Davey Tree Flipbooks

7 November/December 2023 | THE DAVEY BULLETIN MISSION HURRICANE IDALIA HITS FLORIDA'S GULF COAST Hurricane Idalia made landfall in the U.S. in Keaton Beach, Florida with sustained winds of 125 mph, resulting in major flooding, downed trees, and widespread power outages. Forty-six Florida counties were under a state of emergency ahead of the storm. EASTERN UTILITY SERVICES RESPONDS Eastern Utility mobilized 474 employees from the Gulf region, East Coast, and Midwest to assist with cleanup efforts after the storm, which hit in late August. Walter Munoz, general foreman, Tampa Electric account, worked with eight crews during the Idalia response, which lasted two days in Tampa, Florida. "Several tickets we worked on involved entire trees that fell on power lines, one with a huge tree on a primary line," Munoz said. "The Davey crews communicated well with the Tampa Electric linemen. Their professionalism and focus on working safely was evident." Mark Stackhouse, general foreman, NIPSCO account, said that he and five crews from the NIPSCO and Northeastern Rural Electric Membership Corporation accounts traveled straight from Detroit, Michigan, where they had been working on severe thunderstorm cleanup, to Tallahassee, Florida. "They all volunteered. They're always eager and ready to go," Stackhouse said. Don Viers, area manager, Lakes region, praised the crews for going straight from one storm to another. "I appreciate the employees' willingness to leave their families in Indiana and travel like that," Viers said. Similarly, Mark Mittiga, area manager, Central region, said the crews from Ohio's Butler Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc., Holmes-Wayne Electric Cooperative, Inc., and City of Cuyahoga Falls accounts traveled directly to Florida from the Detroit, Michigan storm cleanup. "Our employees in the Gulf region did a phenomenal job of being ahead of the work plan this year in anticipation of upcoming storms, which increased the availability of crews," said Johnny Page, regional vice president, Gulf region, Eastern Utility. DRG ASSISTS BIG BEND IN PANHANDLE Cody Clements, project coordinator, Utility Asset Management services (UAM), Davey Resource Group (DRG), said a total of 31 UAM employees assisted Duke Energy in the Big Bend area of Florida's Panhandle during the storm response. "We provided site support for anything Duke needed, such as verifying and checking in trucks and people. Towards the end, we switched to the role of setting up traffic control points where we would get the line crews in the right positions with their bucket trucks," Clements said. Clements was impressed with the UAM team as he'd only ever worked with a handful of them prior to this storm. "Everyone was all smiles and would learn what the scope of work was for the day and go and do it. If there was ever down time, everyone was asking if there was anything they could do to help," Clements added. UVM PROVIDES SUPPORT IN TAMPA Ryan Cordrey, Mid-Atlantic area manager, DRG, Utility Vegetation Management services (UVM), serves as the UVM incident manager for the Southeastern region. Twenty-two UVM employees responded to Idalia for Florida Power & Light Company (FPL), Duke Energy, and Tampa Electric, in Tampa, Florida and the surrounding area. UVM assisted the utility companies with getting linemen crews assigned at the staging areas and riding ahead of the crews to check for trees on wires. "Everything went smoothly. There were no incidents whatsoever." Cordrey said. Eastern Utility services trucks fuel up while responding to Hurricane Idalia. Davey Resource Group Utility Asset Management services' employees who responded to Hurricane Idalia are pictured in the back row from left Sam Meeker, design field technician; Cody Clements, project coordinator; Chris Williams, traffic safety flagger; Andrew Trenka, senior designer; Conner White, designer field technician; and in the front row is McKee Ward, utility systems technician.

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