Davey Tree Flipbooks

10 THE DAVEY BULLETIN | November/December 2024 For Hurricane Milton, Tanner Parker, operations manager, Lakes region, Eastern Utility, supplied 46 employees from Indiana and Minnesota to assist in Florida. One work group brought a tracked Jaraff side trimmer with a 75-foot telescoping boom. "We were called out to a challenging situation in a hard-to-reach area in the Ocala National Forest. Other folks were unable to reach a tree that was pinning the outer face of the conductor on this 230-kilovolt transmission line," Parker said. "We were able to not only safely remove that tree, but others that were damaged in the general vicinity of that area." At peak, 72 Utility Asset Management services (UAM), DRG employees were in Thompson and Augusta, Georgia, assessing damage, responding to hazards, and removing damaged utility poles ahead of Georgia Power line crews for Helene. An additional 51 UAM employees responded to aid multiple utilities in South Carolina, and Florida. Ninety-fi ve UAM employees assisted in Florida for Milton. "We were approached by utilities commenting about our professionalism, high quality of work, communication, and expertise," said Joseph Tommasi, area manager, UAM, DRG. "One person commented that Davey was a one-stop shop for storm work and was surprised to hear that this was a lot of the crews' fi rst experience with storm work because of how well-organized everyone was." Joe Vanella, project manager, UVM, DRG's team of 18 employees responded to Helene in West Virginia and Virginia, while Michael "Jordan" Slone, project manager, UVM, DRG's team of 17 responded in southwest Virginia and eastern Kentucky to assist Appalachian Power. They worked primarily as foresters, organizing and dispatching forestry crews to work sites, while others worked as fi eld liaisons for the utility's forestry and line crews to guide them to work sites. UVM employees also gathered pole hardware materials for line crews so they could keep moving to restore power. "Helene made landfall, raced into Appalachia, and parked. Many states in the region received more rain than they had all summer, in a matter of moments," Vanella said. "I couldn't be prouder of the work that was done safely and effectively by our team, and I'm thankful to belong to an organization that values their people enough to recognize them." John Rohan, account manager, UVM, DRG, said 25 UVM employees responded to assist multiple utilities on Helene in Florida, followed by two team members responding in Thomasville, Georgia. For Milton, 33 UVM employees were spread throughout the state of Florida to assist, along with four Environmental Consulting services, DRG employees from Carlos "Alex" Varela, senior associate consultant's team. "This was a much more devastating storm for Florida, compared to Helene. I believe at one point there were over 3 million customers without power," Rohan said. "Our teams worked on recovery for one month. Most importantly, we were able to get through the storms safely without any incidents." Jeff Crites, vice president, southeast operations, R/C services, said 215 R/C services employees mobilized to assist on Helene recovery efforts in Augusta, Aiken, and Columbia, South Carolina, and in Asheville, North Carolina, at the Biltmore Estate. "In Augusta and Asheville, the pines that fell were massive 120-feet plus tall, 30-plus DBH (diameter at breast height) trees. These pines combined with large deciduous trees created massive piles of debris that blocked internal roads, hiking paths and horse trails inside the Biltmore," Crites said. The recovery efforts in these areas are ongoing and are expected to continue into 2025. The Biltmore property includes 180 miles of horse trails and is an 8,000-acre property in the Blue Ridge Mountains. "There was major fl ooding at the bottom and in the entrance areas," Crites said. "We've been moving 1,600 cubic yards of chippings and debris per day, totaling over 100,000 cubic yards in six weeks." Youngstown offi ce trimmers Cody Cunningham and Brennan Kissman, along with the Akron offi ce's Tracy Layne, foreman, traveled from Northeast Ohio to Georgia, to assist with storm recovery efforts by cleaning up storm damaged trees and removing limbs for one month for a major client in Augusta, Georgia. They worked alongside 60 other R/C services employees from Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and local Georgia offi ces. "The Saturday before we left on Monday, my wife messaged our daughters' 4-H Club members to gather cases of bottled water, canned goods, and clothing, for us to bring down to Georgia to Chris Heim, operations manager, R/C services, to donate to the community," Cunningham said. The MISSION R/C services' crews undertook a massive cleanup effort post-Hurricane Helene at the Biltmore estate in Asheville, North Carolina.

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