Line Life in Photos: Responding to Storms and Crisis Situations

Rick Giammaria had plenty of choices when Pepco asked its senior staff photographer to prepare a retrospective of his work for its Edison Place Gallery last fall. 

Over his 35-year career, Giammaria has shot thousands of photos for Pepco and its sister utilities, Atlantic City Electric and Delmarva Power, owned by Exelon. Giammaria’s challenge was finding an organizing theme to show some of his favorite photos. He didn’t want it to be a history of Pepco. 

“As I started to gather these images, this theme emerged, which was how the men and women of this company responded to crisis situations,” Giammaria says. 

Giammaria’s retrospective numbered about 50 photos when it debuted in mid-November and many were organized around Pepco emergencies that he covered over the past three-and-a-half decades. 

One of these emergencies happened in 2022 – on the Sunday night of Thanksgiving weekend – when a small plane crashed into a Pepco transmission tower in Maryland. The accident left 85,000 people without power and two injured people inside the crumpled plane dangling from the tower 100 feet above ground. A reoccurring emergency is captured in a series of eye-catching photos that show utility employees in the field restoring customers’ power after catastrophic storms, sometimes in harsh and dangerous conditions. 

“These employees always stepped up, and not only the employees, but the leadership also stepped up, took responsibility and did the right thing in each situation,” Giammaria says. 

One of his most dramatic photos was shot the night of the plane crash in Maryland. Racing from his home in Fairfax County, Virginia to the accident scene in full protective gear, Giammaria asked police at the entrance where the command center was. Hearing only the officer’s hesitation, Giammaria shouted, “Never mind, I’ll find it,” and made his way to the foot of the tower. 

His initiative paid off when he captured a closeup of the tense faces of first responders and Pepco contract workers conferring about the forthcoming safe extraction of the injured pilot and passenger trapped inside the plane caught on the tower. 

For Giammaria, that shot and many others are testaments to the dedication of his colleagues. 

“These guys are professionals. They know what they’re doing. They’re out doing hard work in all kinds of weather,” Giammaria says. “I respect them.”