Hurricane season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30 and can produce many destructive hazards, such as heavy rains, storm surge, destructive winds, and tornadoes. Although hurricanes can be dangerous, planning ahead and being prepared can reduce the chances of injury and major property damage.

Be prepared for this upcoming hurricane season with our handy preparedness checklist. The above guide has you covered for before, during, and after a storm.

It was a sight that made Gulf Coast residents shudder. Two storms were taking aim at the Gulf Coast and they were anticipated to overlap in Louisiana – at the same time.

The Weather Channel characterized it as, “some kind of cosmic joke of a Venn diagram” that showed Tropical Storm Laura and Tropical Storm Marco overlapping over Chauvin, La., as hurricanes. Due to the unpredictability of the storms, all of the Gulf Coast was on alert, including BrightView’s Houston branch.

“A week before landfall, we began monitoring the approach of both Tropical Storms Marco and Laura and we conducted a series of preparation calls and began to notify out clients for debris clean-up preapproval,” said Jamey Goss, Houston Branch Manager. “We worked closely with our Shane Rasco, Regional Account Manager for H-E-B, Bryan Farris, Regional EHS Manager, and Chris Miska, Vice President/General Manager, to stage emergency response teams in the event that Laura impacted our clients located in the eastern and southern parts of Texas.”

Luckily, Marco never amounted to more than a tropical storm and made landfall near the mouth of the Mississippi River Aug. 24 and brought sustained winds of just 40 mph and heavy rainfall. Laura, however, took an opposite direction.

More than 750,000 residents in Texas and in Louisiana were ordered to evacuate ahead of the storm, which had strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane before it made landfall at Cameron, La., on Aug. 27 with 150 mph winds and more than 9 feet of storm surge. Though it moved through quickly, it still left a wide swath of destruction.

“In the early morning hours of Aug. 27, we went out to review our clients to the east and south,” Goss said. “In the first few hours, we discovered several H-E-B sites we service in Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange were hit very hard by the high winds.”

The Houston branch dispatch four teams of two with trucks, trailers, chainsaws, chippers, bottled water, and nonperishable food items to help assist with the clean-up efforts.

Under the direction of H-E-B’s Emergency Operating Center, BrightView assisted in cleaning up eight of their grocery stores.

“The efforts by all of our on-the-ground field personnel and scouts were extremely successful and we were able to cleanup all of the affected stores with no safety issues,” Goss said. “All of our team members returned home safely and we were able to showcase our ability to be a valued partner with H-E-B, our largest customer in the state of Texas.”

Hurricane season is here. We’re launching a 3-part series with all the tips you need to stay safe before, during, and after the storm. In this first installment, we tackle what you need to do to prepare the landscape of your commercial property or residential community.

Just as we’re all ready to head off onto our summer vacations, hurricane season is ready to head into the southeast and Gulf. Luckily you don’t have to let it rain on your parade. With a little preparation, you can have peace of mind your landscape and the exterior of your property is in the best shape possible to withstand the storm.

Mark Your Calendar

June 1 through November 30 is officially hurricane season in the United States. While it is true coastal areas are most vulnerable to destruction, all states in the southeast and along the Gulf of Mexico are at risk, including the inland areas. States along the Mid-Atlantic, and cities situated on the coast in the Northeast aren’t immune to dangerous winds and flooding either. The bottom line: for a good swath of America, it’s wise to prepare. Here’s what to do.

Prune Your Trees

Before a storm is forecasted, consult a certified arborist to ensure your trees are fit to weather a storm. Dead, diseased, or damaged limbs can quickly become airborne, creating a serious threat to both people and property. Larger trees pose an especially dangerous risk, and due to their height, require an experienced tree crew for pruning. A certified arborist and their team can proactively prune your tree to remove the risk and ensure good canopy structure that can withstand high winds.

Secure Items That Could Become Projectiles

That patio furniture, signage, planters and other outdoor décor all seem inviting now; but during a storm they can become dangerous projectiles due to the strong uplift pressures of hurricane force winds. Identify the number of items that need to be secured and how you will secure them, so it can be part of your hurricane preparation plan.

Review Evacuation & Access Routes

If you have a larger property, you may have multiple points of entry and exit for vehicle and pedestrian traffic. In the event of a named storm, determine and communicate how you’ll safely evacuate people from the property to ensure the utmost efficiency and reduce panic. You’ll also want to work with your landscape partner to identify and prioritize critical entry points for emergency services that ought to be cleared first in the event of downed trees or other debris.

Check Your Insurance

Now is also a good time to review your insurance’s process for making a storm damage claim and share this information with your landscape partner. That way, they can assist with any documentation needed along the way-- like details on the clean-up effort, pictures, and more-- to help you expedite your claim.

Authorize a Clean-Up Plan Now

In the event of the worst, storm clean-up services will be in high demand. When you’re anxious to get back to business, every minute counts. By pre-authorizing storm clean-up with your landscape partner, they’ll already know your plan and top priorities, and can automatically dispatch a team to get you back on track sooner.

Not Sure If You’re Prepared?

