On her way to work in Massachusetts, Janet planned stops to work
at gardens in Ohio and Connecticut, too. En route, the agenda
became complicated by a tropical storm headed for landfall
somewhere on the mid-Atlantic coast, forecast to meet up with
continental air masses in New England that would turn it into an
even more powerful "Frankentstorm." She changed her route to work
on Cape Cod a day early, in order to be in and out of there ahead
of the storm.
Along the way across Pennsylvania she was impressed by how light
the traffic was, and how much of what there was consisted of tree
trimming- and utility crew truck convoys heading east, interspersed
with flat bed semis carrying big portable generators. She also
spotted EMS truck convoys.
Company names and license plates on the trucks told an
impressive story. These groups of ten, twenty, and thirty trucks
had been on the road a long time from Kansas, Missouri, South
Dakota, and Michigan. We'll keep it in mind from now on, that even
when the weather's fine at home, there can be a shortage of these
crews and equipment if there's big trouble looming in another
region.
Above: Orange bucket trucks from Kansas, red and black tree
trimming and chipping rigs from Michigan, and trucks equipped
with both buckets and pole setters from Missouri.
Below: Heavy duty portable generators heading east. Pulling
alongside a 25-truck convoy Janet sees it's a Michigan contingent,
and the driver of the truck responds to Janet's Michigan license
plate with a cheery honk. Later, Janet realized she was ahead
of that group and stopped to salute them from the road's shoulder.
Before the storm damage starts (and when we can still hope there
will be none!) and the long hours pile up, it's still an
adventure!
(No worries- Janet does not drive while operating a
camera. Photos ©2012 Debi Slentz)