In the fading late afternoon light on Saturday on the border of New Hyde Park and Garden City, a crew of lineman from Mississippi were well into what foreman Roy Rogers figured would be an 18-hour day working to restore a vital trunk line along New Hyde Park Road.
The 30-man crew, who work for Echo Powerline, specialize in out-of-state emergencies and had driven from Mississippi to Iowa to pick up 19 trucks from a project they had been working on there. They then drove to Buffalo the Friday before Hurricane Sandy hit and reached the New York metropolitan area on Monday.
“You had a lot of damage here. This was serious,” Rogers said looking at the tangle of downed power lines and poles.
It was far from the worst disasters that Rogers, a veteran of Hurricanes Andrew and Katrina, had seen. He gave that somber distinction to the deadly tornado that struck Tuscaloosa, Ala. last year.
“In Tuscaloosa, there was nothing but slabs. They were pulling bodies out from where we were,” Rogers said.
But Rogers figured Hurricane Sandy was certainly an epic disaster because of the concentration of population on the East Coast.
“By sheer numbers, it affects more people,” he said, noting that one in five U.S. citizens had been affected.
Rogers and his crew typically had been putting in 16-hour days – and one 20-hour day – to get their job done. Their immediate objective was restoring the 4,000-volt main trunk line along New Hyde Park emanating from a substation.
“We’re gonna work ‘til we get this done,” he said
At the end of their day, the crew eats dinner and then hunkers down in their trucks to sleep. LIPA hadn’t been able to find them accommodations in the area, Rogers said.
“It ain’t no fun,” he added.
Neither are the long absences from home. Rogers, a 26-year veteran of power industry, formerly worked for Mississippi Power for 20 years. He and his Echo crew work frequently work emergency situations for two weeks on, with one week off, before they take on their next challenge.
“We catch storms everywhere,” he said.
His wife, Lisa, minds his absences but he said their goal of an early retirement balances the time they spend apart.
“You’re ready for some home when it’s time to go,” said Skipper Antley, superintendent of the Echo crew who’s been working as a lineman for 31 years.
For Antley, being in the business is a family tradition. His father, now retired, was a lineman, along with three brothers and three uncles who are still active in it.
“It’s a pride job. It’s a challenging career. It’s always different as you go from state to state,” Antley said.
The climate was one distinct difference this time around for a crew accustomed to working on storm disasters in southern climes.
“First hurricane I worked with a jacket on,” Antley said.
Neither man looked stressed as they directed their crew members working high atop the poles along New Hyde Park Road, but Rogers said stress certainly came with the territory.
“When you’re managing this many men, you have to watch out for their well being,” he said.
The most dangerous aspect of the job in New York was “probably traffic” he said, with all the traffic lights in the area not working.
Both men said it was satisfying work knowing that they were helping to restore some sense of normalcy to people’s lives in the midst of a crisis. And there was the added bonus of people offering thanks.
“Everybody’s appreciative of it,” Rogers said
Some people from the neighborhood stopped by to say thanks as the day was growing darker, knowing that these men from Mississippi had traveled far to make their Long Island homes brighter and warmer.
Reach reporter Richard Tedesco by e-mail at rtedesco@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x204. Also follow us on Twitter @theislandnow1 and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow.
