Post by DADDY O on Sept 17, 2017 15:35:26 GMT
When Irma hit, 6 million people (about 1/3 of the state) went without power, and the nightmare to correct all of the down lines, generation facilities, Nukes, etc. began.
We have two energy companies in Florida......Duke Energy and Florida Power & Light (FPL). Duke pretty well manages the top half of the state, while FPL takes the bottom.
It soon became apparent with 6 million customers out of power, the normal local crews could not be expected to get things done overnight. Hence, enter the Canadians. Canada sent 142 linemen trucks complete with close to 500 linemen to help with the recovery, and at no cost to the state or citizens of Florida. I ran into one crew (Saw a big Maple Leaf on the side of their truck) who was working in Tarpon Springs. I pulled over to thank them, but they were so busy they had no time to chit chat, so I instead went to a very good deli and ordered sandwiches, chips and the largest Ice Teas they had. When the owner rang it up he mentioned......you must be quite hungry today? I told him no, I was just trying to make sure that the volunteers from Canada had a good lunch. The owner of the Deli told me he would pay for half.
I went back to the spot I last saw them at, but they had moved on. It took about 1/2 hour, but I found them again just as they were getting set up. I gave them the food and offered the use of my house when they needed to sleep or eat. The foreman was visibly shaken but he said they were camped out in a local high school gymnasium. After a whole lot of Thank You Mate's, I left, but I forgot to get their names and phone numbers. I went back, but never found them again.
I saw on the news this morning that the Canadians were solely responsible for getting close to 600,000 homes back on line.
Beachy.......if you ever see a lineman's truck, please stop and tell them the Floridians are very thankful to them.
We have two energy companies in Florida......Duke Energy and Florida Power & Light (FPL). Duke pretty well manages the top half of the state, while FPL takes the bottom.
It soon became apparent with 6 million customers out of power, the normal local crews could not be expected to get things done overnight. Hence, enter the Canadians. Canada sent 142 linemen trucks complete with close to 500 linemen to help with the recovery, and at no cost to the state or citizens of Florida. I ran into one crew (Saw a big Maple Leaf on the side of their truck) who was working in Tarpon Springs. I pulled over to thank them, but they were so busy they had no time to chit chat, so I instead went to a very good deli and ordered sandwiches, chips and the largest Ice Teas they had. When the owner rang it up he mentioned......you must be quite hungry today? I told him no, I was just trying to make sure that the volunteers from Canada had a good lunch. The owner of the Deli told me he would pay for half.
I went back to the spot I last saw them at, but they had moved on. It took about 1/2 hour, but I found them again just as they were getting set up. I gave them the food and offered the use of my house when they needed to sleep or eat. The foreman was visibly shaken but he said they were camped out in a local high school gymnasium. After a whole lot of Thank You Mate's, I left, but I forgot to get their names and phone numbers. I went back, but never found them again.
I saw on the news this morning that the Canadians were solely responsible for getting close to 600,000 homes back on line.
Beachy.......if you ever see a lineman's truck, please stop and tell them the Floridians are very thankful to them.
