Sep. 20--Ike, Katrina, Rita ...

Progress Energy linemen Terry Hyman and Vaughn Schweikart mention these names as if they're talking about old friends. More accurately, for these guys, they're more like old foes.

While all powerful disasters in their own right, it's the visit 20 years ago from an enemy named Hugo these men remember most.

"I just remember the day after coming outside, looking around and thinking, 'We're gonna be here for awhile,'" Hyman said.

Hyman and his crew worked through the storm until about 3:30 a.m. when the winds got too dangerous to weather. The crews rode out the rest of the storm at Progress Energy's Florence office, then located on Dozier Boulevard.

Schweikart was working in Sumter and remembers the night Hugo arrived well.

"We were trying to keep the lights on as long as it was safe, so we were out in it at the Red Bay substation in Sumter, trying to switch the transformers over," Schweikart said.

"But by the time we got it all switched over, there was no transmission," he said. "We tried to get back to the office but couldn't get there for all the trees in the road. So we pulled over in a parking lot to try to ride it out, but the winds kicked up and the debris started hitting the truck. We set out again and finally made it back there for the night. You could hear the winds coming through the trees. The proverbial freight train -- that's exactly what it sounded like. It was scary."

By daylight, Hugo had moved past the Pee Dee. But Progress Energy crews' work had just begun.

"I remember we were all in the hallways in the office," Hyman said. "Then about sun up, they said, 'All right, let's get up and get to work.'"

Both Schweikart and Hyman said they couldn't believe what they saw when they walked outside.

"Pine trees so big you couldn't reach around them were broken off at the ground, just snapped," Schweikart said. "There were trees across buildings, across roads. There were streets I went down all the time that I couldn't even recognize. In a lot of places, you couldn't even tell where the road was."

The job for Progress Energy crews was a tremendous one, as nearly all customers in its territory were without power after Hugo, Progress Energy spokeswoman Mindy Taylor said.

"We had crews coming in to help from as far as Maine," Schweikart said. "We just started with the damage assessment and went from there. We tried to get the feeders back up, then just worked our way out through the branches."

Crews did anything they could to help the community recover from the damage.