7
January/February 2019
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THE DAVEY BULLETIN
When we finished, they came out and gave me a bottle of
water and a letter."
The letter simply read: "Thank you so much for everything.
I love you. Be safe." It was signed "Carol Ann."
Momentarily overcome with emotion, Babb realized they
had little to give due to the storm and their lack of power. He
quickly gave them his storm "goody" bag, which had snacks
and other comforts.
"When I saw that girl come out with her mother crying and
holding hands, I knew that meant we had done a good job,"
he said. "I about broke down and cried, too."
Babb, 54, has worked in line clearance since he was 18. It
was the first time he experienced such sincere gratitude on
the job. "I'm going to keep that letter right in my pocket, in
my wallet, the rest of my life," he said.
Travis Scism, Babb's supervisor, said he inspires positivity
wherever he goes.
"That's the kind of person Junior is," Scism said. "It's good
to have him around."
Tears welled in James "Junior" Babb's eyes.
A trimmer on the Johnson City Power Board account,
Babb typically spends his work days isolated with his
fellow crew members managing line clearance on rural
rights-of-way for the Tennessee-based electric utility –
a client of Wolf Tree, Inc., a Davey company.
On this day, Babb came face to face with a young girl
delivering a hopeful message born of the destruction
wrought by Hurricane Michael.
"I feel like the Lord blessed me on this job," he said.
Babb found himself in Georgia, hundreds of miles away
from home, helping communities recover from the Category
4 storm that churned out of the Gulf of Mexico, slammed
into the Florida panhandle and crossed over to the Atlantic
by way of Georgia, Virginia and the Carolinas – leaving an
estimated $15 billion in damage in its wake.
He was in the middle of a three-week storm recovery
response that had started in Florida when he encountered
the doe-eyed young girl and her grateful mother.
"We were working on a power line on a house," Babb said.
"A tree had fallen into it. The girl and her mother lived in the
house and had been without power for three or four days.
Above: James Babb, a trimmer on the Johnson City Power
Board account, traveled to Florida and Georgia to assist with
the Hurricane Michael recovery.
RESTORING POWER TO THE PEOPLE
A young, grateful Georgia resident gave this letter to
a Davey employee working to restore power after Hurricane Michael.
Hurricane Michael coverage continues on pages 8 – 9.
INTEGRITY
