Gulf Coast rental operators hit again

Sep. 27, 2020 - By Connie Lannan - Special Projects Editor

The weather has just been brutal this September for rental operators on the Gulf Coast. First, Hurricane Laura slammed into Louisiana on Sept. 8, leaving a path of massive destruction and fatalities in its path. Then Hurricane Sally ripped through coastal Alabama and Florida on Sept. 16. If that wasn’t enough, Tropical Storm Beta made landfall in Texas late Monday, Sept. 21, creating massive flooding from the rain and storm surges as well as power outages from the high winds.

Elaine Magnum, owner, ProRents Tools and Equipment, Pensacola, Fla., wasn’t as prepared for Sally as she has been for other hurricanes because indications were that the storm would not reach hurricane status where she lives.

“I don’t believe many people evacuated. If they did, it was strictly on the coastline because they did not tell us we were getting a hurricane. They told us we were getting a tropical storm, so most people weren’t truly prepared. However, it turned to the east, which meant we were right on target, so we got the brunt of it. We lost a tremendous amount of trees, and there was a lot of water damage because the storm was slow-moving, dumping a lot of rain, but it could have been a lot worse,” she says.

Magnum and her crew closed the business Tuesday because they thought it was going to reach land that day.

“Most places in town closed up Tuesday. We shut down because I didn’t want my guys to be at work when it hit. It rained most of Tuesday afternoon, all through the night and all day Wednesday, so we stayed closed on Wednesday,” she says.

When she opened back up Thursday morning, she saw that her business didn’t make it through unscathed.

“We had a lot of damage to our fences that go around the perimeter of our property. A lot of it came down. Some of it is just crooked. We also had an awning that came down off the entire side of the building. It was literally pulled off the wall and ended up in our neighbor’s yard. It pulled the concrete off the wall as well when it took the awning. Where the flashing is missing or pulled away, you can see outside. Unfortunately, the water went down the walls, so we have some wall damage. We had a lot of fascia damage. The storm also yanked the latches off our two front doors, so that is all busted up. In addition, we had some water inside, but it was only about an inch in different areas,” she says.

While the building suffered some damage, her equipment, which had been brought inside, was untouched.

One of her employees had a lot of trees knocked down. “He was blocked in his home and driveway. A tree also fell on the power line that connects to the power box on his house. The power box was ripped off his home. He lost power Tuesday afternoon and didn’t get it back until Sunday at 10 p.m., but I am grateful that everybody is OK,” she says, adding, “There will be a lot of work, but it is not awful.”

Her business also was fortunate as far as electric service. “We are on the same grid as the hospital. When they turned the power back on to the hospital, we got our power back. We were out of power at work for not even a day. At home, I was out of power for two days,” she says.

Magnum knows she was very lucky. Not everyone in Pensacola can say the same. It was reported by USA Today that local officials estimate the storm caused at least $29 million in damage in Florida’s Escambia County and Pensacola alone.

Getting around town has been a major hurdle.

“It was huge challenge for the first few days," says Joe Meeks, owner, Coastal Machinery Co., Pensacola, Fla. “Wednesday afternoon was almost impossible to get here because of the high water over all of the roads and trees and power lines down. Nothing except emergency vehicles and a few people like us who were essential were even on the roads Wednesday afternoon. Lots of roads were closed. The major bridges here were closed for several days. The Three Mile Bridge in town will be closed for months. They were doing major construction on building a new bridge and the contractor who was building the bridge and barges, well, things got loose and did a bunch of damage and knocked out several spans of the bridge going across the bay. It will be several months before our bridge is even open to cross our bay. The thing that made this hurricane so bad was not that it was so powerful but that it lasted so long – only moving 4 or 5 miles per hour for a couple of days, so the hurricane actually lasted a couple of days here. That is what caused so much damage.”

In terms of damage, Meeks feels very fortunate. “At home, we had a lot of trees down. As far as my house, we just lost a few shingles. The business didn’t have any damage, but my one employee lost everything, including his pickup truck. He had 3 ft. of water in his house. Everything went underwater, including his truck,” he says.

Whereas Magnum’s business had her power restored quickly, Meeks was out for a good four days, relying on his generator for backup power.

