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Florida Hurricanes of 2004

Everyone remembers 2004 as the Year of the Hurricane in Florida. Four major storms, all Category Two or worse, pounded the peninsula leaving billions of dollars in damages and hundreds of thousands of lives disrupted.

Florida’s public utilities suffered as electrical power was knocked out and, subsequently, sewer services were lost. But not in the Florida communities that have AIRVAC vacuum sewers. In every case the systems stayed on line and service was uninterrupted.

“We had all kinds of problems with our gravity sewers, but our vacuum sewers never missed a beat,” said Mike Ray, of the Englewood Water District in Englewood, Florida. His city was hammered by Hurricane Charley in August of ’04.

The same was true in Palm Springs, Florida, just south of Palm Beach. More than 40 gravity sewer lift stations shut down when power was lost in the aftermath of Hurricane Frances. The city’s vacuum stations were equipped with backup power and continued to function normally.

Hurricane Ivan, a powerful Category Three storm, hit Florida in September, only a few weeks after Frances. This storm slammed into the Florida Panhandle, knocking out city services in several towns.

“Cedar Groves’ vacuum sewers required zero preparation before the storm hit and Cedar Groves was the only town in Bay County that didn’t experience any sewer problems afterward,” noted Thomas Voght, the Public Works Director for Cedar Groves.

While Floridians were still cleaning up from the previous three storms, Hurricane Jeanne rolled in to deal the state another terrific blow. Again the target was the beleaguered Panhandle.

“Other than checking the oil in the backup power units, the vacuum sewers required none of our time during or after the storms,” said James Moore of Carrabelle. “The system had no downtime and continued to service our customers.”

In every case, gravity sewers suffered from loss of power, stormwater infiltration and significant disruptions. The AIRVAC sewers weathered the storms beautifully and continued to serve their communities when other systems failed.

This article appeared in the April, 2005 issue of CE News. If you would like to read the entire story as it appeared in the magazine, you can download a pdf, or you may request hard copies.

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