Hurricane Florence: Our Response

BluSky deploys hundreds of workers and thousands of pieces of restoration equipment for recovery

Hurricane Florence made landfall early on a September morning at Wrightsville Beach, adjacent to Wilmington in North Carolina.

As the storm proceeded through North and South Carolina, it dumped 18 trillion gallons of water on the area according to one estimate, prompting media outlets to call it a 1,000-year flood event. Property damage is estimated to be as much as $28 billion as of this writing, making Hurricane Florence one of the ten most costly hurricanes in history.

Hurricane Command Center

 Anticipating storm damage and flooding of historic proportions as the hurricane approached in the Atlantic, BluSky Restoration Contractors quickly established a hurricane command center at its Greensboro, NC office. From there, BluSky immediately began directing manpower and equipment toward the coast, ready to respond to its commercial clients’ calls for help. And calls indeed began pouring in within hours of landfall.

Crews encountered great obstacles as they attempted to reach client locations, including heavy winds and rain, downed trees across roads, and interstate highways closed due to flooding. In the first hours, they were only able to get close to their destinations before running into extreme conditions that halted their forward progress.

Employees slept in company trucks, on hotel lobby floors and in BluSky’s Wilmington office (which was near the epicenter and lost electricity) before completing the journey to their destinations.

In short time though, crews arrived onsite at numerous BluSky client properties in Wilmington, Fayetteville, Myrtle Beach, New Bern, Atlantic Beach, Lumberton, and countless surrounding cities. Teams immediately went to work inspecting and determining the scope of damages, and began cleaning and drying affected properties.

BluSky response by the numbers

 Almost two weeks out from landfall, BluSky’s hurricane recovery response continues at full speed and is growing in magnitude. A few early statistics:

• Over 2,300 air movers deployed, enhancing air flow and accelerating evaporation
• Over 1,600 dehumidifiers up and running, removing air moisture created by evaporation
• 634 people onsite so far, including:
  • 502 restoration laborers
  • 62 roofing laborers
  • 60 restoration supervisors
  • 10 project managers overseeing work on largest losses

Even more, manpower is headed east as BluSky continues to increase its recovery response. Work as of this writing has primarily been flood water removal, cleaning, and drying. The next phase, reconstruction, is now getting underway.