Disaster Recovery is a Specialty
By Derek Auckland, Florida Operations Manager at Sunshine Cleaning Systems, LLC.
When Hurricane Andrew slammed into South Florida in 1992, the Sunshine team was on site at the Fort Lauderdale International Airport within 24 hours, handling the massive cleanup. From picking up debri from soaked ceiling tiles to clearing thoroughfares, and from drying carpets to pressure cleaning dangerous spills, this recovery was an incident Sunshine is well trained for and experienced in handling.
Emergency Response & Disaster Recovery
Whether it is a hurricane, severe thunderstorm, tornado, hail, tropical storm or even a broken pipe or backup in a sewer system, we understand what damage these situations can cause and how important a rapid and well prepare response can be. Our disaster services are all handled in-house, giving us the agility to react quickly and efficiently to mitigate damage and initiate clean-up immediately.
Before disaster strikes, our staff coordinates with our customer’s own teams to ensure facilities are prepared for possible emergencies. Our goal is to help control damage in advance, whenever possible.
Since our company was founded 46 years ago, we’ve been able to test our readiness time and time again. That learning has been incorporated into our procedures so we can get our customers’ facilities back to normal operations as quickly as possible.
Our private inventory includes large portable and truck-mounted extracting equipment, drying fans, generators, trucks, and other heavy equipment required to properly deal with an emergency.
Pandemic Response
Another category of emergencies we’ve become all to familiar with is dealing with contagious viruses.
With the recent pandemic, Sunshine created a proprietary program called Hygienic CLEAN, which includes intense training of our teams, industry certifications and the deployment of proven processes and procedures to handle dangerous viruses.
When needed, we are able to put one of our highly-trained specialists on the job to help prevent and respond to confirmed exposure situations. Every manager is required to complete training specific to virus prevention and response. We spend the time to gather the necessary information, assess the circumstances and create a response that is comprehensive and specific to that customer’s unique situation. As first responders we must be prepared for all situations.
Among the customers that hired us during the continuing COVID outbreak for disinfecting services are schools, airports, businesses and government facilities. Over the years, we also have assisted customers with other viruses, including H1N1, SARS, and others.
Continuity of Services and Recovery
The proven and proprietary Sunshine Continuity Operations Plan incorporates procedures, resources for our team, and processes to effectively work through threats, such as these:
- Accidents
- Power failures
- Terrorist activities
- Workplace violence
- Vandalism
- Infrastructure incidents
- Chemical spills
- Pandemics
- Earthquakes
- Tornadoes
- Hurricanes
- Floods
- Fires
Examples of Sunshine resources in place to handle emergencies:
- Satellite phones
- Satellite radios
- Fans and carpet dryers
- Truck mounted extraction units
- Floor squeegees
- Buckets and mops
- Response vehicles
- Water and food supplies
- Generators
- Water pumps
- Fuel reserves
- Shutter boards
- PPE
- Foul weather gear
- Additional uniforms
- Flash/flood lights
- Air compressors
- Batteries
- Chainsaws
We work year round to ensure all of our equipment remains in working order and that all supplies are stocked. We even issue debit cards to managers for emergency supplies and conduct refresher training courses.
Communication is at the core of our disaster preparations. We are diligent about remaining in close contact with customers during emergency events by communicating our approach with as much forewarning as possible. Our plans cover the entire continuium, from who, what and where to when and how. We institute a calling tree and contingency plans in case of an interruption in communications and have satellite phone on hand just in case.
Safeguard Sunshine Team Members
One of the most important aspects of our continuity plan is to first make sure our staff members have their own family and property safe and secured. In the case of a predicted storm, for example, we allow managers on the emergency team enough time off to secure their homes and prepare for their family’s wellbeing. We also provision food, water, and fuel at our branch offices for use by our team. For our customers to have our full attention during an emergency our team must have the peace of mind that everyone at home is safe. It is not uncommon for us to have emergency assignments at customer facilities that require our assistance for 24 hours and longer.
For information on how we can help you better prepare for and handle unfortunate emergencies, visit our website or call us at (800) 624-5515.
