Public Employee Press

Tornadoes strike city
Union workers to the rescue

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

With little warning, two tornadoes and a 125-mile-an-hour macro burst of high-speed winds tore through New York City Sept. 16, ripping paths of unparalleled destruction. As in most disasters, public employees were the first to respond and led the cleanup effort in the aftermath.

This time, more than 200 DC 37 members in Locals 983 and 1506 were first on the scene. Blue Collar Division Council Rep Bob Gervasi said, "We've not seen destruction equal to this since Hurricane Gloria 25 years ago."

In minutes, dark clouds snuffed out daylight and violent winds yanked century-old trees from the ground like weeds. The tornadoes raced through leafy Brooklyn and ran up the Long Island Expressway into Queens, toppling 1,500 massive trunks and branches onto houses and parked cars.

The winds splintered trees like toothpicks and tossed them into streets and lakes in Bayside and Flushing parks. Though the storm lasted just 15 minutes, it knocked out power to 27,000 New Yorkers and killed a woman driver.

"Cleaning up the 140 streets devastated in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and 200 streets in Forest Hills and Middle Village, Queens, will take months," said Local 1506 President John Huber.

The city coordinated a cleanup effort that involves hundreds of crews of public employees. Police, Fire, Sanitation and DC 37 blue-collar employees worked together to clear roads for utility companies and emergency vehicles and make hard-hit areas safe for residents.

Armed with chainsaws, Climbers and Pruners used cherry picker trucks to remove downed and damaged trees and free fractured branches from buildings and rooftops. They whittled dangerous towering trees down to stumps. Assistant Parks Service Workers and Assistant Highway Repair Workers fed branches to heavy-duty wood chippers and with Traffic Enforcement Agents 3 they hauled off the debris.

Nature's unpredictable September strike was ill-timed. As residents looked to government workers for help in the dire crisis, the mayor was ordering agencies to make even deeper cuts in public services and staff.

"In any major disaster, city workers are first to respond and take the risks to protect the public," said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts.