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by Jana Mackin
If only the matching pair of utility trucks could talk. They would share a touching story about how their owners cut short their honeymoon to help hurricane victims turn on the lights in Florida last month.
Justus and Haley Pope Edens work as consulting utility foresters at Eocene Environmental Group, where they met and fell in love. Their little tale of love and sacrifice is an inspiration for all. Married in early October, their honeymoon was cut short as Justus volunteered to work the utility nightmare that was the aftermath of Hurricane Milton in Tampa while Haley volunteered to make homemade noodles for the Lord’s Acre Supper and auction at New Hope Church.
“Justus and I met through work shortly after Thanksgiving( 2022),” said Haley, 30. She explained that consulting utility foresters act as kind of scouts for linemen, contractors and tree crews that manage vegetation around utility infrastructures. They identify, inspect and evaluate trees and brush, recommending to their clients when and how vegetation needs to be pruned or removed.
“During this time, we started to chat back and forth,” Haley said. “We would go to the hotdog food truck they had parked outside to get lunch together.”
“We immediately clicked and began to spend more time with each other outside of work. I began to fall more and more in love with him,” she said.
“Every Sunday, he began buying me flowers,” she said. “He still continues to do that to this day!”
Their relationship continued deepening until….
“The day after Thanksgiving (last year), we went to cut down our first Christmas tree together,” Haley said. “After picking out and cutting our tree, we headed back to the house to decorate. I had walked into the other room when I heard Justus call me to remove a bagworm sack that was stuck on a branch. He pointed to a branch on the tree. I saw the ring hanging on a pine needle”
“I turned around. He was down on one knee,” she said. “I was overjoyed and said ‘Yes!’”
Fast forward to Oct. 5, 2024, when the couple were married at historic New Hope Church in Carl Junction. Haley is her family’s third generation to be married at that church. They honeymooned in Branson.
“Our wedding was so beautiful,” she said. “I am so thankful, I was able to marry my best friend.”
During this time, Hurricane Milton walloped the Tampa area leaving hundreds of thousands of victims without power. This was shortly after Hurricane Helene had devastated the area.
Responding to the crisis, Mark Harwick, Eocene Environmental regional supervisor, called Justus and asked if he would volunteer along with co-worker, Jeffrey Burwell, a former Seneca High School classmate, to go to Tampa and assist in the massive power restoration efforts. They left Oct. 8 and returned Oct. 19.
“Hats off to Justus,” Harwick said. “I knew he had just gotten married. However, there are times when we can not only help other folks, but it’s also an extremely good experience for our folks to get the lights on.”
During their time in Tampa, Justus and Jeffrey joined an army of 6,000 utility linemen along with other contractors, foresters and tree crews from throughout the country to restore power to the area’s hurricane victims. They staged at the Raymond James NFL Stadium parking lot where they assessed, planned and advised strategies and mitigation procedures for removal of storm damaged trees, vegetation and debris.
“We’ve seen a lot of storms,” said Justus, 28. “We see what people don’t see, and it was bad.”
“We had 640,000 people without power,” he said. “That’s nothing to scoff at.”
The pair compared this massive deployment of utility linemen and others akin to a large-scale military operation to address the hurricane wind damage, flooding and utility infrastructure impact and devastation.
“When we got down there, it was definitely controlled chaos,” Burwell said. “We were roughly able to get power to 100,000 people a day.”
“We’re the unsung heroes,” Burwell said. “No one talks about us. They only talk about the tree crews and linemen. But linemen can’t do their jobs until trees are removed and hazards mitigated.”
As these holidays approach, perhaps a little thanks is in order for unsung heroes such as Justus and Haley whose sacrifices help to light the world year round.
“We work to keep people safe and keep the lights on. People were happy to have their electricity on,” Justus said. “People would say, ‘Welcome to Florida and thank you for coming.’”
The Webb City Sentinel isn’t a newspaper – but it used to be, serving Webb City, Missouri, in print from 1879-2020. This “newspaper” seeks to carry on that tradition as a nonprofit corporation.
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