HURRICANE MARIA

Hurricane Maria was a deadly Category 5 hurricane that devastated the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly Dominica, Saint Croix, and Puerto Rico. It is regarded as the worst natural disaster in recorded history to affect those islands. When Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, DRC was already fully engaged in 43 debris management contracts in Texas, Florida, and Georgia. DRC’s management team was on the ground in Puerto Rico within 24 hours assessing the damage.

DRC initially activated four DMS sites, mobilized 150 local load and haul crews and leaner and hanger crews, and approximately 300 load and haul crews and tree crews from our sub-contractor base in the U.S. DRC opened nine DMS locations and established collection zones to account for the volume, terrain, and location of the DMS sites. At peak, we had 340 load and haul crews operating, 200 of which were local Puerto Rico crews. The local crews operated smaller capacity trucks with front-end loaders or skid steers.