivers on the I-10 Twin Span bridge began to brake. He soon passed an overturned truck tanker blocking two lanes of traffic to his left but noticed that the cab of the tanker was nowhere to be seen.

“It was second-nature to pull over and do anything I could to help,” said Morehead. “When I didn’t see the cab of the truck, I knew it had to have gone over the side of the bridge, so I pulled over and immediately started searching the water for any survivors.”

Morehead scanned the water for what felt like a full minute, seeing only the bubbles coming up from the air pocket out of the submerged truck cabin. Someone quickly joined Morehead, and when the two leaned over the guard rail on the edge of the bridge, they spotted the truck driver fighting the current by hanging onto a piece of debris underneath the bridge.

The Entergy New Orleans lineman ran back to his service truck to grab his hand line, stretched it out and lowered the end of the line with a hook into the water. Morehead used the weight of the hook to swing the line back and forth like a pendulum, which landed just ten feet away from the struggling truck driver underneath the bridge. When it was clear the driver was unable to swim to the line, Morehead pulled it back up and dropped it down again, this time dropping the rope perfectly across the driver’s forearm.

Morehead maneuvered him all the way out from under the bridge against the tide. After the other end of the line was secured to his Entergy service truck, emergency services arrived and dropped a life ring down to the truck driver.

Morehead never met the man he helped save, as he hopped into his truck and continued his way to the morning’s work assignment.

“I did what I could, but once emergency services arrived, I had another job to do,” said Morehead. “I went straight to a site in New Orleans East to start my shift.”

Morehead said that working on power lines is his passion, and his nine years of service with Entergy New Orleans has prepared him to spring into action when he recognizes the potential for danger.

(This incident happened in May, but because of COVID and storms, presentation of this award was postponed until today.)

“I noticed a truck traveling slow on the south shoulder on my lane. I slowed down and gave her plenty of space to pass me and I noticed that she was slumped,” Pruitt explained after he got back to the Searcy service center. “I turned around and pulled up behind her when she stopped. When I approached the vehicle, she shut the engine off and opened her door. She was semi-conscious and vomiting all over herself when I walked up to assess the scene. I called 911 to get officers and rescue on the way.

“I went back to my truck and got my gloves and the one-way rescue breather. I��also��put my AED in the front seat, just in case. When I got back to the truck, she was unconscious with her head back on the seat rest,” he said. “At one point she vomited while lying back and started choking on it. I leaned her over and��did a finger sweep to try to clear her airway, then patted her on the back a few times — each time a little harder. She coughed tried to vomit some more and started breathing fine. She started coming to a little and was able to speak some, but she was very disoriented and still vomiting. Police arrived and after a few minutes, and the officer said he didn’t need me for anything. So, I left the scene.”

Entergy line workers are trained in first aid and equipped with kits to respond to medical emergencies, including carrying an automated electric defibrillator (AED) for cardiac emergencies.

Pruitt says he did what anyone would do in the same situation, but we’re very proud that he both knew what to do to save this woman’s life AND did it.

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Hamilton is an Entergy lineman based in the New Orleans metro region, and unlike most linemen who drive service trucks, his vehicle of choice is an airboat. On a typical workday, he can be seen skimming through the bayous and marshes of south Louisiana answering service calls, maintaining equipment and making sure customers have reliable power.��

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But as a recent incident proved, Hamilton’s airboat can be useful beyond his Entergy duties. After finishing a workday in late June down in lower Plaquemines Parish, Hamilton and fellow crew members noticed a group of people waving for help near Cox Bay. They found that two boaters had run aground on a sand bar. Another boat with a crew of four had stopped to help, but they couldn’t pull it free.����

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“It was a V-bottom boat and was rocking back and forth, like a rocking chair,” Hamilton said. “The two women in the boat had been out there a couple hours standing in water about 8 or 10 inches deep. They might have been out there all night had we not spotted them.”��

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Hamilton tied a line to the beached boat and advised everyone to give him a wide berth and secure anything in their boats that could get blown off by the powerful fan. With onlookers at a safe distance, he started his airboat and went to work.��

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“I figured out that I needed to pull the boat in circles” to dislodge it, he said. “After the second big circle, I was able to pull it loose and into deeper water. It took about 20 minutes.”��

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With the boat safely afloat in deeper waters, Hamilton followed the boaters back to the Pointe-a-la-Hache��Marina, about 30 minutes away.����

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“They were very thankful. They thanked us two or three times,” said Hamilton, who has spent his 18-year Entergy career serving customers throughout the area. “I wasn’t going to leave, and I wanted to try my best to help. It’s what we would have done on any day.”��

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Stanley Bordelon, a contractor based in Simmesport who was working with the crew that day, was so impressed that he emailed Entergy about Hamilton’s feat.��

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“I spent four years in the Coast Guard doing search and rescue, and I didn’t run across too many people like Lonnie who would stop and assist the way he did,” Bordelon wrote. “I’m not sure if it’s protocol, training or just a big heart — he will be on my team forever.”

Robert White, who coordinates tree trimming for Entergy Arkansas in the Little Rock area, was at a job site in the Heights neighborhood the afternoon of July 1 when a man holding the limp body of his two-year-old son ran into the residential street hollering, “Somebody help me!”