Take the guess work (and stress) out of hurricane season by scheduling a free preparedness check with one of our experts. Not only will we be there to help keep you safe before the storm, but you can also count on us to be there after. With our national resources, we’re able to mobilize additional teams from across the country to assist in clean-up efforts, so you can achieve “business as usual” as soon as possible.

Want more hurricane preparedness tips? Check out the second article in our series: “How to Stay Safe During a Hurricane”.

In mid-September, warnings for Hurricane Florence were issued in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. As a Category 4 storm, record rainfalls and a massive storm surge were anticipated as Florence headed for coastal towns and beaches. Due to the severity of the storm, state officials issued evacuation protocols, causing more than 1 million people to flee their homes for safety. When our models predicted that Hurricane Florence would likely have an impact, Branch Managers began their preparations in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, which included enacting BrightView’s Preliminary Response Plan:

• Communication with all customers in the anticipated affected areas. Branches offer up manpower, heavy equipment, and chainsaws immediately to clients and properties in need.


• Service all equipment in preparation for travel.


• Preemptively work with rental companies to retain extra heavy equipment in times of distress.


• Managers resourced emergency response teams who committed to open-ended stays in areas where Hurricane Florence was anticipated.


• Five days before the storm was projected to hit the tree crews, chip and grapple trucks were serviced and lined up to respond, if directed.


• BrightView provides daily updates to those who pre-approved a storm response to communicate the state of their property and work we complete on site.

When Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico last September, sports was the last thing on anybody’s mind, even the island’s beloved pastime, baseball.

The hurricane caused widespread devastation and is considered the worst natural disaster in recorded Puerto Rican history. The storm shut down ports, destroyed crops, and knocked out power throughout the U.S. territory.

Even seven months after Maria hit, Puerto Rico is still working to recover.

“There are still street lights out and light towers blown down that haven’t been picked up yet,” said Murray Cook, President of BrightView Sports Turf. “There is still visible debris and damage in San Juan alone. By far, the island is still in recovery mode.”

The devastation rocked the island’s baseball stadiums, including San Juan’s Hiram Bithorn Stadium, which is to play host to two Major League Baseball games April 17 and 18. Since two of the stadiums were completely demolished, the Puerto Rican Winter League shortened its season to just 18 games and all four teams have to play out of just two ballparks.

Many of the games had to be scheduled for the afternoon to reduce the need for lights since so many people are still without power, including BrightView team members who worked to clear Hiram Bithorn Stadium’s field.

“There are 560 light fixtures around the synthetic turf field at the ballpark,” Cook said. “Probably 85 percent of them broke and shattered, sending shards of glass all over the field. We had to bring in equipment to remove the debris – rubber, screws, glass, and just all kinds of stuff. The contractor hired our local Puerto Rico branch to help on the field.”

Despite the enormous task of restoring the stadium, it wasn’t going to stop the return of baseball with the Winter League and the MLB two-game series between the Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins.

Once the debris was cleared, BrightView Sports Turf helped to resurface the field and home plate and rebuild the pitching mound, along with the normal task of managing the grounds crew and staff with maintenance work and training the tarp crew.

“We’re working side-by-side with a lot of people in the San Juan municipality,” Cook said. “Everybody has a story from the hurricane and they’re all very open talking about what they each went through, and some are still going through.”

For the two big-league games, the first regular-season action on the island since 2010, the MLB is shining some light on the struggles Puerto Rico continues to face. Players from the Twins visited a children’s hospital in San Juan hours after landing, and the Indians are donating their playoff shares from last season to Puerto Rico relief efforts.

“When you talk to everyone here, they all say, ‘We really need this game,’” Cook said. “They’re looking at this as though they are declaring that the hurricane hasn’t beat them – that they are OK.”

Relief and recovery efforts is ongoing in Puerto Rico. In addition to donations from Major League Baseball, its clubs, and players totaling $12 million, it is also raising money from fans through MLB Charities, with a goal of $100,000. To donate, click here.

Industry roundup: BrightView helps restore baseball stadium in Puerto Rico, Total Landscape Care

The damage caused by Hurricane Harvey, estimated at more than $125 billion, is the most costly natural disaster in U.S. history. The storm brought with it record flooding, devastating Hilliard Elementary School in East Houston.

The floodwater pooled in hallways and classrooms, ruining furniture and supplies, leaving the district no choice but a major overhaul of the building. All 600 students were transferred to a nearby school.

Recently, an event, sponsored by Recovery Houston, BrightView, OJB Landscape Architecture, and Numotion, brought 640 volunteers from across the country together to restore the campus grounds of Hilliard Elementary.

Scott Blons, Technical Director at OJB, and his team assisted with plant selections and BrightView Landscape Development’s Dallas and Houston teams donated 3,000 shrubs, 300 trees, mulch and gravel to the project. The BrightView teams also coached 30 volunteer teams to install the new landscape which includes an outdoor classroom, community garden, picnic area, and a play space.

“The grounds were dated and needed upgrades even before the hurricane,” said Garrett Brock, Project Manager with BrightView Landscape Development. “The new landscape provides a warm welcome to students and visitors and will help kids get involved in outdoor activities.”

