BEDFORD, NY -- Seeing the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy firsthand has given Kevin Bil a greater appreciation for living in Northern Ontario.
A lineman with PowerTel, a Sudbury-based contracting firm, the Thunder Bay native arrived in the eastern United States days before the hurricane devastated the East Coast and left millions of people without power.
“On a scale of one to 10, I’d give it an eight at least,” said Bil of the destruction.
Bil is currently stationed in Bedford, a town with a population of about 20,000 people 30 miles outside of New York City.
“The area we’re in right now is extremely bad,” said Bil, in a phone interview with tbnewswatch.com Tuesday afternoon.
“I’d say maybe 15,000 (people) are out of power. We’ve been gradually getting them back up and going as quickly possible.”
His team has been working 18-hour days trying to reinstate power throughout the eastern seaboard. Bil has already been to Vermont and Connecticut installing new poles, putting up new power lines and repairing damaged lines.
The focus right now isn’t on luxuries like restoring TV and cable lines, but just getting people power and heat.
“It’s pretty crazy,” Bil said. “They were devastated down here. It’s all trees down; they’re huge, huge oak trees. If you put your arms together, three people can’t go around them and they’re very old and they’re all falling down and hitting the power lines and going through houses and through garages.”
Everyone is working collaboratively to repair the damage caused by Sandy, but when it comes to restoring the power lines, you have to be in the trade, said Bil.
“It’s very dangerous. They’ve had a few very serious injuries already. A couple of guys have been burned, really bad,” he said.
People in the affected communities are often just happy to see the crews out working and often show their gratitude.
“We just went for lunch at a little deli and the lady in front of us paid for our whole meal,” Bil said, adding that all the companies are working as quickly as possible to restore the power.
Equipment has been flown in on military planes from places like B.C., Alberta, Texas and California and there are thousands of tree-trimming crews out cleaning up the trees.
Bil said after seeing the wreckage up close and personal he’s learned to appreciate where he lives, where there aren’t hurricanes, and he also has a better appreciation for heat and power.
He’s also grateful for the work of Hydro One.
“They keep all the trees trimmed back. They don’t do a lot of upkeep here and the trees are everywhere around the lines. Back home, they do their best to take care of it that way,” Bil said.
Bil was in Vermont when Sandy hit on Oct. 29. His crew was working on prep work for the storm and said there was a lot of rain and 70 miles per hour winds.
He expects to be restoring power in the U.S. for at least another two weeks and is relieved they haven’t seen any snow yet.
“They were expecting some weather but apparently it’s turning out and heading back out to the seas so that’s kind of nice,” he said.
For now, there’s still leaves on the trees, some of them are even still green.
