Two Hernando contractors send workers to remove debris in storm-ravaged areas.
By BETH N. GRAY
Published September 1, 2004
At least two Hernando County contractors have put together work crews that are assisting in hurricane cleanup efforts in Seminole County. They are sawing uprooted and downed trees, removing brush and grinding it all into mulch.
In Sanford are a dozen tree professionals working with Jeffrey E. Graves & Sons Inc. of Spring Hill and a team of six laborers with Dave and John's Painting Inc. of Spring Hill. They are among more than 200 removal experts working for DRC Inc., an Alabama company that has a contract with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The Graves family, including brothers Jeffrey and Ben and father Robert, have been doing storm recovery since 1979. Because the work is not consistent, Jeffrey Graves said, most of the crew members have other businesses, which they put on the back burner while working the FEMA subcontracts.
The same situation exists with the painting company's team, said partner Dave Wadsworth: "There's no full-time disaster work."
Graves has deployed eight pieces of heavy equipment, from excavators and loaders to a towed grinder. With generators and service mechanics, the working unit is self-contained, Jeffrey Graves said.
Seminole County and Sanford established a facility for grinding vegetation into mulch.
"It saves us from hauling and burying it. The county uses it for top cover on a landfill," Jeffrey Graves said.
While the Graves workers concentrate on the heavy stuff, the Wadsworth crew targets lighter debris.
Wadsworth has three dump trailers that can carry 50 yards of brush each.
"Other than that, chain saws, rakes, shovels, gloves and lots of drinking water."
"The crew is basically cleaning up brush that people have brought out. We go through with the dump trailers and garbage cans (collecting the debris) and run it down to the dump. They unload it and we go back and do it again," Wadsworth said.
He expects his crew to stay at least a month.
Jeffrey Graves expects to stay up to four months.
Both Hernando groups are living in recreational vehicles in an RV-mobile home park with about 150 other units. The occupants have come from Alabama, Louisiana, Virginia, Georgia and Tennessee, Wadsworth said.
The Graves rotate their time in Sanford. Wadsworth visits his crew on weekends.
"This is the first storm in our back yard," Jeffrey Graves said. "Usually we're in Puerto Rico, New York, California, Oklahoma."
Wadsworth is experienced in recovery work as well. Last year, he sent a team to North Carolina and Virginia to clean up after Hurricane Isabelle.
