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BR company supporting emergency workers in Florida with free mobile housing during storm clean-up

3 years 6 months 4 weeks ago Thursday, September 17 2020 Sep 17, 2020 September 17, 2020 6:39 PM September 17, 2020 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - It's been a non-stop three weeks for the Disaster Response Group.

"We are extremely busy. This is really a record-setting year, " said Rod Alsop, logistics director for Disaster Response.

The company provides temporary living and dining facilities or base camps for power company workers sent to restore electricity in communities hit by natural disasters.

"We provide all the catering, all the restrooms, all the showers and laundry for those crews," Alsop said.

More than 90 sleeper trailers that just left areas affected by Hurricane Laura were turned around at the storage facilities on Airport Drive near the Cortana Mall. They're now in the Pensacola, Florida area to house utility workers repairing damage from Hurricane Sally.

It was the first time the company's had to respond to back-to-back emergencies in its eight-year history.

"It kinda reminds me of 2005, the year with the most number of hurricanes reported. And we're on pace to break that record", Alsop said.

The company is based in Baton Rouge but has two other locations. One in Georgia and another in North Carolina.

The sleeper trailers stored in Baton Rouge each have 16 beds and HEPA air filters which help filter out airborne bacteria and viruses.

"The social distancing is not as strong in a trailer as it is outdoors. So with the UV light and the HEPA filter, at least we got the best air you can possibly have," Alsop said.

The sleeper trailers began rolling out for Florida Wednesday morning, and the base camp at the Pensacola Fairgrounds is already up and ready to house 1,000 utility workers as of Thursday afternoon.

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