White immediately recognized a potentially life-threatening situation and first called 911 on his mobile phone. “Then I ran over to where the man was, got him out of the road and started checking the child’s breathing and pulse.”

White is married to a trauma nurse at UAMS and has a heightened sense of the need to be prepared. All Entergy field employees are also trained in CPR. On his own, White had taken things a step further and gotten trained in infant CPR. Also, all Entergy jobs in the field include an exercise in which potential hazards are identified and all on site know the 911 address of the site and the location of the nearest hospital. Because of this, White knew exactly where to tell 911 to send first responders.

“I put my ear on his chest to check for a heartbeat and felt for a pulse in his wrist and neck. Also I was watching his chest to make sure he was breathing.” The child was ill with a high fever, but vitals were okay, and White relayed this information to the 911 operator.

“I was fully ready to give him CPR, to give him chest compressions, but I didn’t want to. Because it really becomes real at that moment. It’s serious. I was glad EMS showed up when they did,” White recalled.��

White checked on the family later and learned that the boy was home from the hospital and all was well.

A 19-year Entergy Arkansas veteran, White said, “I’m thankful that I work for a company that encourages and, in fact, requires employees to know what to do in case of emergency. And I’m glad I could be there for that family when they needed some help in the middle of a very scary situation.”

The two jumped into Mitchell’s truck to disconnect power at the plant, which is standard procedure. As they approached, they saw that there were people on the roof of the two-story structure, and, even from the ground, could see that two of them were badly burned. Two employees of the plant had been on the roof trying to dislodge some burning material in a hopper when it exploded. ��

The linemen quickly evaluated the situation. Two emergency medical technicians were on the scene, but firefighters were not – not yet. The fire was close to the ladder that led to the roof, so the EMTs were stuck on the ground. It was time for action.

Mitchell backed his bucket truck up to the building and lifted each of the EMTs and their emergency gear to the roof.

As McClung headed to the other side of the building to shut off power, Mitchell kept his head and his bucket in the game. Both victims were badly injured, but one more than the other. While EMTs worked on the worse case, Mitchell wrapped the first one in the gel blanket that all Entergy trucks carry in case of burn emergencies. Of the other case: “The EMT told me, ‘If we don’t get him down now, he’s not going to make it,’” Mitchell recalled.

Medical helicopters were on the way. City, county and state police, along with additional medical personnel, were now on the scene on the ground.

With Victim 1 strapped to a backboard, they placed him across the top of Mitchell’s bucket. “I wrapped one arm around him and controlled the bucket with the other.” He boomed the first victim down, McClung helped dismount him, then Mitchell went back up for the second victim.

EMTs administered treatment on the ground, and medflights rushed one victim to a hospital in Memphis and the other to Little Rock. Both are still hospitalized, and the reports the Mountain View staff are getting is that the men they rescued have a long recovery road ahead of them.

But without the assist from Entergy Arkansas, the outcome likely would have been much worse. “They 100 percent saved lives that day,” said Wilson. “Our guys are the best, and they were heroes!”

Mitchell, a 15-year Entergy Arkansas employee, shrugs off the praise. “I’m glad I was there for them,” he said.

And while Entergy doesn’t train linemen to rescue people from burning buildings, per se, the extensive training in first aid, CPR, and pole-top rescues prepares you for the unexpected. “The training helps you to keep your head in a stressful situation,” he said.

McClung was similarly nonchalant. “We were just there at the right time.”

Right time, right place, right equipment, right people. Entergy Arkansas is proud to claim these two good men as part of the team, and we wish comfort and healing for the two burn victims and their families.

Working in tandem with fellow serviceman Terry Harrison, the men saw two open switches on poles and a power line on the ground, all evidence of a lightning strike. Harrison set about repairing the lightning damage while Knapp went for a closer look at suspicious smoke coming from a wood-frame house nearby. There was a pickup in the home’s carport and a tricycle and a bicycle in the yard, so Knapp banged on the front door to see if anyone was in the house. No answer. He moved to a side door. No answer.

He paused to converse with a volunteer firefighter who stopped in his personal vehicle. By now it was apparent the house was on fire. The firefighter went to get a proper fire truck. Knapp went to the back door and banged again. Again, no answer – no people, anyway. But he heard dogs barking.

Still not knowing who, if anyone, was on the other side of the locked door, Knapp kicked it in.

Once inside, he determined the HVAC equipment was on fire and the house not far behind it. He searched room to room as the space began filling with smoke and determined there were no people inside. But there were two dogs, a terrier in a cage and a large puppy loose in the house. The puppy running free “was not wanting to have anything to do with me,” Knapp recalled, but he quickly made friends with the one in the cage and the other came close enough that Knapp could grab it and get it into the cage, as well. He then took the two dogs to a barn behind the house where they would be safe.

Looking back later on the moment he busted in the back door, Knapp joked, “I was glad I didn’t find the family sitting there warming their hands by the fireplace.”

The house was heavily damaged by the time the fire was extinguished. Because of fortunate timing, no people were injured. Because of the bravery of an Entergy Arkansas serviceman, two dogs lived to wag their tails another day.

Shrugging off the hero status, Knapp said, “It’s just one of those things that happen.” But, he added, “In 30 years as an Entergy Arkansas lineman, I’ve never had THAT happen.”