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8 THE DAVEY BULLETIN | November/December 2024 ALL-HANDS-ON DECK FOR HURRICANE SEASON 2024 From Hurricanes Beryl through Milton, from July to October, this year's hurricane season felt like "one big storm" to many of Davey's storm responders. HURRICANE BERYL The 2024 hurricane season kicked off with Hurricane Beryl, and made landfall near Mategorda, Texas, just southwest of Houston, with maximum sustained winds of 80 mph. Approximately 140 local Davey Tree Surgery Company employees responded for two and a half weeks to address trees that were hanging on powerlines. Nearly 400 Eastern Utility services employees traveled in to assist for a week and a half. "Around 80% of the downed trees came from outside the right-of-way. The trees failed, fell, and took out powerlines," said Brandon Freeman, operations manager, Southern region, Surgery Company. "The collaboration between Eastern Utility and Surgery Company this year on storm work was key to restoration efforts." An all-hands-on deck storm response was needed from around 20 employees in the local North and South Houston offi ces, Residential/Commercial (R/C) services. "The cleanup took months," Wyatt Bilby, district manager, North Houston offi ce, said. "We also want to thank Surgery Company for their help by sending a handful of employees to help with a golf course client we couldn't turn our backs on." Several employees traveled to Houston from the East San Antonio offi ce each week over the span of three weeks to assist, including Jess Divin, district manager, East San Antonio offi ce. "Beryl was a little unique because most hurricanes I've been involved with result in the trees laying down in one direction," Divin said. "This storm spawned multiple small tornadoes. We were seeing trees like matchsticks laying in all directions. The rain that hit in the derecho before the hurricane weakened and damaged the root systems, so we had more tree failures than we typically would have had." More than a dozen Utility Vegetation Management services (UVM), Davey Resource Group (DRG) employees responded to Beryl locally as well as traveling in from various locations in Texas. They assisted multiple utilities, over the span of one to three and a half weeks. Chris Dempsey, regional manager, Eastern region, Commercial Landscape Services (CLS), explained that Beryl ended up being a major opportunity to put CLS' footprint in the Houston area. Nearly 80 CLS employees traveled in from the eastern half of the U.S. to assist nine Houston territory employees. "When the storm hit, I was talking to Mark Kinney, our Houston sales representative. We fi gured out help was initially needed at Eagle Springs, a homeowners' association (HOA), then added the HOA community, Sienna," Dempsey said. "Then we worked with Harris County, where we went street by street and picked up debris piles from residences. We also responded to The Woodlands, an HOA community. Folks were there from CLS for six to seven weeks." Dempsey said through this storm response work, CLS gained new clients and now, there is an awareness in the Houston area that Davey does landscaping work and that we do a great job. MISSION Eastern Utility services crews are gathered at a camp outside of Houston, Texas, getting ready to deploy to help Surgery Company crews with Hurricane Beryl recovery work. Matt Roddy, business manager, Eastern Utility services, said, "This was one of our larger responses to support Surgery Company," Roddy said. "I'm glad they were able to return the favor to us when we needed help for Hurricane Milton." A tree fell on a house in Tomball, Texas, during Hurricane Beryl. Luis Dominguez, general foreman, CenterPoint Energy account, Davey Tree Surgery Company, said he's had a lot of experience working on storm restoration. "Communication with teammates as well as with CenterPoint's linemen made it possible for us to work safely," Dominguez said.

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