Tornado
+ Trees + PEPCo Power Lines =
Storm Work in Maryland
A
deadly tornado uprooted this tree and many others in the communities
of College Park and Beltsville, Maryland on Monday, September
24, 2001. It was during the evening rush hour when the tornado
came through, snapping Potomac Electric Power Co. (PEPCo) power
poles, toppling trees and damaging homes, cars and buildings.
Vice President Dave Morrison had just left the Asplundh office
in Beltsville when the tornado struck within a quarter mile
of his office. Fortunately, neither he nor any of his employees
were hurt and the office was not damaged.
Over
50 tree crews from the Morrison Region were immediately mobilized
to assist PEPCo in restoring power. The tornado extensively
damaged the PEPCo distribution system in that area, as you can
see in this photo of a row of snapped utility poles. Overall,
the storm broke or uprooted nearly 100 poles and falling trees
pulled down miles of conductors, knocking out power to approximately
20,000 PEPCo customers. Thanks to the hard work of utility line
crews and Asplundh tree crews, more than half of the affected
customers were back in service within a day.
For
three days, over 50 Morrison Region crews and their supervision
cleared trees and limbs from PEPCo power lines. Once the power
was restored, eight Morrison Region crews went to work for the
local Prince Georges County Government, chipping up wood debris
along county roadways. It took approximately three weeks to
complete the clean-up.
