17
November/December 2017
|
THE DAVEY BULLETIN
DRG RESPONSE SPANS HARVEY, IRMA
Tree crews responding to aid utility companies in the wake
of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma relied on the support of
Davey Resource Group (DRG) employees to prioritize and
address storm damage.
DRG crews responded simultaneously to both hurricanes
as the storms hammered the Gulf coast.
Shawn Huff, project coordinator, DRG, works on several
accounts in the region, so he coordinated the resource
group's response first to Hurricane Harvey in Texas and then
immediately to Hurricane Irma in Florida.
"We were actually responding to one hurricane while still
transitioning from the other one," Huff said. "We started
putting people up in hotels, preparing for Hurricane Harvey,
three days before it hit. They worked an 18-day storm
response and were released the Saturday before Hurricane
Irma hit."
In Texas, Huff's 14 team members were issuing tickets to
tree care crews on behalf of the client, American Electric
Power, to clear tree damage from power infrastructure. More
than 300,000 utility clients across Texas had lost power.
Above: Heavy winds and localized flooding inundate downtown
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as Hurricane Irma makes landfall.
Below: Davey Resource Group crews at a staging site prior to
Hurricane Irma's landfall.
"What we were doing was organizing the response to
wind damage as a result of the direct hits of the hurricane,
because the hurricane hit right at Rockport, Texas, and the
surrounding communities," Huff said. "That's where the
major wind came through. Our employees were the ones
making sure tree crews got to where they needed to be."
In Florida, 200 DRG employees, mostly from the asset
management team, responded to Irma. They supported
numerous clients, including Florida Power & Light, Duke
Energy and Orlando Utilities Commission. In Florida alone,
more than 6 million utility customers had lost power.
Aside from running response tickets, DRG employees
took charge of Florida Power & Light's check-in procedures
for responding tree and power crews – an estimated
21,500 personnel.
"Basically every crew that came into this property was
talked to by a DRG person," Huff said.
