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El Nino Triumph and Tragedy
Flooding in California, ice storms in the Northeast. The CWA family thought it had seen the worst of El Niño by Feb. 23, when tornadoes ripped across central Florida, killing two of its members.
The unofficial death toll in that state had reached 39 by the time police released the names of Gary Hallmark, 50, a Bell South service technician in the Orlando area, and Richard Webb, 49, secretary of CWA Local 3113 when it was formed in 1975 and who was surplused by Bell South just five years later.
“Our condolences go out to the families of both of these good men, who were so suddenly and tragically taken from us,” said CWA President Morton Bahr.
“Certainly the thoughts and prayers of all our CWA brothers and sisters in the District go out to our members in Florida who have suffered losses,” said District 3 Vice President Jimmy Smith, “and we stand ready to help them any way we can.”
CWA Executive Vice President M.E. Nichols quickly took action to assure that the union’s Disaster Relief Fund would provide assistance to members who suffered serious property damage.
Funnels of Destruction
CWA Local 3108 President Sarah Smith, in Orlando, was still stunned when she talked to the CWA News just hours after at least nine tornadoes spread havoc from southwest of Orlando to Daytona Beach on the Atlantic coast.
Eighteen-wheelers were tossed about like toys and roofs were ripped from houses as the tornadoes swept through, totally without warning, in the middle of the night.
“We’ve lost entire apartment buildings. There were several trailer parks destroyed. Everything is just somewhere else, now,” said Smith. “The more I get into this thing, the more I want to cry, and if you knew me, I’m not a tearful person.”
The death count was 35 when she reported Hallmark missing. He had been recently transferred by Bell South from Pensacola and was living in a trailer park until he could arrange a more permanent home.
Smith, from early reports, had also learned that two members’ homes were destroyed.
“We’ve got lots of people without power,” she added. “We’re working with the Telephone Pioneers and doing collections; we’re working with company managers trying to do anything we can to help.”
The following day, she praised AT&T for being flexible with workers experiencing difficulties and for allowing many time off to volunteer with the Red Cross and other community service agencies.
CWA Local 3113 President John Schaich, a digital field tech for Bell South, was dispatched to Sanford, Fla. because of phone outages. Webb had lived in Sanford in a double-wide trailer on a permanent foundation, just south of the airport.
“The phone lines were all down and tangled,” said Schaich. “You couldn’t even tell if the trailer had ever been there.”
Neighbors told him Webb’s wife had cracked ribs and facial cuts. A girl walked up whom Schaich believed was Webb’s daughter.
“She had a swollen lip and her face was pretty puffed up,” he said.
Nobody knew how they had escaped death.
Schaich remembered about 20 minutes before the tornado hit, lights in the sky flashed like hundreds of cameras, then . . . utter destruction.
“You watch it on TV, but until you’ve really stood where this thing came through, you just don’t realize,” he exclaimed.
President Clinton toured the ravaged state on Feb. 24, and Federal Emergency Management Administration staff were already taking applications for assistance. National Weather Service meteorologist Bart Hagemeyer called it “the most devastating tornado outbreak in Florida’s history. Official damage estimates were far from complete at CWA News press time.
Battling the Big Freeze
Meanwhile, in the Northeast, Bell Atlantic technicians continued work so dangerous that New York state CWA locals sent volunteers — members of a joint labor/management safety committee — to staff a full-time safety office. They acted as liaison to company management, monitored safety concerns on the job and personally encouraged technicians to exercise extreme caution.
For several weeks snow, freezing rain, brief thaws and refreezing had taken their toll. Roads were slick and nearly impassable, electrical and telephone lines were down for miles, thousands of poles toppled from the weight of the ice. A virtual army of telecom techs from at least five states worked side-by-side with power company technicians to restore service.
The presidents of the state’s three hardest hit locals — 1124 in Watertown, 1128 in Potsdam and 1129 in Plattsburgh — received a cruel warning in mid-January: a power company worker fell to his death when his bucket truck slipped on the ice.
They feared that dedicated CWA members, working 16-hour and longer shifts in subfreezing temperatures, sooner or later would make a fatal mistake. Injuries were already occurring.
John Lyford, president of Pottsdam Local 1128, reported that in Watertown one Local 1124 tech, Al Spencer, had been caught by a line trailing from a Niagara Mohawk power truck. He was dragged briefly and suffered a concussion and broken arm.
Danger of electrocution also threatened. Felled transformers could be hooked to live wires or generators brought in to handle the emergency or could simply be dead. “You have to test everything,” he stressed. “You have to be real careful.”
