On their way to work on an outage one dark, freezing winter night, KPUD Line Foreman John Starr and Equipment Operator John Moore came across Dan Graf and his nephew, who were in a spot of trouble. A tire had blown on Mr. Graf's vehicle causing him to veer off the road and become mired in the deep mud off the side of the road. They had been stranded for several hours and were cold and soaked through from trying to jack up the car and replace the tire.

According to both John Star and John Moore, this was just "business as usual" and "only took a few minutes out of their day." However, to Mr. Graf and his nephew, stranded for hours on this cold, dark winter night, the actions of these two modest men were much more than that. See letter from Mr. Graf below.

KPUD thanks Mr. Moore and Mr. Starr for representing this utility in such an exemplary manner. In recognition of their efforts, KPUD has nominated both employees for the Washington PUD Association's Good Samaritan Award, to be awarded in September.

John Starr, KPUD Line Foreman, has been with KPUD since 1983. John is a local boy who grew up and attended school in the town of Lyle. John currently lives on his farm in Centerville with his wife, Toni, son Darin and daughters Cynthia and Rachel.	John Moore has worked as Equipment Operator for KPUD since 1996. John and his wife, Debbie, live in Goldendale.

Thank You PUD!

Thank you PUD. Just before dark on Dec.8th, I had the misfortune of having a front tire blow on the vehicle that I was driving home in the midst of a snowstorm in Klickitat Co. Despite my best efforts to hold the road the vehicle swerved off the road and stopped beyond the shoulder where the mud was very soft and slippery. After inspecting the damage my first thought was to try to drive up onto the pavement, this attempt only worked the vehicle farther into the bar ditch. I decided to change the tire in the mud and then drive the Jeep onto the pavement. Two vehicles stopped while I was changing the tire, I did not want to inconvenience these considerate drivers. I told them that when I got the tire changed I was confident the Jeep would be able to get us out on the road again. Both of these were passenger cars and in hindsight would not have been able to pull us out of our predicament.

I finally got the tire changed after the vehicle fell off the jack in the mud several times. My 13 year old nephew had stepped in water in the bar ditch nearly up to his knee while searching in the snow for anything to try to shore up the jack. The wind was blowing the snow vertically across the road and we were defiantly feeling the cold. We had been working a long time now and had not seen any more vehicles. There were no lights as far as we could see; walking out for fear of hypothermia would be impossible. When I tried to shift the apparatus into four-wheel drive I was amazed to find that for the first time the green indicator light did not come on. When I tried to drive out, it soon became obvious that the front axle was not powered. We were in real trouble, and farther off the road in the ditch. We ran the engine long enough to warm up the interior and turned it off several times through the next three hours as I tried to come up with a solution to our dilemma. We watched but did not see any more vehicles. It was now very dark and I was trying to figure out how to walk up the road to town, which I knew was at least 15 miles to the first houses with my nephew suffering from wet clothes. I got out one more time and connected a tow strap to the axle to be prepared if some vehicle did finally come down that lonely stretch of road.

I got back in to warm up and was thrilled to see a set of headlights come into my rearview mirror. I got my flashlight out and began to wave it back and forth in the middle of the road, wondering what the driver would think. I was relieved to hear the whine of a large truck, and the engine began to slow down. As he pulled up I was thankful to see the truck was a huge PUD line truck.

The passenger side window rolled down and a man asked me what I needed. I briefly explained what had transpired and that I needed him to give me a pull onto the pavement. He got out and the driver began backing into position as I hooked up the strap. The truck was so strong that it easily pulled me down the shoulder making deep ruts but finally pulled it onto the pavement. I got out to unhook the strap and then shook the man's hand. I tried to tell him how much we appreciated his stopping. I told him that we had been there for several hours and he had really helped us more than he understood. He laughed out loud and said it was just the PUD out to help. He did tell me that his name was John Starr. He was glad that they were able to help, he told me that they had been working on an outage and had to hurry on their way. We checked the area to make sure we had not left anything and headed up the road after the now departing taillights of the truck. Once again thank you PUD!

Sincerely;
Dan Graf