24/7 Emergency Service
Storm Experience
8/26/2019 (Permalink)
By: Ryan M.
My first experience on a water storm site was in North Carolina when disaster struck. Hurricane Florence caused major flooding from storm surges and heavy rains. The Hurricane caused around 20 billion dollars in damage. It was extremely humbling to see people overcoming the hardships of not having a place to stay and little to no access to essential supplies. It was heartwarming to see the community coming together and volunteers on job sites going from house to house helping neighbors.
I arrived with our disaster response team not knowing what to expect. The streets were lined with insulation, home contents, flooring, drywall and debris from fallen trees. Fema trucks were driving up and down the streets all day every day trying to keep up with collecting the debris. Our teams worked 14-18 hour days to help people get to the point where they could begin to rebuild their homes. Homes had water lines at the 4ft mark around the entire house. Most homes were completely full of several different strains of mold by the time people were able to access them. In order to bring these homes to a repairable point our crews removed all non-structural materials and dried the framing and floor joists. The Neuse River in the New Bern area where we spent most of our time had engulfed peoples homes and businesses and destroyed nearly all of their possessions. Our number one focus was to help as many families and businesses as possible as quickly and effectively as possible. It was hard work in hot temperatures of 80-90 degrees with 60-70 percent humidity and our crews worked relentlessly. I was so proud of our team and the number of people we were able to help and I will always remember the people I met and those that we served. We were driven by our founding principles, strong values and our desire to serve our community and country.