WILLIAM CAREY UNIVERSITY
Location: Hattiesburg, MS
Date: Jan., 21, 2017
Facility Size: 20+ Campus Buildings
Loss Type: Tornado
On Saturday, January 21st, an EF-3 tornado hit Hattiesburg, MS causing extensive damage to William Carey University (WCU), a private liberal arts college, and many other properties in town. After the college was hit, SRM was notified of the loss and a Project Manager was on-site the same day to begin assessing the damage, while crews mobilized.
SRM was tasked to assist the University’s construction vendors in the recovery of 25 buildings (which consisted of offices, theaters, and seven dormitories) and the campus grounds (three soccer fields and a baseball and softball complex). WCU’s goal was for all of this to be completed by the start of the new semester on February 20th, which was just under a month away. This included water mitigation, complete content removal of all 25 buildings to an off-site location to be cleaned and stored, removal of all damaged building products including drywall, ceiling tile, damaged content, and flooring components. SRM was also tasked for special assignments like disassembling the library book collection and shelving then relocating it to the off-site storage.
Another special task SRM worked on was the removal of over 6000 electronics including permanent teaching aides all the way down to microwaves. SRM assisted the WCU housing department in collecting, packing up and delivering an estimated 3000 students’ contents. The team accomplished the goal of completing all 25 buildings along with performing additional tasks in 5 buildings within the short-allotted schedule by working around the clock 24/7 and managing up to 400 people per day.
SRM then assisted in recovering the remaining 15 buildings including post construction clean up, final cleaning, floor stripping, and waxing and content replacement. SRM is working with WCU to set up temporary classrooms and offices by pulling and delivering furniture and contents to temporary locations based on the immediate needs of the University.
SRM is working over the summer break with WCU Housing and vendors on an expressed schedule to complete all final repairs in all seven dormitories. This will include packing and relocating all summer school students an estimated three times, manipulating all furniture for the removal of all temporary flooring and the installation of all permanent flooring, also the containment, cover, and protection for the removal of all windows.