Posted on 09/15/2005 8:27:33 AM PDT by WestTexasWend
Even hurricane relief workers need some relief. Which just happens to be local businessman Clayton Smith's line of work.
Smith and his Waco-based B&S Portojons have contracted with the federal government to provide restrooms and showers for relief workers in the New Orleans area.
Smith, 48, said his first transaction resulting from Hurricane Katrina came Thursday, when he got a call from a business in Tyler. B&S assembles and sells portable toilets in addition to renting them, and had supplied the Tyler company before.
The owner was calling B&S because a contractor for the Federal Emergency Management Agency needed a few hundred toilets for his crew. Luckily, Smith said, B&S had about 100 toilets ready to sell on its lot, so he was able to fill that order quickly.
Shortly after that, Smith started getting calls directly from FEMA. The first assignment was for B&S to rent out 100 portable toilets for military personnel at the Bell Chase Naval Air Station in New Orleans.
Then B&S was called on to erect portable showers at the practice field of the New Orleans Saints football team, Smith said. Now, the company is working on an order to set up 1,000 portable toilets at yet another location in the hurricane-ravaged area.
Smith's latest trip to the area came Tuesday morning, when he took two campers to house his employees who are in the area. Six are there already, he said, and must stay on-site to maintain the portable devices. The ones at the air base already had campers, but those staying at the practice field had been sleeping in their trucks, he said.
Smith said the company, which has 35 employees in Waco and Austin, is prepared to operate the toilets and showers for up to three months. Employees will be rotated in and out on a volunteer basis, he said, adding that most are eager for the chance to go since they are getting paid “very, very, very well.”
On average, each of the portable toilets has to be pumped out two or three times a day, Smith said. With the portable showers, maintenance is more often. In the evenings, when most people bathe, dirty water has to be emptied out hourly, he said.
“Both of those are never-ending cycles,” Smith said of the work.
On top of those duties, B&S has also gone to round-the-clock shifts so it can assemble more portable toilets, Smith said. The company averages about 50 per day. The extra numbers are needed, he said, because the company has already gone through the stock of 1,000 assembled toilets it had before the hurricane.
The business couldn't have come at a better time, Smith said. The demand for portable restrooms always slows down in the winter months. But money isn't the main reason B&S is doing all it can to meet the needs of workers, Smith said.
“When you see (the devastation) firsthand, it's shocking,” Smith said. “I think if you have a bunch of people working together doing a very small part, we can get something done."
Maybe it should read "Portable restroom company helps relieve hurricane workers"
Now, the company is working on an order to set up 1,000 portable toilets at yet another location in the hurricane-ravaged area.
It's their potty; they can try if they want to.
Potty time!
"It's their potty; they can try if they want to."
Whoa...we coulda used you over here the other night >>>
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1483930/posts
Well, at least New Orleans will still smell the same.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.