We had already put in place all of the many hundreds of sandbags we kept in stock strategically, to minimise flooding to the buildings, with low level buildings already over whelming defences, as an underground 600mm surface water drain fractured under the intense upstream hydraulic pressure.

As part of our client’s emergency response team, we assisted them in the decision & methods to send their entire 1000 plus work force home, until the situation could be reviewed & normalised, with almost all of the same work force equally concerned for their own properties.

Surveying the immediate impact of the flooding, we quickly isolated the vulnerable electrical power.

We then invited some of the relevant client representatives to review the impact & they contacted their insurers for assistance.

We started forming a plan to assist them returning to production as quickly & safely as possible. Within hours we secured & arranged delivery of around 25 mobile industrial pump sets, some diesel powered, some electrical powered, some small for confined spaces & others large for high volumes.

With our small dedicated & professional direct workforce, we began setting up the pumps at strategic locations, while increasing the sandbag perimeter bunding to the flooded buildings, ensuring no further water ingress, we began pumping out the flooded floors & service ducts. We had also secured assistance from many of our local contractors, including industrial cleaning experts.

All hands to the pumps – quite literally.

In shifts for the next 18 hours, to a schedule & to a detailed plan, we managed to extract all of the flood water from the buildings, cleaned and dried the floors & service ducts, allowing us to safely re-energise the power supplies to begin heating & cooling the buildings as required.

The following day the client’s disaster recovery team arrived with their insurer’s technical advisor, to review the condition of their buildings. To their amazement, we had recovered all of their buildings to “production ready” within 24 hours. They had apparently been planning for a one week recovery. The rain fall had subsided, though we couldn’t really take credit for that, and the buildings were back in production, within the next four hours.

For the dedicated efforts of our team and suppliers, we received several written notes of appreciation, from both our client & their insurers.

All part of a day in the life of our facilities management & maintenance services delivery.