Hurricane Katrina

[fordsrbetter]

another question for guys who have done this before. how long where you down there? planning on bringing the camper and lots of food fuel but need an idea of how long i should be planning for, ive got one crew going to stay up here and finish all the work thats been promised but they might be able to come down a couple weeks after we get there. also if debri is left at the curb the material handler might be over kill just to move wood around. thanks for helping me out here D.J. Walsh

 

[TreeJunkie]

bring the log loaders for hauling debris once the contract is signed u should be able to get on as a sub. There's a good bit of money in it, just hard on the equip running it 12 hrs a day..

Find the right area you'll be there 1-2 months

 

[Tree Machine]

Keep it coming, guys. Manpower and machinery will be in short supply for months.

Don't stick it to the customers. This is a really hard time. Treat people fairly and represent our industry well. You will have much success. Most of all, BE SAFE. It's still very hot down there, and as you can imagine, very humid.

Darin, thanks for opening up to acting as a referral service. I see this being a central clearing house for tree guys and tree guy needers. You will keep us regularly updated?

 

[Chris J.]

Don't stick it to the customers. This is a really hard time. Treat people fairly and represent our industry well.

A lot of devastation, and a lot of traumatized folks.

 

[Tree Machine]

All calm, just 24 hours later

Just one day later. No meteorological evidence that anything even happened. The people in Katrina's path are still shaking their heads; "What the heck happened??? while trying to put their lives back together.

Hey, welcome to the site, fordsrbetter.

 

[Nickrosis]

Carl (lumberjack) is alive and well.

I text messaged him asking how he fared and he wrote back (immediately of course):

"I was thinking about you today.. We lost three trees and some shingles and have more work to do than we can get done. I just had my first meal today, wendys."

"We might get power tomorrow hopefully"

Matt and I - we're looking out for the the AS kids here.

 

[fordsrbetter]

hello everyone, has anyone ever worked for any of the electric companys as a sub. ive heard they pay decent. also too the guys that are going down, when do you plan on leaving? i am planning on working for profits for a while then donatating a few days of cleanup once i get some of the costs payed back. i am more worried of driving all the equipment down and not having all my ducks in a row, then costing more than i make while working me, the crew, and all the equipment to death.

thanks to all with the wisdom and experiance about this
D.J. Walsh
Precision Tree Chopper

 

[Tree Machine]

We really do need to organize. I would suggest aligning with Darin. You will have direction and support. That's the big thing I see as your worry.

We should all be working together to help each other, thereby better helping the storm victims

This is a time we can come together. Guys, this is a multi-month task, we are at the very, very beginning. If you're watching on the television, you can see how really bad it really is. We have a long haul in front of us.

If there's some way I can personally help, I'm open for suggestions.

 

[murphy4trees]

OK,
I did hugo, Isabel and 3 of the 4 last year in fla.

There are a lot of epenses in operating on the road and you have to consider the opportunity cost... what you're not making at home cause you're on the storm... And then all the potential good customers you might lose while away and their FUTURE business too.... That gets plenty expensive...

In order to recoup those costs and make a profit that makes not sleeping in your bed etc... worth it you have to get paid well for the work... That means finding the right area.... they have to have the cash....

IE... we spent the fist 2 weeks on Isabel in Richmond.... did more driving around than anything else... The people were tight and the competition was cheap.... then decided to try Williamsburg.... Did 10 jobs on the same treet in the first two days.... didn't leave the block and the referals just kept coming.... REALLY nice people to work for... Worked Williamsburg for the next 7 weeks straight with no thought of returning to Richmond... PS thansk treeslayer for hooking us up in Williamsburg...

Another example..... about 2 months after Charlie hit last year we finally made it to Fla with the stump grinder.... Had one add in Port Charolettte papers for Charlie and one in the Pensecola papers for Ivan... I was wondering why I wasn't getting ANY calls from pennsicola, til another contractor told me there were 90 classified ads for stuming in that paper, while there were only 5 ads in the port charolette papers...

I'd consider going again, but our home dollars are way up this year and the only guy I trust to take of business and the $$ has been out of work with a nasty case of depression all summer... I did just look at a 24' RV yeaterday... Might be able to split the cost with a couple of other interested parties and get into it for $4-5,000...

