Davey Tree Flipbooks

185 184 Growth Rings Perseverance Mark Vaughn, center, spent much of his five-decade career at Davey managing utility work in the Northeast. An electric transmission tower collapsed during a terrible ice storm in the Northeast in 1998. Top right: Davey crews respond to a terrible ice storm that blanketed parts of the northeastern U.S. in 1998. in tents. Crews spent weeks helping in the immediate aftermath. In 2008, Hurricane Ike slammed into the Texas Gulf Coast. e storm system measured 240 miles wide, and its path through Texas swept directly over the prop- erties of four Davey clients: Texas-New Mexico Power; CenterPoint Energy; Sam Houston Electric; and Oncor Electric Delivery Company. Davey's response to Ike included nearly 2,000 full-time employees responding for more than three weeks. Ike provided the first opportunity for Davey and Wolf Tree, acquired in January 2008, to work together on a hurricane response. "We had to demonstrate our ability to respond to these major catastrophes in a timely and efficient manner," Karl Warnke, chairman and retired CEO, recalled in 2019. "And most importantly, in significant force. e utility industry had never experienced Davey's true capabilities, and we needed to change perceptions, which we did." When Superstorm Sandy hammered the East Coast in 2012, causing an estimated $50 million in damage, Davey employees rushed to help. At the peak of storm damage, more than 1,500 Davey personnel, representing all the company's service lines, were working on the clean-up. In 2016, when responding to Hurricane Matthew, more than 300 employees from all services lines and across the East Coast and Midwest – and from as far away as Oklahoma – worked together to help restore power and repair damage in the storm's wake. A perfect example of Davey's internal collaboration supporting recovery responses came in 2017 when Hurricane Irma struck, spanning the width of the Florida penin- sula. Davey sent more than 1,000 employees, with the response including employees from Davey subsidiaries Wolf Tree and e Care of Trees, Davey's Utility services, Davey Resource Group, several Residential/Commercial offices and Commercial Landscape Services operations. Many of these employees were responding on the heels of their involvement in the Hurricane Harvey recovery, which was ongoing in Texas as Irma struck days later. e sound of a Davey chainsaw means restored electricity is not far away for people without power after a hurricane strikes. And Davey employees from all service lines take great pride in acting as first responders to help communities recover from a disaster. "People affected are happy and grateful to see how the Davey response comes from all over North America," said Harry Claypool, retired vice president and general manager, southern utility operations. "It's a great feeling to be a part of an organiza- tion that has the ability to orchestrate that kind of comprehensive response to help storm-ravaged areas, and it's also rewarding to have the kind of customers who will let you pull crews away from their home region to help with storm recovery." For Davey employees on the ground, few experiences are as inspiring as seeing an entire neighborhood suddenly brighten in the night when power is restored through their efforts. Employees have sacrificed holidays and committed to weeks away from their families to witness such uplifting moments. Davey's storm responses encompass all types of weather and reach beyond hurri- cane season. In 1991 a severe ice storm froze parts of the Rochester, New York, area. Crews from 12 different Davey territories responded. A similar ice storm struck Memphis in February 1994 and paralyzed parts of the city, largely unaccustomed to ice storms, and devastated trees. Nearly 90 percent of the city lost power. Davey crews came from as far away as St. Louis and Minnesota to help restore electric service. A blizzard dumped more than 3 feet of snow on parts of the East Coast in January 1996. Heavy snow and high winds brought down utility poles for Davey clients. Runoff from the melting snow flooded parts of downtown Pittsburgh. Sub-zero temperatures and deadly ice storms hit parts of North America again in 1998, as a 72-hour stretch of freezing weather ground parts of New England and Canada to a standstill, causing 17 deaths and knocking out power for millions. More than 300 Davey employees joined the U.S. National Guard and troops from Canadian Armed Forces to respond. Mark Vaughn, vice president and general manager, Northern Utility, said the 1998 ice storm blanketed trees and utility infrastructure in a thick sheet of ice from the Atlantic coasts of New Hampshire and Maine across Vermont and into Quebec. "It was such a huge ice storm that was so widespread," Vaughn said in a 2019 interview. "I remember going up above the canopy in a bucket truck, high up on a ridge, and seeing nothing but trees with their tops cracked and broken off for miles." Vaughn started with Davey in 1972 as a trimmer on the Commonwealth Edison account in Illinois and transferred to the New England area in 1985. e 1998 storm proved the largest, most widespread winter storm response of his nearly 50-year Davey career. Winter storms bring different hazards compared with storms in the southeast. e dangers posed to crews in hot, humid weather are replaced with freezing tempera- tures, slick surfaces and dangerous driving conditions. In older trucks, hydraulic fluid thickened in the brutal cold – making operating bucket-mounted hydraulic saws a difficult proposition at best – and diesel trucks proved increasingly difficult to start with each dropping degree. Crews were forced to find creative ways to thaw engines and hydraulic pumps only to face the challenge of pruning trees coated in ice. Vaughn recalled buying crampons to give employees safer traction during the 1998 storm. e spike-like attachments for boots are typically reserved only for use by high-altitude mountaineers and ice climbers. "We had to get innovative," he said.

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