Public Employee Press

Members bail out New York
Coping with Hurricane IRENE

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Hurricane Irene hurled her fury at New York City Aug. 28, but dedicated public service employees in dozens of DC 37 locals were ready for the worst. They went to work preventing fatalities, repairing storm damage and protecting the upstate sources of the city's clean water.

Urban Park Rangers and Park Enforcement Patrol Officers of Local 983 evacuated thousands of residents from flood-prone areas such as Battery Park City and Far Rockaway, cleared curious storm watchers from boardwalks and jetties, and kept surfers from potentially lethal coastal waters.

"I worked a triple shift because of the emergency," said PEP Officer Vincent Nollez. "It was an ordeal."

Local 1549's 911 operators were New Yorkers' vital link to emergency services, getting triple the usual call volume, and the 311 phone force fielded over 9,000 calls reporting trees that Irene's 60-mile-an-hour winds had tossed onto houses and roads.

While members of Locals 1505, 983 and 1508 dealt with damage in the parks, Local 1506's Climbers and Pruners responded citywide with 80 trucks and crews working 16-hour days removing fallen trees, carefully extracting limbs from roofs to avoid further damage.

Massive cleanup

The Parks Dept. used outside contractors to help the attrition-thinned ranks of union tree workers. Local 1506 President John Huber said hiring more union members would "save the city money, because the Parks Dept. pays $3,000 a day for a truck with two workers."

Irene's winds and rain cut a wide swath of devastation across New York State, swelling streams into torrents that washed houses away, moved earth and crushed sewage mains like straws and nearly wiped Catskills towns like Tannersville (population 650) off the map.

Dept. of Environmental Protection crews showed their valor as an around-the-clock emergency force. Local 376 Laborers and Local 1320 Sewage Treatment Workers kept sewers, pumping stations and treatment plants operating in the city, while dozens more went upstate to join Watershed Maintainers and Local 1322 Supervisors in protecting the city's water supply.

Local 376 members worked with a HAZMAT team from Local 375 to get a diesel tanker out of the Schoharie Reservoir.

DEP workers used portable piping and generators in a "pump-around," operation that sucked sewage from a collapsed pipeline and sent it to a local treatment facility, averting contamination of city drinking water. "The crew endured long hours and horrible conditions, working in four feet of mud and sewage," said Local 1320's Cornell Heyward.

"Once again DC 37 members came to the city's rescue in an emergency," said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts. "I hope management recognizes this when we negotiate on economic issues."