18
THE DAVEY BULLETIN
|
November/December 2017
MY DAVEY
Flood waters from Hurricane Irma
sloshing around inside the Naples
R/C office couldn't stop its determined
employees from serving their clients,
who sustained tremendous damage
from the storm's 142 mph wind gusts.
"We're estimating the office had 6
inches to 10 inches of water in it," said
Dan Powell, district manager, Naples
office. "So we've been operating
outside of the office, whether in a
truck or somebody's house, but
everybody's been handling it great.
And we're still able to use the yard."
The hurricane dealt incredible damage
to the area and put a heavy demand
on the Naples office services. The
office's bigger clients, including the
Naples Zoo, the city of Naples, Collier
County and Bay Colony Golf Club all
had emergency tree care needs on
a large scale.
"Collier County has numerous parks
at which we would have multiple
crews working, in some cases, for
two or three weeks cleaning up storm
debris," Powell said. "Down here
there are a lot of ficus and other
shallow-rooted trees, which uprooted
like crazy. It was unbelievable how
easily they went down."
Fortunately, Naples benefitted from
the support of other Davey offices and
service lines. A total 24 offices sent
help, totaling 76 employees – including
the Naples' office 11 field employees
– during the peak response. By Nov. 1,
Naples was still hosting Davey
employees from Ohio and Illinois.
At the Naples Zoo, the client benefitted
from the hard work of Utility services
employees, who were careful to
NAPLES R/C OFFICE FLOODED BY STORM SURGE
AND WITH DEMAND FOR RECOVERY WORK
Above: An aerial view provides just a glimpse
of the damage from heavy winds in Florida.
Below: The Naples Zoo was so happy with
the support from Davey Utility crews, who
helped clean up the massive debris scattered
throughout the zoo by Hurricane Irma, that
zookeepers let Davey employees feed one
of the giraffes as a gesture of thanks.
Photo courtesy of Naples Zoo.
consider the element the animals
added while clearing debris. Running
a chainsaw continuously in proximity
to a habitat can stress an animal,
Powell said.
In addition, Naples employees had to
deal with their own storm damage. Two
employees lost roofs to the storm.
Keith Francies, operations manager,
Southeast R/C operating group, said
the employees involved all pulled
together despite some of those
personal hardships.
"Having experienced many of these
events over my career in the southeast,
as a district manager and as an
operations manager, I can attest to
the fact that this was one of the best
run, organized and safety-minded
responses," Francies said. "The Naples
team and all the many active and
behind-the-scenes players made this
all possible."
