As Hurricane Sandy bears down on the New Jersey/New York shoreline, pumpers are scrambling their trucks to help customers anticipating storm surge flooding and relentless rains inland. Longtime National Association of Wastewater Technicians official Tom Ferrero said Monday afternoon that all of his family company’s vacuum trucks are stationed at municipal treatment plants helping pumping stations keep up with flow.
“Literally all of our trucks have been out since 7 a.m. yesterday and the worst has not hit us yet,’’ Ferrero said. The company owned by his son, Tom Ferrero III and Fran Daugherty, has 15 vacuum trucks working around the clock now. “It’s going to be a tough few days. We’ve got the workers going 12 hours on and 12 hours off. We’re not planning on doing much sleeping tonight. We’ll just do the best we can do.’’
Ferraro’s Horsham, Pa., is located about 100 miles west of Atlantic City, which is expected to be at the center of the storm as it makes landfall. Ferraro said the storm has picked up speed in recent hours, doubling to about 28 miles per hour as it heads from the warm Atlantic waters to the shore.
Compared to Hurricane Irene, which took eight to 12 hours to pass Ferraro’s home base a year ago, he’s being told that Sandy will take 15 to 24 hours to run its course, starting tonight. On Monday afternoon, as the storm built, winds were whipping up and there were periods of heavy rain. Officials reported that Sandy will pose huge flooding dangers because of the tremendous size of the tropical storm combined with it hitting at a period of high tide and during a full moon.
Besides helping alleviate pressure at treatment plants, Ferrero said pumpers in the region will receive countless phone calls to pump overburdened onsite systems and answer associated system alarms expected to be tripped by power outages and water infiltration.
“We’ll have backups, but it won’t be as bad as the old days. The new systems are better. That’s why we have mounds built up out of the ground,’’ Ferrero said. “Before, when it started raining, the groundwater came up and backed up into the house. The new systems don’t do that.’’
Ferraro said the main goal is to provide as much help as possible and keep the crews safe. “Hopefully you don’t get anybody hurt and you do the best that you can. It will be difficult for the next few days, and we’ll get through it,’’ he said.
I’ve called several northeastern U.S. pumping contractors to check on the status of the storm and I’ll report on their work in the recovery after Sandy passes. If you are in the path of the storm, let us know how you’re doing and if your crews are working around the clock to help customers.
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