IU like the adventire of storm chasing and getting to "know" the country a bit better and the kind of focus that storm chasing requires.... ANd I also like to sleep in my own bed and shop instores I know how to get to etc...

 

[Tree Machine]

The wisdom of experience speaks.

 

[KentuckySawyer]

I've got a friend who is talking to a FEMA contractor in South Carolina, and I'm considering signing on as a sub for a month or two. He is planning on being down there for a year. All the equipment I have is a chip truck and 12" chipper, but I'm hoping this will be a good reason for me to invest in a crane. I've just heard about this today, so I don't have any specifics. I'll let cha know.

 

[pantheraba]

I worked Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Our church formed a Disaster Relief Team...we spent several days amassing supplies before we left. We spent a week on site working in the Miami/Homestead area.

It is important to not become part of the problem. Many folks show up too early in a relief effort and are not prepared to take care of themselves. You must have your own food, water, shelter, first aid supplies, be prepared to handle your own evac/casualty packaging if someone is injured.

Determine where medical, law enforcement, supply centers are before you go or as soon as you arrive. We were transported to a military/supply center shortly after arriving to receive shots…it’s better to get them before you go.

A good GPS and good maps are important...we found that street signs were all gone…that makes navigating real interesting when the buildings, landmarks and street signs are missing.

We mainly did cleanup/recovery/supply delivery to remote sites…I only used my tree gear to set a power line on a pole so that our generator could supply the house we were in.

Linking up with or being a part of an officially approved group will take care of a lot of logistical problems.

 

[Tree Machine]

It is important to not become part of the problem. Many folks show up too early in a relief effort and are not prepared to take care of themselves. You must have your own food, water, shelter, first aid supplies, be prepared to handle your own evac/casualty packaging if someone is injured.

The damage is so extensive officials are still not able to fully assess the damage. Tree damage is difficult to ***** when they are blown over and still underwater. Trees still block thousands of roads, hampering efforts to get aid into the hard hit areas. The people in the Zone are furious that they're not getting aid, but there are a lot of roads still underwater or blocked by fallen trees.

For the better part of this week, helicopters were the primary route to getting aid in and people rescued. As the flood waters recede, the death toll rises. I have hard on the news the estimate of 'thousands' dead. I do not know how true that might be, but at this time, neither does anyone else.

Tens of thousands of homes were destroyed, and those people left homeless. Tens of thousands.. Would it be unreasonable to think that millions of trees are down? I don't think that would be a lofty estimate. Our help is unquestionably needed.

 

[Tree Machine]

Our time to step up will soon come

I'm thinking that a good way to help the effort would be to help the treeguys who are helping the effort.

Our treeguy buddies will need support once they dig in. 12 hour days, day after day, they need help and support. For every one of us going down to the storm region, there might be a hundred of us who are not. If that hundred could support the one, what a difference that could make.


I've been digging hard to come up with something. The idea I'm going to propose came from Outside Magazine, something I read a few years ago. The story was about people who did cross-country bike tours. They would establish responsible, dedicated allies (friends) back at home. When the long-distance bikers knew they would be in a town for a few days, they would have an ally send a pre-prepared 'care package'. With just a few good people backing them, their 'expedition' was supported. Packages were sent to the person's name, c/o local post office mail desk. The recipients pick up their box at the local P.O. and would have fresh stuff to continue their efforts, morale boosted knowing that people back 'home' are supporting them.

We can uniquely do this. Nobody's really gone down yet, so the time to talk about this is NOW.
Cell phones and internet help our cause.

I will personally spearhead an effort such as this. I need cooperation, and I will dedicate my own websit, treeguy.info to making this happen (or we can do it right here by starting a relief effort thread). There we can list cell phone numbers freely of companies working the devastation, and 'personal sponsors' back home, e-mails, addresses and zips of all post offices in the swath of the storm and keep abreast on the areas that need help the most. We can offer logistic support, like how Murphy4Trees got a good tip from Treeslayer as to where to go .... stuff like that.

