Local PG&E Employee Thankful for Chance to Help Sandy Victims

Angel Ortiz couldn't have imagined that his first trip home to the East Coast since moving to California would have been for Superstorm Sandy.

But the New Jersey-native expressed gratitude that his supervisorial work as a lineman with Pacific Gas & Electric allowed him to help communities of people who just wanted to get back to normal after the extraordinary devastation.

"When you see a storm on TV you get a feeling of anxiety and fear," he said. "But then you get that call to help and a switch goes off. I'm going to be part of something great by helping."

Ortiz shared that the storm did affect his family in Newark, New Jersey, but not catastrophically, like some of the people he came across in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan. He now resides in San Jose.

The lineman volunteered and joined the first PG&E crew of 150 employees who arrived to help the local New York City utility Con Edison two days after the storm. A New York Yankees fan Ortiz, who works for PG&E in the Cupertino location was staged at CitiField—home of the New York Mets—in Queens.

"The Mets were great and so accomodating," he said, never doubting his loyalty to the Bronx team. "We were the first utility to arrive in the staging area."

In total PG&E sent 250 employees. This included overhead and underground maintenance and construction crews, electric first responders and damage assessment personnel, as well as logistical support and field safety personnel, a spokesperson said.

For their efforts to help restore power to millions of New Yorkers, at its annual Winter CEO meeting on Jan. 10, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) presented PG&E with its 2012 Emergency Assistance Award. The industry award has been given to a member of the EEI since 1998 for assisting another utility company that has been disrupted by severe weather conditions or other natural events. PG&E was chosen following an international nomination process. The EEI also honored other utilities who responded with assistance.

"PG&E’s restoration assistance following Hurricane Sandy was truly remarkable," said EEI President Tom Kuhn.

Con Edison also praised PG&E for quickly sending crews to help turn the lights on for customers following Hurricane Sandy.

"The Big Apple was just walloped by Sandy and PG&E made a huge contribution to bringing New Yorkers back," said Olert, Con Ed’s assistant director of media relations in an interview for PG&E's current news site in November 2012. "We appreciate their help and at some point, God forbid, we would repay you all. We would do it."

About 67,000 linemen from across the nation arrived in the tri-state region of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to help with the aftermath of the event, according to Ortiz. What they encountered looked more like a post-apocalyptic movie.

"Going across the Brooklyn Bridge to Chinatown was surreal," he said of the area of lower Manhattan that had suffered a power outage. "It was like the movie 'I am Legend.' New York City was empty. No cabs, no people out in the streets. It was surreal."

The California crew encountered areas destroyed by down trees and flooding, which prevented them from providing immediate help. They also guarded for their physical safety from opportunistic criminals, but Ortiz said that the New York Police Department had mobile surveillance units to protect them.

"Being from the area, you know which neighborhoods to avoid at night," he said and added that his crew worked from 4 a.m. until 6:30 p.m.

But for Ortiz, all of their inconveniences and long hours had but one objective—to service the customers. Even the little things, like helping homeowners open up a garage door to get a car out, really made a difference.

"Some of the satisfaction we got from being there was from the customers. When they saw our trucks they would say, 'You aren't from Con Ed.' Then ww'd tell them we were from California and their eyes lit up!" Ortiz said.

"We got a lot of 'thank you's' and hugs," he said.

Bay City News, Inc. contributed reporting to this article.