{"id":38168,"date":"2017-09-30T06:31:31","date_gmt":"2017-09-30T10:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=38168"},"modified":"2017-09-29T17:37:40","modified_gmt":"2017-09-29T21:37:40","slug":"hydro-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/hydro-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Hydro One workers helped restore power to Southern Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"
Thank you for leaving your families to come help our families. All of your hard work was greatly appreciated.<\/em><\/h5>\n

That was the message local Hydro One workers found on their windshield after nearly two weeks of working in Miami to restore power following the devastation of Hurricane Irma.<\/p>\n

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Tim Sluman, Matt Patterson, Brandon Bigelow, Dan Exell, Gary Adams and Reece Morrow, all from Huntsville, joined the 175-strong Hydro One contingent from Ontario who made their way to south Florida to help Florida Power and Light (FPL) in their restoration efforts.<\/p>\n

On their arrival, Sluman says Florida was a \u2018mess\u2019. \u201cThere was a lot of brush and trees all over the place. There were palm leaves everywhere you looked. There were sticks and trees and branches; there were trampolines upside down. Car tents were on their sides in the middle of fields. There was a lot of chaos for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using the Miami Zoo parking lots as the staging area the crews worked 12 to 14 hours days, stopping only to eat, sleep and reload supplies. The daytime temperatures were soaring, reaching 38 degrees Celsius without factoring in humidity.<\/p>\n

FPL briefed them about the types of voltages and electrical systems with which they would be working and warned about the kind of hazards they might encounter. \u201cEverybody has their generator running so backfeed posed the biggest hazard,” Sluman said. “The next biggest thing was the heat and after that it was insects, reptiles and poisonous plants.”<\/p>\n\n\t\t