We generally start assisting municipal and county customers in their hurricane recovery efforts before a tropical storm system or hurricane actually arrives. Our decades of experience have taught us that some emergencies can be avoided altogether by planning well and activating before the inevitable excessive rainfall really gets started. We work on an annual contract basis that allows authorities to simply pick up the phone, tell us their situation, and what they think they need in terms of our resources. Our 24/7 on call staff are put into action to draw down existing levels in pump stations to allow for slower ramp-up from new rains, or however our customers want us to respond.

There are many possible scenarios in which hurricanes figure in creating overflow emergencies for municipalities, but the most common one is overwhelmed lift stations. Stormwater falls so quickly, it has nowhere else to go and drains into the sewers, quickly inundating the collection system and filling lift stations beyond capacity. In this situation, pump stations might already have some deficiencies. The pumps might go down, maybe there’s an electrical malfunction within the station, or the entire system loses power from the storm.

We are able to provide full staff, materials, and equipment—whether it's our pumper trucks, Vactor combination vehicles, or portable pumps with discharge hoses—to bypass the system while repairs or corrections are being made. Our trucks essentially transfer the flows from their usual location to another location that can accommodate them, eliminating any system overflows.

These corrections could take hours or days, but our services can occur around the clock, providing our customer with all the service needed until these repairs are fully completed and their system is back up and running. This eliminates any potential environmental degradation or dangerous health situations.

Our hurricane recovery services generally entail crews driving sanitary pumper trucks, Vactor combination trucks, or deploying and manning portable pumps to move flows from one place to another within collection systems. Other related services include

• Clearing parks, roads and public spaces of stormwater runoff to allow free movement of emergency response vehicles and residents back to their homes from temporary shelters

• Clearing downed trees and other debris from roadways and emergency access points

• Other potential methods, depending on the situation

EWSG has expertise project managers to help plan situational logistics, and the vast staffing and equipment resources to execute all of the above. Allow our technical experts to help you develop an emergency hurricane recovery plan that meets the scope, schedule, and budget demands for your particular needs.