“When we showed up it was chaos.”
Luke Porter of Treeworks, Inc. arrived in Otsego County shortly after the April 2nd Ice Storm hit. Porter led his team for 14-days nonstop; bringing the crew from Nunica, MI up on rotating shifts.
He said they were prepared with the mindset of food, shelter, water while they played “passenger pigeon” with information. With cell towers and power completely out information had to be shared by driving from crew to crew. Porter and his crew were tasked with clearing a path for lineman to get through and begin rebuilding and restoring access for the community.
What was most memorable for Porter was “the community,” he continued “I expect our team to always be excellent, but the community support was incredible. Usually in these situations people start getting cranky after 2 or 3 days without power, we were on day 12 and the community was stopping to give us water, they’d stop just to thank us. Someone hired a food truck to feed all the lineman. The overwhelming positive attitude of the lineman and tree guys was incredible. We were there working for a bigger cause.”
As a pre-qualified MDOT contractor, Treeworks, Inc. is able to be flexible and move quickly, especially in times of crisis. Treeworks, Inc. has also invested in machinery like their two Sennebogans, which are able to cut, move and dispose of damaged trees on a large scale.
Jason and Luke Porter, the brothers behind Treeworks, Inc. have been serving the Michigan tree industry as ISA certified arborists for over 25 years and see their role as more than just pruning and removing trees:
“We had a large storm last summer and it was the same type of devastation for our Muskegon neighbors. In these situations, it’s important for us that we don’t increase our prices and customers know we’re there to help. People need compassion more than anything and we hope we can give them that relief.”
Treeworks, Inc. has designated a contingency for the Otsego and surrounding counties for the remainder of the clean up effort, noting how much devastation the ice storm caused. If you’re in need of assistance on your property please visit www.treeworksmi.com or call our concierge at 616-837-1100 to coordinate a visit from our team.
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