2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season

Bergeron Opens and Manages Florida’s Largest Temporary Debris Staging and Reduction Sites (TDSRS) as a Result of the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season.

Cities of Plantation, Pembroke Pines, Cooper City, Miramar, Weston, Southwest Ranches, Hollywood, and Davie, Florida

The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active ever recorded. To respond to the destructive impact, Bergeron Emergency Services opened and managed five of the largest Temporary Debris Staging and Reduction Sites (TDSRS) in Florida’s history and successfully conducted site management operations in excess of two million cubic yards.

Debris reduction operations included incineration via “burning” and “grinding” of vegetative debris, segregation and final disposal of construction and demolition material, white goods and hazardous waste. Other operations included emergency push, Right of Way (ROW) pick-up and haul, private property Right of Entry (ROE) work, sand screening and hazardous materials abatement. These services were performed in various capacities for eight Broward County municipalities.

These simultaneous responses are a testament to Bergeron Emergency Services management capabilities and proper resource allocation to ensure client satisfaction.

RESPONSE

• Provided immediate response with company-owned assets
• With a cadre of over $20 million of company-owned equipment, BES was able to quickly facilitate a rapid and effective mobilization to meet our contractual obligations
• The pre-staging of over 40 pieces of emergency push equipment, large and small, expedited debris operations
• At peak approximately 70% of our company-owned fleet was deployed
• For pickup and haul operations, our typical crew composition was:
  1. Rubber tired loaders with grapples
  2. Tracked skidsteers
  3. Self-loading grapple trucks (40 cubic yard- 100 cubic yard capacity)
  4. Proper equipment for maintenance of traffic
  5. Ground labor with chainsaws
  6. Various other haul units (capacity of haul unit was dictated by the distance to the debris site or final disposal location)
• Although many of our own staff were personally impacted by Hurricane Wilma, BES still met – and in most cases exceeded – our required mobilization times
• Due to continued planning and training with our clients, we were able to pre-position many of our assets prior to landfall in order to provide an immediate operational response as soon as it was safe to do so

REMOVAL

• To ensure safety, hauling operations were limited to daylight hours; however, planning operations, crew meetings, data input, daily reporting, and preparations for each day’s activities required 24-hour attention, so BES staff was working 18-20 hour days to meet the requirements of our contracts
• At peak, BES had deployed nearly 300 crews and 1000 personnel to serve the 9 clients who activated our contracts
• Performed emergency push operations, including road clearance of major city arteries to hospitals, fire/police/public works, and other critical city facilities
• Removed over 8 million cubic yards of debris from eight municipalities as well as private sector
• The curbside debris operations were completed in less than 90 days, even though work continued on temporary debris sites, the immediate threat to public health and safety had been abated
• All debris was taken to dumpsites
• With the storm impacting our home county and surrounding counties, BES was able to run operations out of our home office; therefore, we had significant corporate support for planning, contracting, finance, logistics, and operations
• Following the NIMS requirements, we followed the typical incident command structure for field operations: JR Bergeron served as corporate oversight and operations manager; we assigned field oversight to our general superintendent, Dennis King; and our safety officer was Donnie Bergeron
• Project managers were assigned to each applicant and had direct responsibility for that client’s need and for specific operational oversight for that particular client
• A field superintendent was assigned to each project manager to assist with field oversight, and for every five crews assigned to each respective project, a foreman was assigned to limit the span of control
• With Wilma impacting Broward County, our headquarters location, many of our local projects were shut down to facilitate evacuation procedures for residents; BES took that opportunity to deploy the necessary equipment to pre-identified locations pursuant to applicant debris management plans
• As our day-to-day projects began to come back on line, we immediately augmented our fleet with subcontract resources
• A large majority of our subcontractors were Broward County small businesses

RECOVERY

• BES aided in getting local workers and businesses up and running again
• As stated, BES had pulled a substantial cadre of company-owned equipment to meet the immediate requirements of our contracts. As the need to transition back to our day-to-day business lines and continue to facilitate our recovery contract commitments, our subcontracting force grew exponentially. Many of our subcontractors that were already being utilized were small businesses.
• At peak, the Bergeron workforce consisted of approximately 70% subcontractors; out of the 70%, approximately 40% were local small businesses, with the majority of these being trucking companies, recycling facilities, and equipment operators/suppliers

RELIABLE

• All work completed safely and efficiently
• Successfully coordinated crews and monitored lines of communication
• This project lasted approximately 90 days with no injuries or lost work time
• No claims, no liquidated damages, and no poor perfo