When a multiday ice storm hit Gaylord in March last year, it knocked out electricity and left many roads blocked with downed trees and power lines. In February, The Climate Action Campaign (based in Washington, D.C.) and state partners met with residents at Treetops Resort to listen to accounts of the storm.
Aaron Beach, Treetops Resort’s director of operations, spoke at the meeting. He talked about neighbor helping neighbor, employer helping employee, and how Treetops became ground zero in a community crisis. “It was chaos,” Beach recalls. “It was a constant balancing act for our leadership and staff, between taking care of things at home and with our families, and taking care of [our work at] the resort.”
Many Treetops employees made their way to coworkers in need for welfare checks and to bring food, water, fuel, and other necessities. They also cleared Treetops’ roads.
The resort worked closely with the area electric company and county emergency staff. With its lights back on after a week, Treetops began housing the hundreds of power line workers who subsequently came to town to restore electricity.
It was all hands on deck. Everyone did everything, whether they were in a particular department or not. “It was kind of like flying by the seat of your pants every day,” Beach says.
Beach spoke at the event because he wanted people to fully understand the impact the storm had on Treetops, both as a business and a community of individuals, he says, adding, “We have great people at Treetops, and we have an awesome community [of people in Gaylord] that rally behind each other.”
