It’s a rare occasion when J.A. LaRocco Enterprise Inc. shuts its doors for a few days.
But with Hurricane Irma brewing to hit South Florida, the excavating contractor based in Key Largo knew to keep its operation and employees safe, shutting down was the best option. From Thursday, Sept. 7, to Sunday, Sept. 10, LaRocco was closed.
Some of the roughly 45 employees evacuated the Keys. Others stayed in the area at their homes or hotels and rode out the storm. On Monday morning, Brian Conover, a part owner for LaRocco, was cleaning up the mess left by the hurricane.
“There were five of us who stayed in town and didn’t leave,” Conover says. “We got right back to it trying to open up our own roads to try and make sure we’re secure and just got started cleaning up. All of our vehicles are a mess, I can tell you that.”
LaRocco was prepared for the hurricane to hit. The office and property came out of the storm without major damage. There were a large number of trees knocked down that needed to be removed.
“We bring all of our equipment from any job site and bring it all to our yard here in Key Largo and we’ve got a big building we try to park everything in,” Conover says. “Then really we just hope for the best after that.”
By midweek, Conover had talked to the majority of his employees who got through the disaster unharmed. The workers knew after the storm passed, it was all hands on deck.
“We tell the most essential people who work for us, our operators and stuff, just keep checking in with us,” Conover says. “As soon as we can get back to work, we get back to work and start cleaning up.”
Conover says Key Largo didn’t receive the brunt of the storm in the Keys. Farther south down to Key West was hit harder. LaRocco owns a yard in Marathon — which is about halfway between Key Largo and Key West — but as of Wednesday, Conover hadn’t tried to venture down to check out the extent of the possible damage.
Conover anticipates everything south down U.S. Highway 1 is going to be in rough shape. Even in Key Largo, it was quite a debris-filled scene just three days after Irma struck.
“Basically, lots of trees down by the highway,” Conover says. “You can see where the tide came up and crossed U.S. 1. There is lots of debris and seaweed on the road. A lot of neighborhoods are still without power. It could have been a lot worse for everybody involved. We’re very fortunate.”
The Keys are in disaster relief mode right now and cleanup in the area hasn’t gotten underway. There haven’t been any municipalities that have contacted LaRocco as of yet to help with cleanup.
“But it’s pretty early in the game,” Conover says.
However, Conover received a call on Monday, the day following the hurricane, from the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority (FKAA), the company that supplies water and maintains pipelines for the entire 120-mile stretch of the Florida Keys.
“We’re working with the Aqueduct Authority with the waterlines and stuff right now,” Conover says. “We’re trying to find the leaks and isolate them, so that we can keep water going to everybody.”
Conover believes Key Largo is looking at two to three months of cleanup work. LaRocco is ready to jump in as quickly as possible.
“Beginning of next week there’s going to be a whole lot of calls coming in probably to clean up,” Conover says. “At the same time, we still have our other projects that are going to have to keep moving. I don’t see us having much shortage of work in the near future.”
Continue reading for free
