By ERIC HEISLER Post-Dispatch
updated: 07/10/2003 02:23 PM
Copyright 2003 St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Reprinted with permission

The problem: the schools were flooded with water and the roofs blown off by a storm that some classified as a tornado. Summer school and graduation were fast approaching.

The next day, Owens, a project manager with Woodard Cleaning and Restoration Services, was there crafting a plan to help.

Within days, the Rock Hill-based company was removing water and drying the school. Upon Owens' suggestion, school officials had furniture moved from Vineland Elementary to the De Soto Senior and Junior high schools and held summer school there.

That's all in a week's work for Owens, whose job is to help clients recover from a flood. As a project manager for Woodard, Owens, 33, arrives just after a building has been flooded by rain or storms.

He assesses the damage and determines what can be salvaged. Then he dispatches a team of Woodard employees to go about saving it.

"My job is to minimize damage," Owens said. "We're in the business of salvaging things. We're not in the business of replacing things."

Sometimes that means sucking the moisture out of a wall or ceiling. Other times it means hauling computers and other valuables to Woodard Cleaning and Restoration Services' headquarters in Rock Hill to save them from water damage.

Often it means dealing with emotional clients, Owens said.

"You can't show any emotion" on the job, he said. "We have customers that stand there and cry. It's hard not to show emotion - especially when I'm the first one to show up and I'm the one they're blaming."

The job requires Owens to make difficult judgment calls on which property can be salvaged and which should be replaced at the expense of an insurance company. Owens said he often walks a tightrope between client and insurer.

"It's hard to keep the customer happy and the insurance company happy," he said.

Woodard Cleaning and Restoration Services, a family-owned company, was founded in 1946 as a carpet cleaning business.

In the 1980s, the company saw a link between cleaning carpets and restoring property after flood damage and entered the restoration industry. Today, the company still cleans commercial and residential carpets, but also restores properties after fires, storms and other disasters.

Owens started with Woodard at the age of 22 as a carpet cleaner and was soon promoted to lead one of the company's cleaning crews.

"I enjoyed doing it because every day is different ... and it was good pay," Owens said. A crew chief can earn between $50,000 and $60,000 a year, Owens said.

Owens left Woodard for a brief time to sell chemicals and other materials, but was lured back three years ago to work as a manager in the restoration unit.

For the job at the De Soto schools, Owens was on the scene the day after the storm, pulling various pieces of testing equipment out of his van. Using the tools, Owens determined the amount of moisture in the walls, floors and other parts of the building.

He dispatched a crew almost immediately to get rid of the water. After deciding what parts of the school could be saved, the next task was to design a system to dry the wet school to prevent mold. "A lot of what we do is to keep out mold," he said.

Uniforms worn by the schools' athletic teams were moved to Woodard's headquarters where they were dried to prevent permanent damage.

Simultaneously, a construction company - hired separately - began work on rebuilding parts of the schools that were destroyed, including some of the roofs.

Owens said the De Soto job is the largest he's encountered as a project manager.

Reporter Eric Heisler • E-mail: eheisler@post-dispatch.com • Phone: 314.340.8183

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