7
November/December 2021
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THE DAVEY BULLETIN
MISSION
The tree canopy in the greater St. Louis area took a hit this
summer, as numerous severe windstorms damaged or
felled countless mature trees and knocked out power to
tens of thousands of electric customers.
Tom Beshoar, district manager, St. Louis R/C office, said
he was running eight, two-to-three person crews daily for
almost two months assisting with storm-related cleanup.
Jonathan Corzine, district manager, St. Louis West office,
said they experienced similar demands to address tree
damage across his clients' properties.
Crews from Davey's Lombard and Kansas City R/C offices
even traveled to St. Louis to help clear trees and limbs from
roofs, power lines and roadways.
"We had a very wet
spring, summer dried
everything up and the
sudden storms just
snapped everything," Beshoar said. "We spent a lot
of time clearing roads for first responders and the
electric companies."
Utility crews responded from across Davey's East Coast operations
when tropical storm Henri smashed into New England and knocked
out power for tens of thousands of electric customers throughout
the region. At the height of Davey's response, 333 employees
responded from Wolf Tree, a Davey company, and Eastern Utility
services' Gulf, mid-Atlantic, Central and Lakes regions.
Matt Roddy, operations manager, Eastern Utility, said about
one-third of Davey's crews responded to assist National Grid in
Rhode Island. Additional crews were spread throughout
Massachusetts and New Jersey, with most crews staying on
storm-response work for about a week.
"This was one of our highest response storms we've had here in
the upper Atlantic region in recent memory," Roddy said. "In the
last few years, we've responded significantly and worked better as
a group to get resources in. This storm showed that. We were able
to quickly get 123 off-system crews together to travel to our region.
Within a few days we had all those crews committed. It's a great
example of good, cooperative work with managers across the regions."
Tropical storm Henri shown off the southeastern coast of the
U.S. on Aug. 20, 2021. The storm made landfall in New England
on Aug. 22. NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin
Both the St. Louis offices were busy helping clients with trees down
on properties, like this St. Louis West client property captured by
Jonathan Corzine.
Inset: Severe windstorms hammered St. Louis this summer. Many
trees, like this one captured by Tom Beshoar, failed due to water-logged
soils, subsurface root issues, and extensive rot combining with high
winds to cause a cascade failure.
STORMS HIT MISSOURI TREES HARD
MASS MOBILIZATION
FOR HENRI
