Author: Cieana Detloff, Empowering Pumps

With tropical storm Philippe currently forming in the Caribbean, I can’t help but think about disaster preparedness and wonder what measures can be taken by people working within the pumping industry. Through the battering of the U.S. by an unrelenting hurricane season, I was able to speak with someone who not only helped his extended family clean up their Florida home and surrounding neighborhood after Hurricane Irma, but who also actively works to help people get ahead of the storm.

Glenn Wieczorek, Managing Director with Tsurumi America, explained how he and his U.S. team work to move pumps and generators into areas before storms can even hit. “Sometimes the storms don’t hit, so we bear the expense of moving all that equipment in, but we still feel this is the best approach to make sure the equipment is there before it’s actually needed,” explains Wieczorek. “People need these dewatering pumps, hoses, and generators for the clean-up effort, so we try to be preemptive. Our team monitors the weather at all times, all over the U.S. because we’re focused on helping people gain access to the equipment they need to get back to ‘normal’.”

Prior to Hurricane Harvey, the Tsurumi America team worked with their distributor and dealer network in the Houston and Dallas areas to determine what equipment might be needed and the best location to send and store it for access immediately after the storm. The decision was made to ship commercial grade generators and dewatering pumps, both engine-driven and electric submersible pumps, to their Dallas-based warehouse. “Sending the pumps and generators to Dallas was actually a very good decision because it was much easier and quicker to get the pumps and generators from Dallas to places throughout Houston after the storm,” shares Wieczorek.

Tsurumi America’s Chicago and Salt Lake offices work with their network to determine what equipment might be most useful for communities facing severe weather, and they get boots on the ground quickly to provide a range of pumps – everything from small pumps that might be needed in a homeowner’s back yard to 250-horsepower dewatering pumps, sewage pumps, and wastewater pumps. “Our distributors and dealers provide that local knowledge about the situation and what they think will be needed, which can be really challenging. When a hurricane hits, you know the power is going to be out, so having an engine-driven pump that uses gasoline is going to be more helpful than an electric submersible,” explains Wieczorek, “but in the case of Hurricane Irma, there were major gas shortages in Florida, so the electric submersibles turned out to be just as important for the clean-up effort.”

With flooding occurring in several places across Illinois this past summer, Tsurumi America also donated pumps to a non-profit organization that lends out equipment to people and communities who are in the process of recovering from major weather events. “As a family-owned company, our philosophy has been to put people first. We are customer-driven and our focus continues to be on the people. This is why we work with our channels to get pumps in place to help people in dire need, including Puerto Rico. We have sent equipment there to help with that effort as well.”

People who live in communities hit by hurricanes, storms, and flooding – some of them work in potable water and wastewater facilities, in power plants and industrial operations – and they courageously find a way to do their jobs even though they might be personally impacted by these natural disasters. I do not know (or just haven’t heard about) many pump manufacturers that have gone to this level of effort to get ahead of the storm, but I plan to continue to learn more about what others in the pumping industry are doing in the wake of one of the worst weather seasons on record.

On behalf of the Empowering Pumps’ staff, we want to thank Tsurumi America for their program to support communities nation-wide as they deal with recovery efforts. We invite our readers to learn more about how Empowering Pumps is supporting Houston.