Highway Maintenance Teams Help Cape Cod Get Back to Business

From MassDOT "On the Move" Employee Newsletter

First came the sharks. Now it’s tornadoes.

It’s been a tough tourist season on Cape Cod. After a summer full of shark sightings, the region was clobbered with an extremely rare twister trifecta around noon on Tuesday, July 23. 

Three tornadoes touched down on the mid- and lower cape, slicing primarily through Barnstable, Chatham, Dennis, Harwich, Orleans and Yarmouth, where one twister ripped the roof off of the Cape Sands Inn. Fortunately, there were no deaths or serious injuries reported. Prior to this rare tornado event, only three twisters had ever been documented on Cape Cod.

MassDOT Highway Division District 5, which encompasses Southeastern Mass. and Cape Cod, first caught wind of the tornadoes informally. Operations Engineer Bill Travers, who was at home on a scheduled day off, heard news reports about the tornadoes. Bill immediately texted Maintenance Engineer Matt Broderick, who quickly switched on the television news and began to work the phones. His first call was to District 5 Area D Supervisor Jamie Araujo, who oversees Cape Cod and the islands.

“Jamie operates out of the Wareham Depot, and his team was already dealing with local flooding in Wareham,” says Matt. “He was able to send people down from Wareham, but he also called ahead to the Yarmouth and Orleans depots to get eyeballs on the roads as soon as possible. Within 10 minutes of Bill’s text, we were starting to get calls about downed trees and power lines.”

Approximately 15 minutes after the tornadoes hit the ground, Matt formally activated all available Area D staff, who first reported to the Yarmouth Depot to await instruction from Jamie and Snow, Ice and Roadsides Engineer Joe Auger, who managed the on-the-ground response effort. As the day wore on, a crew from Area C pitched in as well. By day 2, all District 5 areas provided personnel and equipment, as did districts 3, 4 and 6 as the week progressed.

“We’re so proud of and thankful to our guys, who put in long, long days in severe heat and humidity,” says Joe. “We’re also indebted to the guys who faced really

long daily commutes from other districts, and still worked until nightfall all week.”

State Highways First
On Tuesday, the MassDOT teams’ primary responsibility was to clear all affected state highways of debris, which in this case was routes 6 and 28. “Our first stop along Route 28 was in front of the motel that lost its roof in Yarmouth,” says veteran Maintenance Equipment Operator Jim Craig. “We just fired up the chipper and kept working until we reached Chatham.”

Tuesday was the first of at least six straight 12-hour days for MassDOT Highway Division staffers. Working alongside utility companies, including Verizon, National Grid and Eversource, the MassDOT teams dug in and cleared roadways until encroaching darkness affected visibility. “At night, it was too dangerous to work because we couldn’t see if power lines were down or not,” says Matt. “We were limited by the darkness.”

The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) was activated in the wake of the tornadoes, and helped to coordinate the efforts of MassDOT, utility companies, municipal departments of public works (DPWs), municipal first responders and other state agencies.

The Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control and Forestry provided support with some chainsaw operators, while the Department of Correction lent about 80 supervised low-risk prisoners to pick up and feed tree debris into the wood-chipping machines and dump trucks. “The prison crews were a big help and provided a lot of muscle,” says Assistant Roadsides Engineer Steve Wheeler. “They really sped up our road-clearance efforts.”

The Harwich Fire Department supplied a field trailer, where a central command post was established. The National Guard provided valuable equipment, and the Red Cross offered plenty of water and refreshments for all workers.

“As far as I’m concerned, the biggest story was the smooth collaboration between so many state agencies, municipalities and other organizations,” says Joe. “Everyone’s goal was to safely return life to normal during the height of tourist season, and we never lost sight of that goal.”

Digging Into – and Out of – the Neighborhoods
The affected municipalities’ departments of public works were quickly overwhelmed, and requests for help from MassDOT began to trickle in on Tuesday evening. “We couldn’t afford to support the local municipalities right away,” notes Matt. “It’s prime vacation season, so we were short-staffed to begin with. But we made quick progress on the state roads, so we were able to begin loaning our people and equipment to the Town of Harwich late Wednesday.”

It was an all-hands-on-deck response. Plymouth Depot Foreman Ken Coburn delayed his vacation to pitch in, but when his supervisor, Area A Supervisor Mark Desrocher, heard of this gesture, he quickly sent Ken back on vacation and took his place on the front lines.

State highways, fortunately, avoided major damage, but municipal roadways were hit particularly hard, and the MassDOT crews increasingly focused on municipal DPW support as the week wore on. “The cul de sacs were really in bad shape,” according to Maintenance Equipment Operator Brian Farrington. “There was no way out for those people, so we backed our chippers down those streets and got to work.”

While working on highway-maintenance crews is normally an invisible, thankless gig, that wasn’t the case this time. As MassDOT maintenance workers and equipment operators dove deeper into municipal work, they were warmly thanked by residents and often greeted with water, snacks, coffee and other refreshments.

“I want to thank District 5 Director Mary-Joe Perry, Maintenance Engineer Matt Broderick and the men and women of MassDOT for all their hard work in getting Cape Cod up and running again so quickly,” Highway Division Administrator Jonathan Gulliver wrote in a July 30 email to all Highway staff. “We had crews and equipment from various districts that spent long hours helping with the recovery, and everyone should be proud of the work done.”

• Read the Associated Press Story on the Cape Cod tornadoes, "Sharks, tornadoes and taxes: Cape Cod’s had a tough summer."