Miner Crews Help Secure Businesses In Wake Of Hurricane Ike

Emergency teams from the Houston, Dallas and San Antonio subsidiaries of Miner Holding Company continue to work in the hurricane-battered Houston area to help businesses – including critical food suppliers such as H-E-B and Grocers Supply Co. – to get back on their feet.

Crews from Miner Houston, Miner Fleet Management Group in San Antonio and Miner North Texas in Dallas have been working throughout Houston since before Hurricane Ike struck the Gulf Coast in the early morning hours of Sept. 12, helping retailers to board up and secure shops such as Toys R’ Us, Office Depot and Office Max. Immediately after the storm passed, they were back at work, responding to six times the number of service requests as normal.

“We actually passed the National Guard driving on the way in from San Antonio on Saturday (Sept. 13),” said Chris Galvan, Director of Distributorship Service Operations for The Miner Corporation. “I told the guys that if we’re beating FEMA and the National Guard into Houston, we’re doing pretty well.”

Miner services facilities maintenance equipment of major retailers in the United States and abroad. In the Houston area, the fast-growing private company serves 260 retail stores and more than 1,800 commercial businesses.

Emergency crews spent recent days securing buildings where giant warehouse doors – up to 20-26 feet wide and some 10-15 feet high – had been blown out by hurricane force winds. Miner specialists took particular pride in serving major grocery chain distribution sites for Grocers Supply and HEB, since those operations are critical to relief efforts in the region.

Miner crews are averaging more than 30 jobs a day. With electrical power down throughout most of the Houston area last week, workers came prepared to rough it. Miner rented seven generators and crews brought hundreds of sheets of plywood, fuel, satellite phones, food, water, gas grills and battery-powered fans. A mobile command center was set up in an RV on the Northwest Side of town to coordinate efforts. Miner also hired a tree-trimming service to go to the homes of Miner Houston employees and move fallen tree limbs and tree trunks off homes, garages, cars and lawns.

The company expects to be busy with recovery efforts for at least a month in the region, and will be pulling resources from its San Antonio and Dallas offices to assist in the efforts.