Issue link: http://psai.uberflip.com/i/873479
W EEKLY EDITION SEPT 13, 2017 Hurricane Irma ...continued An inside scoop from PSAI Members affected by the recent hurricane by Rachel Johnson, PSAI Director of Marketing Jennifer's focus when touching base yesterday was the Key West naval base that was in need of 100 toilets. She assured that she was using all of her res ources, "reaching out to companies on the east coast." She was also planning to reach out to some of her suppliers and ask if they had anything that could help. "The military helps civilians 99.9% of the time," she mentioned. "So I'm going to do everything I can to help them." Ross explained what the situation looked like in the High Springs area, stating "Irma dropped a lot of water on the area." The Santa Fe R iver runs through their service area, and all of the floodwater has to work its way to the stre ams. "It's going to flood," he assured. "We've had to move units to higher ground [in anticipation of this]," he continued. If there is more flooding, he worries that they won't be able to get their trucks through to service their units. While there was no damage to the AAA Porta Serve office, and luckily their units stayed in place, "none of [their] employees – including Ross – have electricity in their homes." He doesn't expect they will have power for a day or two, minimum. The focus for Ross moving fo rward was the same "all hands on deck" mentality. "We keep plugging forward – looking at different windows, figuring out what we need to do within the next hour to keep things moving immediately… then what about 3 days down the line. We keep redoing those pictures, staying ahead of the game." They're continuing to bring units to rest areas, now that people are making their way back down to Florida after the evacuation. They're also getting units to rural areas that don't have power, meaning they in turn don 't have water. Yesterday morning they had dropped off toilets and hand wash stations for an organization supporting linemen going out for the day, repairing power lines . Both Ross and Jennifer mentioned that, while Irma was destructive, there is somethin g to be said about how it is bringing people together. "In situations like this," Jennifer said, "it's cool that all competitors put that aside and come together a nd work together as a team, [putting] the community first." Ross felt the same, saying how af ter he posted photos of their hurricane preparations to one of the portable toilet Facebook groups, "a lot of people took the time to message [him], saying 'hey, we've got these resources up in Georgia,' or 'on the other side of the state' if you need anyt hing." He said it was nice "just to know that the community was willing to be that supportive." While we reached out to some of our Texas operators, many are still handling the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. We hope to get in contact with them soon to hea r how they've handled their own hurricane and continue this story in future editions of Association Insight . If your company has been directly affected by the hurricane or if you are involved in relief efforts, reach out to Rachel at rachelj@psai.org to sh are your experience. We strive to bring our Members the latest industry news each week and the impact of these natural disasters on our Members could not be ignored. Our thoughts are with all of those affected by these storms and we would like to remind yo u that the PSAI is here as a resource. Let us know how we can help you. PAGE 10