He shared his concerns with Plattsburgh Local 1129 President Warren Adams. Watertown Local 1124 President John Decillis joined them in writing to CWA President Bahr.
Bahr discussed the situation with District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino and alerted Executive Vice President M.E. Nichols, who directed CWA Safety Director David LeGrande to coordinate safety measures with the company at the highest level. Of particular concern, LeGrande said, were proper safety belts for technicians working out of bucket trucks. LeGrande — and local officers — praised company efforts to comply with every reasonable safety request.
Richard Halliday, president of Local 1106 and CWA chair of the statewide labor-management safety committee, organized a crew of safety committee members to staff the Local 1124 office full-time and to make worksite inspections, among them: George Segar from his own local and Steve Matro, secretary-treasurer of Local 1123.
By late February, crews had finished much of the work of restoring service and volunteers were returning to their homes throughout New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
But many, like Duncan Perry of Local 1123 in Syracuse, are staying on for the clean-up. Perry, a supply master, has been in Watertown since Jan. 8. His wife drives up for weekends.
“It’s not a hardship,” Perry insists. “For me not being here with the things people need, it would be a lot harder for everyone else.”
As for when he will head home? “They jokingly tell me Memorial Day.”
Decillis reported that as of Feb. 21, crews had set 2,785 poles, placed 1.4 million feet of strand and 1.2 million feet of cable, and cleared 23,862 troubles.
When It Rains . . .
CWA members came through El Niño surprisingly well in California, despite more than 38 inches of rain in San Francisco this winter and a record 13.68 inches in Los Angeles for February alone.
Homes built on hillsides washed away in mudslides. Sinkholes and bursting storm drains created chasms that swallowed up highways. Seven people died as a result of the winter’s fiercest storm the night of Feb. 23. Storm damage throughout the state is projected to exceed $1 billion.
A round of phone calls to locals on Feb. 25 found almost no one home. Most officers spent the entire week at the District 9 Conference in San Diego. Southern Area Director Jim Weitcamp, at the behest of District 9 Vice President Tony Bixler, took an informal poll to see how members fared.
“Fortunately we’ve had no injuries or deaths reported,” said Weitcamp, “and so far I’ve only had one member report any kind of property loss — basically just slippage of a hillside and some damage to their home.”
He praised the dedication of Pacific Bell technicians putting in massive quantities of overtime.
Weitcamp might have spoken for all three regions, adding, “our members are working very hard to keep everyone in service."
The unofficial death toll in that state had reached 39 by the time police released the names of Gary Hallmark, 50, a Bell South service technician in the Orlando area, and Richard Webb, 49, secretary of CWA Local 3113 when it was formed in 1975 and who was surplused by Bell South just five years later.
“Our condolences go out to the families of both of these good men, who were so suddenly and tragically taken from us,” said CWA President Morton Bahr.
“Certainly the thoughts and prayers of all our CWA brothers and sisters in the District go out to our members in Florida who have suffered losses,” said District 3 Vice President Jimmy Smith, “and we stand ready to help them any way we can.”
CWA Executive Vice President M.E. Nichols quickly took action to assure that the union’s Disaster Relief Fund would provide assistance to members who suffered serious property damage.
Funnels of Destruction
CWA Local 3108 President Sarah Smith, in Orlando, was still stunned when she talked to the CWA News just hours after at least nine tornadoes spread havoc from southwest of Orlando to Daytona Beach on the Atlantic coast.
Eighteen-wheelers were tossed about like toys and roofs were ripped from houses as the tornadoes swept through, totally without warning, in the middle of the night.
“We’ve lost entire apartment buildings. There were several trailer parks destroyed. Everything is just somewhere else, now,” said Smith. “The more I get into this thing, the more I want to cry, and if you knew me, I’m not a tearful person.”
The death count was 35 when she reported Hallmark missing. He had been recently transferred by Bell South from Pensacola and was living in a trailer park until he could arrange a more permanent home.
Smith, from early reports, had also learned that two members’ homes were destroyed.
“We’ve got lots of people without power,” she added. “We’re working with the Telephone Pioneers and doing collections; we’re working with company managers trying to do anything we can to help.”
The following day, she praised AT&T for being flexible with workers experiencing difficulties and for allowing many time off to volunteer with the Red Cross and other community service agencies.
CWA Local 3113 President John Schaich, a digital field tech for Bell South, was dispatched to Sanford, Fla. because of phone outages. Webb had lived in Sanford in a double-wide trailer on a permanent foundation, just south of the airport.
“The phone lines were all down and tangled,” said Schaich. “You couldn’t even tell if the trailer had ever been there.”
