Scio grad in eye of Sandy

Travis Parazoo, a 2007 graduate of Scio High School, recently returned from spending 13 days on the East Coast, weathering Hurricane Sandy and helping restore power to residents in Connecticut and keeping roads clear for emergency vehicles. “I got the word that they needed a lot of linemen,” Parazoo said the week after his return.

A member of 659 Local, Parazoo trained in Wyoming, married and then returned to Oregon, taking a job in the Roseburg area. Soon after, he was laid off, going on the union's out of work list. Leading up to Hurricane Sandy, Parazoo got a phone call from a Hubbard, Oregon company saying workers were needed to head to the East Coast before the powerful storm hit the area. Parazoo said yes. “I quit that afternoon and flew out two days later.” He flew from Portland to Seattle and then on to Boston. Almost the entire plane was filled with linemen, including some from Canada, headed to help where they could. From there, they were bussed through Massachusetts to Connecticut.

Contracted by Connecticut Light & Power, Parazoo and the other linemen spent their first day being tested on a variety of machinery so the company would be prepared in advance of the storm. Parazoo was one of the linemen assigned to Haddem, Connecticut. “There was a line crew and a tree crew,” Parazoo said, adding, “We were there to take care of the town.”

Driving toward the coast where Haddem is located, Parazoo and his partner were in their truck when the storm came ashore. “The sky darkened, the wind picked up,” he said. “We just had to hang on and wait for stuff to go down.” Haddem is located less than a half hour drive from the Atlantic Ocean.

The crew's duties first and foremost was what was called “cut and clear,” meaning the crews were to make sure one lane on all roads remained open for emergency vehicles. “It was quite an experience.” One of the sights Parazoo witnessed was when a tree that he estimated was 30 inches in diameter at the top snapped in half “like a twig” as the hurricane roared through the area. “It was a scary deal.”

After Sandy passed and the crews concluded their cut and clear work, Parazoo said they set to restoring power. “We worked 16/8,” meaning the crews worked 16 hours and had eight hours off. The linemen had no idea how long they would be there. All they knew, said Parazoo, was they they would work “for as long as it took.” In Parazoo's case, that meant 13 days.

“The people were great,” he said of those he helped. He noted that on Halloween people brought them candy and even bags of food. “One lady brought us a whole gallon of coffee and Dunkin Donuts.” Most people were very appreciative, especially once their power was restored. He said it was tough to see cardboard signs on some streets asking when their power would be restored.

At the peak of the outages, Parazoo said over 650,000 people in Connecticut were without power. When he left last week, less than 500 people were still awaiting the return of their power. In all, Parazoo and his partner put over 1200 miles on their truck, moving from Connecticut to New York and Massachusetts.

He said seeing the area, even with the destruction, was “very cool.” One thing he said he could do without was the hurricane. “It makes me appreciate what we don't have to go through.”