Second report in a series.
The storm surge & windstorm toll following Hurricane Harvey's Friday landfall on the Texas coast is well documented. Damages will likely total $40 billion. While wind & storm surge damage were significant, the majority of devastation will likely be caused by torrential rains & flooding. Harvey dumped 24" of water on Houston Saturday. He is moving slowly & shows no signs of running dry.
Mark Slade has focused on Harvey for the better part of the past week. He has deployed his Comfort Zone Portables in emergency relief efforts dating prior to Katrina. Their products & services routinely go to assist short notice military maneuvers, which in turn often come back to disaster relief. Common elements throughout are preparation, readiness & adaptability.
As of Friday night Slade was waiting simply to find out who his client would be. It was briefly an electric utility, but he knew that could & would likely change with the next phone call. Actually a series of calls came, and indeed his client changed. Due to the escalation of damage, the breadth of affected areas & displaced population, Slade is now taking direction from the federal government.
With that determination comes at least a little greater certainty of where Slade and Comfort Zone will serve. Unless another call comes changing everything yet again, Slade will send his resources to establish initial base camps in hopefully high & relatively dry vicinities of Beaumont, Katy & Refugio Texas. 250 miles of mostly submerged roadways separate Beaumont & Refugio, and it's Slade's job to dispatch his crews safely throughout.
Here, on Sunday night, Slade finally knows enough to get himself to Texas. He has awaited definitive word while remaining at his Atlanta office and home. He can now schedule a flight west, most likely to San Antonio, but perhaps not until Tuesday. Slade knows that at this point he can better direct his people while he has access to all communication channels. Once he hits Texas that all changes.
Priority one is to get help to first responders, who for the last 48 hours have had nothing but what they could carry to wherever they are. They have been without shelter, food, clean water etc, and those provisions will soon be depleted if they are not already.
Once Comfort Zone gets first responders their bare survival essentials they will mobilize to the next phase. After disasters of this magnitude any number of relief groups converge to assist. Those groups too will need shelter, water, showers, toilets & other survival essentials for a duration of weeks or longer. For those longer terms needs Comfort Zone unites with other contractors to erect base camps to accommodate up to 800 people.
But that will be the next phase. Right now Comfort Zone's mission is to deliver immediate relief to the people who are risking their lives to save lives.
More on Hurricane Harvey relief efforts as information becomes available.
Contact:
Comfort Zone Portables
Shirlee Industrial Way
Alpharetta GA
www.comfortzoneportables.com
770-772-8066
www.stoddard.media
