Tree-Trimmers Came from Across the Nation (with Video)

You've probably seen those Asplundh trucks in town. You may have noticed a state abbreviation taped on in big letters, like the large “WI,” for "Wisconsin."

Brian LaBine and his “Tree-Climbing Ninja” partner Carlos Perez were here from Green Bay, WI, to help with the storm damage. They were working last week with a crew from Milwaukee, WI.

LaBine says that more than 40 crews from his area, including one from the UP, or “Upper Peninsula,” traveled to Connecticut this week to help out. (Click here to find out about the UP). He said that on their way here, he and Perez saw at least 60 trucks from Florida, as well.

He knows that people are angry with Connecticut Light and Power, but, he says, “CL&P called us almost a week before the storm.”

First, he says, he and Perez worked in Lyme, which was so inundated with downed trees that locals, he said, had basically cut tunnels through fallen trunks. Trees had to be picked up with cranes.

CL&P line workers, he says, have taken matters into their own hands, working as long as they can, and clearing everything they can. He knows that people are upset, but he says, CL&P is “spending millions. They are doing their best.”

Meantime, the people in Connecticut have been great to him and his partner, LaBine says.

“We lit up more than 1,000 houses yesterday” in Montville, he said. “I had a standing ovation.”