Willoughby Lowe’s Store Manager Dave Helmick and Cleveland District Manager Jesse Hickey recently donated six Craftsman generators to the Willoughby Hills Fire Department in order to keep traffic lights functioning during power outages. According to the city, after the line of storms that took place throughout Northeast Ohio communities in August this year, Helmick reached out to Willoughby Hills Fire Chief Robert Gandee to see if the city needed assistance. It was then that Gandee mentioned that additional generators could be used to keep lights functioning when the power is out. Related Articles Local News | FirstEnergy: Power could be out a week after storms “Lowe’s is very community involved,” Gandee said. “I know they’re even helping in the hurricane efforts. We utilize their service on a regular basis for a lot of miscellaneous items, but this is humbling. We’re extremely appreciative.” Gandee recalls when Lowe’s had reached out after they heard the city sustained some damage to buildings, specifically the roofs, related to the storm. At the time, they offered up any supplies they have that could have potentially helped the city. “Our service department was able to get a contractor out and make temporary repairs to the roofs, so that wasn’t much of an issue, but (Lowe’s) said, ‘Is there anything else you could possibly need?’ ” Gandee said. “Our service director said we could use some generators for our traffic lights as we had some significant jams due to the lights being out. We had somebody having chest pains and we were trying to get an ambulance to him. Traffic was so gridlocked we had delays getting to him.” The hope is that the donated generators will help maintain traffic when similar situations occur, Gandee said. “That storm happening probably at the worst time possible — rush hour — further complicated what we were trying to do to get to all these emergencies,” he said. “Multiple road closures and people not knowing how to get to these other areas complicated what we were trying to respond to.” This type of infrastructure is important to maintain even though many traffic lights nowadays are LED and have battery backups, Gandee said. “When you have a significant storm such as this, 83% of our community was without power for a prolonged period of time,” he said. “There’s some intersections if there’s no lights, they’re extremely dangerous. This will further allow our community to be better prepared for widespread outages and still be able to maintain traffic the best way possible as we work on responding to emergencies, and restoring services.” A generator for the Willoughby Hills Community Center is on the horizon to further better prepare residents if they need a place to charge their phones or a place to stay warm or cool during power outagers. “Mayor (Chris) Hallum is dedicated as our previous mayors have been as far as making sure we’re prepared,” Gandee said. “We’re actively working on seeking a generator to power the center and getting quotes.”