Some of the highlights included:
Miami - In order to expedite the restoration process, our lead planner (Kaleb Smith) in Miami had the police chief’s phone number, and as he moved his crews throughout the city, would call for a police escort. This enabled caravans of tree crews and linemen to follow the most efficient routes possible, safely traveling the wrong way down one-way streets, and past stop lights that were still out. This group was spread out throughout the Miami-Dade metro area, but many of them had lodging accommodations in South Beach. One DRG team member noted that her accommodations would have been fantastic if she was on vacation, but working long days on storm response was definitely not relaxing.
Naples - This area was the hardest hit, and a huge amount of Florida Power and Light customers were affected by outages. Our team arrived while most stores, gas stations, and hotels were still without power, and thus spent their storm response sleeping in FEMA trailers and limited to the staging site resources for food and fuel. This group worked incredibly hard, leading teams of tree trimmers and linemen into flooded neighborhoods and bogs, working to coordinate large crane jobs, and the removal of at least one monstrous ficus.
Texas Team - Many on our team from Texas came straight from Harvey storm response with a minimal break, and leaving their own damaged communities and homes to help restore power in Florida.
All the teams worked very hard and did a great job keeping safety as a value. The team spent extended hours driving though heavy traffic areas, many of them unfamiliar with working in cities. I personally put over 4,000 miles on my car in 15 days.
Overall storm response was a great experience. It was exciting to work with such a large group of contractors from across the country, and an honor to be a part of such a committed group on first responders.