Cleanup crew
Mizzou volunteers head south to clear winter damage and debris
Ryan Russell works to take down a damaged tree after heavy ice storms.
Campus Facilities staff members in Landscape Services and Planning, Design and Construction work daily to keep Mizzou looking good and functioning well. On Jan. 16, though, they received a different kind of request: Help. And bring chain saws.
When the State Emergency Management Agency, through the Missouri Department of Higher Education, asked for volunteers to work in southern Missouri areas hit hard by ice storms, Mizzou staff answered.
“We actually had more volunteers than we could send,” says Phil Shocklee, associate director of campus facilities. “We sent 18 — equipment operators, a supervisor, landscapers, arborists and others. And we sent two dump trucks, two trailers, two skid loaders and several other trucks, plus chain saws.” (See photo at top of volunteers, from left to right, Herman Klippel, Andy Williams, Ryan Russell and Jon Hoffman.)
The volunteers answered the call quickly, too. They headed south the day after the request for three full days of clearing debris in areas surrounding Lebanon, Mo., including the towns of Conway, Richland and Buffalo. “When we left that morning, we didn’t know exactly where we were going to stay or what we were going to do,” says Mike Van Beek, a landscape gardener and volunteer. “We just figured we’d find out when we got down there. The main thing was to get down there.”
They found plenty to do once they got there. They cleared debris around electrical lines to help utility companies working to restore power to the many residents doing without it — an especially tough situation in the middle of winter. “People were in survival mode,” Van Beek says. Among other tasks, volunteers also helped clear fallen and damaged trees from bridges, driveways, yards and other areas.
“There was a need down there, so we volunteered,” Van Beek says.
Photos by Mike Van Beek
A street in Buffalo, Mo., shows the damage to trees caused by heavy ice storms.
Volunteers Jon Hoffman and Mike Aiello work to clear debris from a yard.