The treework, gentlemen, is limitless. Absolutely endless. We need to organize, if not for the sake of the storm victims then for ourselves. We can make our brothers stronger. Our efforts have not yet begun but if we have a central site from which to do it, all we need to do is set our collective intent.

 

[Dan F]

TM and all-

Have you noticed that it seems like there are an unbelievable amount of trees still standing based on the aerial footage on the news? Seems like even amidst the rubble of houses, there are still an awful lot of trees still standing.... It could be that the little bit of coverage I've seen (haven't had time to watch much, and all I have is network TV) isn't a good representation though....

Someone had said that the street signs are gone. Kinda ironic that it should be mentioned here, then I heard the same report on the radio this morning. Indiana sent Task Force 1 (USAR team, probably one of the best in the country) down to aid. One of the stations in Indy (TM- WIBC) was talking to the commander of TF1 this morning, and he said the same thing. They are using GPS and a lot of maps to find their way around.

Good luck to anyone heading that way. I wish I could go, but have too many commitments here.


Dan

 

[treeseer]

Have you noticed that it seems like there are an unbelievable amount of trees still standing based on the aerial footage on the news? Seems like even amidst the rubble of houses, there are still an awful lot of trees still standing....

Live oaks are amazingly resilient. After heading cuts reduce the damaged branch only back to the first good node, they can regrow their crowns. If FEMA or anyone specifies that live oaks with light to moderate crown loss get cut down, they are going to have a revolt on their hands.

People down there prize their live oaks, and will not want their babies to go down with the bathwater.

 

[Tree Machine]

Very true. Live oaks, on top of being just really strong trees are really good compartmentalizers and can come back remarkably well. Unless the trunk has a major defect, or some terminal condition, leave the trees standing. Knocking down salvagable trees is a waste of time. There is so much more other work to do and there's the fact that a total takedown can come anytime in the future.

As far as the aerial footage of trees, downed crowns, from the air look like intact crowns as you look out across the sea of trees. Until the leaves turn brown in a couple weeks, it will be difficult to assess more fully from the air. Helicopters won't point out tree damage unless the footage is dramatic, like a tree on a house, tree across road, tree on car. What they're not showing is damaged trees down in people's yards inland. Most all of the footage has been New Orleans and the beaches. It is bad, but Gentlemen, they're not showing the band of damage from the beach all the way up to Pennsylvania, a swath hundreds of kilometers wide and at least a thousand K in length. That is an absolutely HUGE area. Many of those places still have their roads blocked as of today, one week past the strike of the disaster. Have you heard the damage estimates? Over one hundred billion. The dead that have not been reached yet are in a state of advanced decomposition. A lot of people still not accounted for.

Treeguys going down to the disaster zone, you may see some things that are not pretty (besides enless litter, debris and pollution). You will experience desperation. You will experience a lot of things.

 

[treeseer]

Don't go unless you are entirely self-contained. This is a note from a guy who runs--ran--a tree sevice in New Orleans. I'd written him before the storm, offering help:

We'll talk....right now, I'm ensconced in Baton Rouge with my in-laws. All we have is a little money a couple of changes of clothes and our kids. F the rest. I leave behind a nice home, business and don't really give a s right now. Want to move on. I hear there is total devastation at my place. All the big trees in front are windthrown. No flooding. Maybe somebody is looking after the house and all the tree stuff - I don't know. Police shot 5 looters in my area last night and left their bodies to rot in the street. With night vision goggles, it's open season on looters at night. Power will be out for 2 months or more . No point in going home. I predicted this mess, and now predict the death of 150,000 large trees from slatwater damage. Who's going to pay the bill?"

Anyone know how to flush/buffer/treat this kind of salt damage?

 

[Tree Machine]

Oh.....my......goodness. Remember back a few pages back when the eye was passing over New Orleans and we were discussing how bad it could be? It's that bad, worse, and a whole lot more. They really need us in there.

 

[treeseer]

the eye was passing over New Orleans It's that bad, worse, and a whole lot more. They really need us in there.

TM I think they really need us OUT of New Orleans, for at least a month. How many insurance companies will be in business after this? Which insurance company is going to write a policy on a house that is below sea level?