Large Scale Water Remediation

Project: NJ University with multiple sites

Affected area: 120,000 sf

Purpose and Result: When a flood of unexpected catastrophic proportions struck a NJ based University on August 14, 2011, the resulting damage was widespread. A total of 10 buildings were impacted by flood water (Student Recreation Gymnasium, Instructional Technology Center and 8 other academic and residence halls). To complicate matters, in the days that followed, two additional big events converged at the same time: student move-in, and the developing forecast for Hurricane Irene. When the University was activated as a Red Cross evacuation shelter, Team AllRisk was hired again to do the post-evacuation shelter cleanup (which housed 1,200 evacuees), as well as, to manage the second large scale water loss, affecting the same set of buildings, due to Irene’s impact on August 28th, 2011.

The result was that due to AllRisk’s swift response, all standing water was extracted within hours of the 7.77 inches of rainfall on August 14th, and cleaning and drying services began immediately allowing student move-in to occur with minimized delay. In addition to AllRisk’s ability to mobilize quickly with our own truck mounts and equipment, it was the speed of trust that was the key to success, as administrative spaces were loaded with personal affects (again, the catastrophic rain on 8-14-11 was unexpected). Based upon the magnitude of damage, the AllRisk background checked employees were permitted to gain access to every building and affected interior, in order to keep the job moving as quickly as possible. FEMA and Insurance representatives commented that due to AllRisk’s rapid response, the university experienced much less damage than would have been expected from such severe back-to-back events.

Description of Services: Inspect all areas with client. A workplan was devised and discussed with client to focus on the hardest hit and most sensitive areas first, such as the Rec Center, IT department, Triad (a residence hall) and Wilson and Bunce (academic buildings). Client noted that due to damage in the central plant, air conditioning was disrupted to several areas, heightening the concern and necessity for dehumidification. Coordination of services included generator set up, debris removal, photo documentation of damages and contents, extraction, dehumidification, cleaning, sanitization and drying. AllRisk Project Manager and client on-site contact continued daily walk-throughs at each job site to discuss drying progress and projected demobilization and completion. The emergency services portion of the 8-14-11 loss was demobilized and completed within 2 weeks. In the early days of the 8-14-11 loss, status meetings were held on sight so that the client on-site contact could provide an accurate status of job progress to administration, OEM and communications departments. Damaged computer equipment was removed, staged in a storage area, and photo documented for an adjuster review (not disposed of). Documentation of labor, certified payroll, equipment counts by building, and by room was extremely important to support FEMA reimbursement efforts. Based upon AllRisk’s procedures for documenting a loss and recording daily work activity, we were able to successfully provide this level of FEMA-detailed information as requested by client, in order to support Rowan’s financial recovery efforts.

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