Over the years, our team has responded to thousands of disasters caused by floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and even insects. These disasters shut down businesses for weeks, sometimes months. Workers are displaced. Families are affected. Within hours of the disaster, we arrive on scene, survey the damage, restore power and water if possible, and begin to plan remediation for the damaged areas. After the job is done, our greatest satisfaction is knowing we helped return a business to pre-loss condition and witness employees return to work.
But the truth is, while we help put peoples’ lives back together, it is still a business exchange. As we leave a job site and drive through nearby neighborhoods, we see the aftermath of victims in the surrounding community camping out on their front lawns after four feet of water flooded the town. Families in some of the poorest neighborhoods are essentially evicted by mold and falling sheetrock. That imagery stays with you. You never get used to seeing the reality of what a natural disaster can do. Using that heartbreak as motivation, I became fixated on finding ways to help.