Skip to content

Thunder Bay line crew set for Hurricane Florence relief mission (3 photos)

Lineworkers from Gridlink will help restore expected power outages

THUNDER BAY As Hurricane Florence drives steadily toward North Carolina, a powerline crew from Thunder Bay is packing its gear for an anticipated 45-hour road trip starting Thursday, Sept. 13.

Gridlink, a city-based utility contractor, has been asked to assist U.S. crews to deal with what's likely to be the widespread destruction of electricity distribution infrastructure.

Geoff Miller, vice-president of power systems for the company, will lead a six-man crew in a convoy of two double-bucket trucks, a single-bucket truck, a pickup truck and a radial boom derrick, a piece of equipment used for setting utility poles in place.

Miller said the team is preparing for a heavy workload, but is also aware that it could head back home before even reaching the seaboard. 

"Every available lineman in the U.S., and from Manitoba east, is headed to the Carolinas. Depending on the amount of people who ultimately get deployed, or if the hurricane fizzles out, we may get turned around in New York State," Miller explained in an interview Wednesday.

However, if the hurricane is as severe as American officials are expecting, he believes a combination of wind and flood damage will create a monumental task for crews such as his.

"There will definitely be a lot of poles washed away, leaning over, wires broken, poles snapped due to the flooding. Obviously due to the hurricane, we'll have lots and lots of trees taking out power lines."

This won't be Miller's or Gridlink's first experience providing disaster relief in the U.S.

In March, they were sent to New York State where a powerful Nor'easter damaged the power distribution system.

The company's lineworkers also helped clean up the mess left by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Miller was part of a crew that spent the better part of three weeks on that assignment.

He's looking forward to this next one, he said.

"We're heading down to more and more of these. It's nice to  keep our safety culture right in line. The more we go down the more we get in tune with the different levels of hazards...the more experience our men get the safer we become."

 

.


Comments

Verified reader

If you would like to apply to become a verified commenter, please fill out this form.




Gary Rinne

About the Author: Gary Rinne

Born and raised in Thunder Bay, Gary started part-time at Tbnewswatch in 2016 after retiring from the CBC
Read more