Eye on Hurricanes
Restoration Pros Share Stories
Of What Happens After Disasters
Photos & Thermal
Mapping By
Travis West
By Susan Valenti Corliss
N
ational media coverage on hurricanes,
on average, lasts about a week. Al-
ways lots of people getting rescued,
always lots of water, always a lot of
damaged homes and buildings. Some-
times the media comes back a month
or two later to get a sense of the clean-
up work, but not very often. In our line of work, the In-
door Air Quality Association (IAQA) offered an amazing
real-world view of the work that goes on after the tele-
vision cameras leave town. At their annual meeting last
month in Chicago, four of the group's members shared
the stage about their work and personal experiences
after the most recent round of hurricanes in the U.S.
John Lapotaire of IAQ Solutions Inc. in Winter
Springs, Florida, shares his perspective of Hurricanes
Matthew and Irma:
There have been a lot of hurricanes recently, and
it's not that unheard of to get hit by several hurricanes
back to back. In Florida, we were hit first by Hurricane
Matthew. We were extremely fortunate with Matthew
that it skirted the east coast of Florida. We were hit by
a tidal surge and a lot of wind and what doesn't get a
lot of glory are the unfortunate tornadoes that follow
hurricanes. We ended up with a lot of localized damage
from the tornadoes. The big thing that I want to men-
tion is the time to restore from Hurricane Matthew and
the time to restore from Hurricane Irma and the drastic
difference between buildings that could be side by side
with similar damage.
8 | COVER STORY— February/March 2018