Neighbors told him Webb’s wife had cracked ribs and facial cuts. A girl walked up whom Schaich believed was Webb’s daughter.
“She had a swollen lip and her face was pretty puffed up,” he said.
Nobody knew how they had escaped death.
Schaich remembered about 20 minutes before the tornado hit, lights in the sky flashed like hundreds of cameras, then . . . utter destruction.
“You watch it on TV, but until you’ve really stood where this thing came through, you just don’t realize,” he exclaimed.
President Clinton toured the ravaged state on Feb. 24, and Federal Emergency Management Administration staff were already taking applications for assistance. National Weather Service meteorologist Bart Hagemeyer called it “the most devastating tornado outbreak in Florida’s history. Official damage estimates were far from complete at CWA News press time.
Battling the Big Freeze
Meanwhile, in the Northeast, Bell Atlantic technicians continued work so dangerous that New York state CWA locals sent volunteers — members of a joint labor/management safety committee — to staff a full-time safety office. They acted as liaison to company management, monitored safety concerns on the job and personally encouraged technicians to exercise extreme caution.
For several weeks snow, freezing rain, brief thaws and refreezing had taken their toll. Roads were slick and nearly impassable, electrical and telephone lines were down for miles, thousands of poles toppled from the weight of the ice. A virtual army of telecom techs from at least five states worked side-by-side with power company technicians to restore service.
The presidents of the state’s three hardest hit locals — 1124 in Watertown, 1128 in Potsdam and 1129 in Plattsburgh — received a cruel warning in mid-January: a power company worker fell to his death when his bucket truck slipped on the ice.
They feared that dedicated CWA members, working 16-hour and longer shifts in subfreezing temperatures, sooner or later would make a fatal mistake. Injuries were already occurring.
John Lyford, president of Pottsdam Local 1128, reported that in Watertown one Local 1124 tech, Al Spencer, had been caught by a line trailing from a Niagara Mohawk power truck. He was dragged briefly and suffered a concussion and broken arm.
Danger of electrocution also threatened. Felled transformers could be hooked to live wires or generators brought in to handle the emergency or could simply be dead. “You have to test everything,” he stressed. “You have to be real careful.”
He shared his concerns with Plattsburgh Local 1129 President Warren Adams. Watertown Local 1124 President John Decillis joined them in writing to CWA President Bahr.
Bahr discussed the situation with District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino and alerted Executive Vice President M.E. Nichols, who directed CWA Safety Director David LeGrande to coordinate safety measures with the company at the highest level. Of particular concern, LeGrande said, were proper safety belts for technicians working out of bucket trucks. LeGrande — and local officers — praised company efforts to comply with every reasonable safety request.
Richard Halliday, president of Local 1106 and CWA chair of the statewide labor-management safety committee, organized a crew of safety committee members to staff the Local 1124 office full-time and to make worksite inspections, among them: George Segar from his own local and Steve Matro, secretary-treasurer of Local 1123.
By late February, crews had finished much of the work of restoring service and volunteers were returning to their homes throughout New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
But many, like Duncan Perry of Local 1123 in Syracuse, are staying on for the clean-up. Perry, a supply master, has been in Watertown since Jan. 8. His wife drives up for weekends.
“It’s not a hardship,” Perry insists. “For me not being here with the things people need, it would be a lot harder for everyone else.”
As for when he will head home? “They jokingly tell me Memorial Day.”
Decillis reported that as of Feb. 21, crews had set 2,785 poles, placed 1.4 million feet of strand and 1.2 million feet of cable, and cleared 23,862 troubles.
When It Rains . . .
CWA members came through El Niño surprisingly well in California, despite more than 38 inches of rain in San Francisco this winter and a record 13.68 inches in Los Angeles for February alone.
Homes built on hillsides washed away in mudslides. Sinkholes and bursting storm drains created chasms that swallowed up highways. Seven people died as a result of the winter’s fiercest storm the night of Feb. 23. Storm damage throughout the state is projected to exceed $1 billion.
A round of phone calls to locals on Feb. 25 found almost no one home. Most officers spent the entire week at the District 9 Conference in San Diego. Southern Area Director Jim Weitcamp, at the behest of District 9 Vice President Tony Bixler, took an informal poll to see how members fared.
“Fortunately we’ve had no injuries or deaths reported,” said Weitcamp, “and so far I’ve only had one member report any kind of property loss — basically just slippage of a hillside and some damage to their home.”
He praised the dedication of Pacific Bell technicians putting in massive quantities of overtime.
Weitcamp might have spoken for all three regions, adding, “our members are working very hard to keep everyone in service."