By Thursday, both Magnum and Meeks were able to open their businesses, “but only about half of our employees could even get to the business that day,” Meeks says. “Those of us who were able to make it in spent the morning cleaning stuff out of the driveway and picking up big pieces of debris so we could open in the afternoon,” he adds, mentioning that a few customers were able to make it to the business by then.

By Friday, a deluge of customers was lining up at both of their businesses.

“By Friday morning, we had about 70 percent of our employees here. We had contractors and homeowners looking for skid steers with a grapple and chain saws. Right now, everything is either sold or on rent. We are out of everything people would want right now,” Meeks says.

“We were really busy. We only have so much equipment. Some of our equipment was on rent, so they want to keep it. Most people need tractors with the grapple or the claw. We only have four of those. Everyone is looking for the same equipment,” Magnum says.

Farther east, Justin Gentry, manager, Panhandle Rental Co., Panama City, Fla., and Foley, Ala., also is dealing with the storm’s aftermath.

“We closed Tuesday around noon. The storm hit us early Wednesday morning. We were back open by Wednesday at 1 p.m.,” he says.

He, like Magnum and Meeks, initially thought his area would be dealing with a tropical storm and not a hurricane. “I was surprised when it changed status,” Gentry says.

Neither of his locations sustained any damage. Before the storm, Gentry and his team tried to get all the equipment rounded up and moved to safe ground, “but we missed one — a 10,000-lb. forklift. It flooded out due to storm surge. We got everything else,” he says.

In addition, as of press time, the Foley location was still without power. “We are relying on our generator for power at our Foley store,” he says.

Like Pensacola, Panama City experienced a lot of flooding, so getting to and from work and reaching the two Panhandle Rental locations has been a real challenge.

“A bunch of the roads were flooded, including highways 90, 85 and 98. It normally takes us almost three hours to get to our Foley store. Now it takes about six hours. I have two semis. One for the Foley location and one for the Panama City location. We keep running from Foley to Panama City to pick up equipment. I am taking my truck for equipment as well,” he says.

Once his customers were able to get around, they were pouring into his business. “At first we saw mostly contractors who were looking for skid steers and grapples and mid-size excavators. Then the homeowners started coming in wanting dehumidifiers and carpet fans. We had a lot of homeowners asking for generators, but we don’t carry small generators. We carry only 25kW generators. The rush has continued. Now we are dealing with contractors wanting heavier and larger aerial equipment, especially large boom lifts, from 60 to 135 ft.,” he says.

Seeing their communities go through such devastation is hard, but Magnum, Meeks and Gentry are grateful to be there to help their customers get through.

“We have the opportunity to help a lot of people in our community who need what we have,” Meeks says.

Mother Nature wasn’t done with the bad weather on the Gulf as Rachel Lankford, owner, Tour de Tents, Galveston, Texas, found out when Tropical Storm Beta hit this past Monday.

“We are very cautious as we know how dangerous these storms can be. We always take the necessary precautions. We boarded up our home and boarded up the business. While we did evacuate for Hurricane Laura, we stayed here for Beta,” she says.

Lankford, like the others, says she “dodged a bullet. We actually were a little luckier than some. I know that Houston got more rain than us. We definitely had to put business on pause for a few days. We had customers and employees who couldn’t get to our facility, so we had to close for a few days — from Monday to Wednesday. The roadway was covered in water from the storm surge. Several spots where the water came up over the curb, they were completely submerged. We were worried that our work trucks would be stalled, so we had to park them on a higher portion of our property,” she says.

Lankford had some quotes out to people who were interested in having an event during this time. “We had things that were being planned that were postponed because of the weather,” she says.

The hurricanes and tropical storms have just been another challenge for Lankford, whose business, which normally handles everything from weddings and private parties to corporate events, was hit hard by the coronavirus (COVID-19) shutdowns.

“We have started to see a little more activity, but it is not what it used to be. We are still rebuilding our client list. Our business hours are back to normal. We are still struggling to get back to the level we were at before COVID-19,” she says, adding that the need to close her business during Hurricane Laura and Tropical Storm Beta meant another setback.

“Having to close during the pandemic and then for the hurricanes has been a double whammy for sure,” she says. “We are just going to hang in as long as we can, and hopefully we will see a little more activity and light at the end of the tunnel. For now, we are just trying to keep moving forward.”