PEABODY — Two Peabody Municipal Light Plant linemen are again house after serving to restore power to Florida communities ravaged by Hurricane Ian.
The storm left hundreds of thousands with out power and lots of houses below water after it made landfall in Florida on Sept. 28. More than 100 individuals in the state have been killed by Ian — primarily from flooding.
“There was a lot of devastation,” stated Kevin MacGregor, one of the PMLP linemen who went to Florida. “A lot of trees down, power lines down and people in need. It was very gratifying to go down and help them.”
MacGregor and Billy Reaume left Peabody on Sept. 27 to drive all the way down to Jacksonville, Florida, the place they had been on standby for 36 hours. When the hurricane ended up hitting tougher additional south, they transferred to Bartow, a metropolis 40 miles south of Orlando.
They joined greater than 200 linemen from Texas, Ohio, Alabama, Minnesota and different elements of the nation to restore power to the realm.
Damage by massive willow timber that had blown over in the storm gave MacGregor and Reaume a lot of work getting poles and wires again up in the air.
“These (trees) are so big and they’re just so widespread that the wind would just literally take them and either uproot them or snap limbs off, which would land on the wire, snap the wire, snap the pole, or push the pole over and the wire would be the only thing holding the pole up,” Reaume stated.
Flooding wasn’t as huge a problem in Bartow because it was additional south in Florida, but it surely was nonetheless a problem in the group’s countryside.
“There were a couple of roads headed out there that were swamped,” MacGregor stated. “We saw a lady trying to get her belongings from a ladder on a truck because her whole property was flooded.”
One couple in the realm had been on their 35-acre property for nearly every week with out power. With their digital properly down, it was exhausting to take care of their cattle.
“As soon as we turned their power back on, (the wife) actually came out and was just so grateful that she was getting emotional. She was crying while thanking us,” Reaume stated. “That right there was worth the time away from the family and the time it took to get down there.”
Locals additionally dropped off snacks from granola bars to home made pies for the linemen on the city’s civic heart, the place the employees had been served three meals a day.
“I don’t think I’ve eaten that much in quite some time,” MacGregor laughed.
They labored in Bartow between Sept. 30 and Oct. 2, and didn’t get again house to Massachusetts till Oct. 4.
MacGregor lives in Peabody and has been with PMLP for practically 15 years. Reaume lives in Lynn and has labored for PMLP for 10 years, however has been a lineman for 17 years.
It was the furthest both of them had ever gone to provide emergency help.
Usually, PMLP sends support to neighboring communities and even neighboring states throughout particularly dangerous blizzards, hurricanes or different climate occasions by a mutual support committee of the Northeast Public Power Association, a nonprofit commerce affiliation that represents and serves consumer-owned utilities in New England.
MacGregor and Reaume volunteered from PMLP when NEPPA despatched a name out to power firms to ship support to Florida. In comparable vogue, Danvers officers reported that they had additionally dispatched two linemen to Bartow to reply the decision.
“You don’t know when you leave that you might be gone a week, or you might be for gone six weeks. You never know,” MacGregor stated. “It’s a collaborative effort with your family because you’re not involved at home when you’re away.”
That’s true for linemen throughout native storms too, he added.
“When we get hit with nor’easters, we go home just to sleep. We’re working 16 hours on and six or eight hours off,” MacGregor stated. “It’s definitely a commitment and a lifestyle that’s unique to the industry.”
They had been each in a position to step away from house to help in Florida. and had been glad they did.
“The gratitude and appreciation from everybody down there was just overwhelming,” Reaume stated.
Contact Caroline Enos at [email protected] and comply with her on Twitter @CarolineEnos.