Davey Tree Flipbooks

8 THE DAVEY BULLETIN | March/April 2023 MISSION STORMS HIT CALIFORNIA, CAUSING FLOODING AND MUDSLIDES A yellow McLeod rake placed next to a large oak tree shows the oak's scale. Logan Thornley, vegetation management inspector, DRG Pacific Services, LLC, arrived at a location in Felton, California, along Highway 9 where restoration crews had already begun working during the January storms. "The line crew I was paired with was working with about five other PG&E line crews. I started my inspection looking for hazard trees when I noticed this large oak tree had a lean to it," Thornley said. After briefly discussing with PG&E arborists onsite, Thornley had one of the PG&E trucks moved over and made sure no cars or people were under the tree and spoke with others about his concerns. About 15 minutes later, Thornley heard a loud crash and the tree fell. "I was very happy that no people or trucks were under the tree when it came down. I think I was shaking at the time from adrenaline," Thornley added. crews every day, and responded to more than 450 outages," Johnson said. They were working on two different storm event areas, one in Monterey County, and the other in Santa Cruz County, Johnson said. "A base camp was built at both locations. They had tents and trailers set up and were mobilizing several different contractors from all over the West Coast to help with construction and rebuilding facilities," he said. "Davey was the main tree company there." Documenting where the crews were located was the result of a major coordination effort between Surgery Company, DRG, and PG&E. "DRG made sure the crews knew where to go by communicating with our general foremen," Johnson said. Johnson said they finished work on trees majorly affected by the storms and showing signs of failure but hadn't caused power outages yet nearly halfway into February. "We had zero incidents throughout the whole event. Everyone felt comfortable standing down if they weren't in a safe situation. To go through something that extreme for weeks in a row and have zero incidents is remarkable," Johnson said. Lupe Maldonado, account manager, PG&E Los Padres, said the Santa Barbara area was hit with the tail end of the storms, and didn't get hit as hard as the Central Coast. At the height of the storm, they had 15 crews supporting storm restoration for several days. Their storm response lasted about three weeks, ending around January 25. "It was challenging at times. We hadn't seen this kind of rain in years. In our yard, one of In just one month, seven atmospheric rivers pummeled California, bringing relentless, heavy rains and flooding, finally subsiding during the third week of January. The storms took the lives of at least 20 people. Hundreds of Davey employees worked on storm recovery efforts. SURGERY COMPANY CREWS WORK TOGETHER Ben Johnson, area supervisor, PG&E Southern Coast account, Davey Tree Surgery Company, said crews were working anywhere from 12 to 16 hour days for six days straight. Everyone was able to get one rest day before starting another six-day stretch because of the support received from additional accounts. They were assisted by five crews from the City of Santa Clara and the City of Palo Alto accounts, as well as 10 crews each from the Southern California Edison (SCE) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDGE) accounts. "At the height of the storm, we were running 75

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