Atlanta , Georgia ( CNN ) -- As soon as he heard the news about Haiti 's earthquake , Myk Manon began planning to get himself and two fellow power specialists from the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association into the heart of the disaster zone . On January 16 , four days after the 7.0-magnitude quake had flattened much of Port-au-Prince and killed more than 200,000 people , the three engineers flew into the Dominican Republic , then drove into Haiti 's capital , parked their truck in front of the U.S. Embassy -- where they figured they 'd be safe -- and went to sleep . They would need it -- the city was dark , except for a few lights from private generators , and they knew their expertise would be in demand beginning the next morning . Here 's what they found : All four power plants serving the city were off line ; power lines lay on the ground all over the place ; the earthquake had tossed 56-ton transformers from their bases . `` They literally jumped up 10 inches and tipped over , '' said Manon , 61 , a California native and former Peace Corps volunteer . After finding $ 65-per-night rooms in a two-story , wooden hotel that had survived the earthquake , the men set about trying to find out how much of Electricity of Haiti 's ( EdH ) system of substations and generators had also survived . But they found that the power system had already been in extremis . Before January 12 , only 60 percent of Port-au-Prince 's 3 million residents had electricity ; nationwide , the figure was 40 percent , Manon said . Many of them were simply stealing it , tapping lines feeding streetlights . Before the quake , the capital had 60,000 paying customers , but there were 150,000 connections to the grid , and the power company was losing $ 1 million to $ 2 million per month , he said . `` In Haiti , that 's a lot of money , '' he said . He credited donations from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for having kept Haiti 's lights on . Now , to get them on again , Manon faced the task of replacing thousands of poles , many of which had been crushed by toppling buildings . Manon and his colleagues , Bud Stanley and Christian Ponce , worked to get live lines to critical sites , like hospitals , water pumping stations and grocery stores . The men had at their disposal four trucks and 30 EdH workers , some of whom had lost their own families . As they went to work , the engineers carted what they could from the power company 's warehouse , which had been condemned and was to be torn down . But there were n't enough poles , lines and other equipment needed to reilluminate a city the size of Port-au-Prince , he said . Nor were there any maps that would tell the engineers where the wires went once they left the plant . So they gave their teams GPS units and created the nation 's first maps of its electrical grids , Manon said . The Haitian workers were inventive with the tools they had -- primarily pickup trucks carrying ladders -- but they had a view of safety that concerned their American counterparts . `` Safety is not a primary concern in the Haitian electric sector , '' Manon said . `` It would scare you to death . '' Few wore basics , like hard hats , safety goggles or gloves , he said . Manon recalled a 1970s-vintage Ford truck that had been donated by one of their U.S.-based cooperatives to the Dominican Republic to help restore electricity after Hurricane Georges knocked out power nationwide in 1998 . He made a couple of calls and found it sitting in a garage on the Dominican side of the island , paid a mechanic to get it running again , and had it driven to Haiti . That -- combined with two other trucks from the Dominican Republic and four other Haitian line trucks that `` sort of work '' and were already in the country -- was it for the specialized equipment needed to make rapid line repairs . The rest of the work is being done by people using pickup trucks and ladders , he said . They got the first of the capital 's four plants back on line within 10 days of the earthquake , he said . The first place to get electricity restored was University Hospital , outside of which stacked bodies oozed fluids onto the paving stones . His biggest challenge was keeping his footing . `` Lord , do n't let me fall on the bodies , '' he recalled telling himself , his voice cracking . Now , slightly more than a month after the earthquake , service has been restored to 25 percent of Haiti 's customers , he said . Two of the city 's four power plants are back on line , and a third is nearly ready , he said . Manon appealed Wednesday to a nationwide convention of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association in Atlanta for help getting teams of workers and trucks to Haiti . `` If we can get four or five teams , that would help a lot , '' he said . `` The international community is going to have to come forward now . '' Manon 's experience with the topic goes back to 1972 , when he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Managua , Nicaragua , and an earthquake destroyed the center of the city , killing thousands . But things have improved since then . Three weeks after that quake , the city still had no electricity , he said .
Engineers fly from U.S. to Dominican Republic more than a month after quake , drive to U.S. . They find 4 power plants off line , power lines down , 56-ton transformers off their bases . Before the quake , only 60 % of capital 's residents had electricity ; only 60 % nationwide . With scant safety supplies and tools , team and American restore service to 40 % of customers .