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The Davey Bulletin | January/February 2017
MY DAVEY
HURRICANE MATTHEW DRAWS DAVEY CREWS
FROM ALL SERVICE LINES TO SOUTHEAST
Before, during and after – that's
when clients can rely on Davey for
storm support.
And that's precisely what more than
400 Davey employees did when they
responded before, during and after
Hurricane Matthew, which struck the
Atlantic coast in October and topped
out as a Category 5 storm.
Employees from Davey's Utility
services, Residential/Commercial
(R/C), Davey Resource Group (DRG)
and Commercial Landscape Services
(CLS) all responded in some way to
the storm.
UTILITY CREWS HELP RE-
STORE POWER IN FLORIDA
In Florida, the storm started to batter
the east coast of the state on Friday,
Oct. 7. At its peak, the storm knocked
out power to more than 1 million
customers statewide. About 170
Davey employees helped more than
a dozen Florida utilities restore power
in the wake of the hurricane as it
traveled up the coast towards Georgia
and the Carolinas.
Marvin Hassell, regional vice president,
Utility services, said crews worked
14 to 16 hours a day in a mix of urban
and rural rights-of-way settings.
Crews came from Oklahoma,
Alabama, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island,
New York, New Jersey, Tennessee,
Ohio and Indiana.
"I'd like to thank all of them for coming
and helping," Hassell said. "Everybody
was professional and did a great job."
Many of the Florida crews, once
finished, followed in the storm's wake
up the East Coast.
FIGHTING FLOODING
IN THE CAROLINAS
Some parts of North Carolina received
as much as 14 inches of rain in a 24-
hour period during the storm. That led
to washed-out roadways, submerged
bridges and blocked streets – all of
which hindered the progress of Davey
crews working to restore power.
A similar scene met crews in
South Carolina.
"Flooding really hindered restoration
efforts," said Doug Bour, operations
manager, Mid-Atlantic Utility region.
"It was just difficult to get to the work
to be able to string the lines back up
or to get the trees off the lines. We
were mainly making sure that the
power lines were free of debris, so
that we could get the power back on.
And that was on both the transmission
and distribution lines."
Bour said Davey helped a mix of
current clients and utilities whose line
Some residents cooked meals for Davey crews
as a gesture of appreciation for all their hard
work. Here, crews enjoy a meal prepared by
a family at Naval Station Mayport in Florida.
Photo courtesy Sarah Dickey.