Staff at Hilliard Elementary said they are delighted with their beautiful new campus and it has served as an inspiration for the community. The school’s interior was also renovated and the refurbished campus will be ready for students to return for the 2018-19 school year.

“We were thankful for the opportunity to assist with the supplies and materials, and help beautify the campus, but the real hero is Recovery Houston for managing hundreds of volunteers, most whom were non-Houstonians,” Brock said. “They are doing amazing work to rebuild this community and it was special to be a part of it.”

This project is the latest effort in BrightView’s response to the three major Atlantic hurricanes. Immediately following Harvey, one of BrightView’s Houston teams found their office flooded and worked out of their trucks to clean-up debris and respond to client sites. Other team members left their homes and conducted a rescue mission in flooded neighborhoods. The company’s Florida teams were out assessing the damage while Hurricane Irma was still active in the state. BrightView also matched employee donations from across the country to the American Red Cross for hurricane relief in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico.

Industry roundup: New campus plans created for CHOA, Total Landscape Care

With floodwaters rising throughout Houston from Hurricane Harvey, BrightView’s John Shollar and Juan Garcia took it upon themselves to help their community anyway they could.

Donning their BrightView safety vests, the two – joined by a few friends – went out into the flooded streets with a large, inflatable raft to help any person they came across who was trapped by the water.

“My family brought me up to help everyone,” Shollar said. “Juan is one of my crew leads and he told me he wanted to go out and volunteer the next day, so I told him I would go with him.”

Where Shollar lives had only a couple of inches of rain on the ground, so he and Garcia met at a location closer to the BrightView Katy branch, where the two work.

As the small group ventured through the neighborhoods, the water continued to rise on them. At one point, it had reached a depth to where Garcia, who nearly six feet tall, could no longer walk.

Once that happened, they two decided it was time to head back to higher ground.

It felt good to go out there. People needed help – they lost their homes, their clothes. I wasn’t affected by it like that. Every little bit helps for those in need.
- John Shollar, BrightView Production Manager

“While we were out there, we did worry about getting a cut while wading through the water because there was sewage flowing in it,” Shollar said. “When we finished, we all washed off extremely well and made sure we didn’t have any scrapes.”

All-in-all, the Shollar and Garcia rescued a family of four, a couple, and a woman with her two cats and brought them safely to dry land.

“It felt good to go out there,” Shollar said. “People needed help – they lost their homes, their clothes. I wasn’t affected by it like that. Every little bit helps for those in need.”

No one could have anticipated what Hurricane Harvey delivered to southeast Texas over the last week of August.

“What a lot of people don’t understand is that a majority of what we had was a rain event,” said Sam Evans, BrightView Branch Manager in Katy, Texas. “We had five days of torrential rain. Our situation wasn’t so much high winds as it was historic flooding.”

In anticipation of the storm, Evans had his team prepare by loading up a covered trailer with a golf cart and everything they thought they would need for clean-up operations following the storm, including edgers, blowers, and generators.

The branch office is located in a floodplain, so they staged the trailer at an offsite location on high ground as a precaution in case no one would be able to reach the branch once Harvey hit.

Evans never would have thought his team would be unable to access the branch until Sept. 11.

“Our branch was flooded out,” he said. “There was no water in the building, but we were basically landlocked away from the branch. Since Harvey, we have been working remotely out of our pickup trucks and from other BrightView locations.”

Not a single team member was able to get within two miles of the branch office.

Planning ahead is what kept the Katy team active and able to get to work by Aug. 30.

“We had a Plan ‘A,’ ‘B,’ and ‘C’ and after activating Plan A, met at an I-Hop that first day,” Evans said. “We were able to get crews together with trucks we staged offsite. We pulled all our resources together and were able to initiate limited clean-up operations based on the personnel and equipment we had. We could get out and blow, pick-up debris, cut-up branches and trees, and do some things to help with clearance issues.”

For those 12 days, the Katy team received help from other BrightView teams and continued to clean-up client sites from the their pickup trucks.

As BrightView teams in Dallas, roughly 250 miles away, geared up to send additional equipment to Katy, a team member was able to use a lifted four-wheel drive truck to get into the branch’s yard and retrieve tractors on Sept. 7.

“We are grateful to the Dallas branches that were making concessions with their own crews so they could supply us with the equipment needed to service our clients,” Evans said. “This is a testament to the leadership in this region and the company.”

Four days later, the water dropped enough that team members can now safely drive on the road and access the branch.

Our branch was flooded out. We were basically landlocked away from the branch. Since Harvey, we have been working remotely out of our pickup trucks and from other BrightView locations.
- Sam Evans, BrightView Branch Manager

In the 166 years records have been kept, never before has the U.S. been hit by two Atlantic Category 4 hurricanes in the same season…until Hurricanes Harvey and Irma made landfall just two weeks apart.

Before affected regions could recover, a third and fourth hurricane – Jose and Maria – threatened areas still reeling and still rebuilding. All four of these storms have reached a Category 3 or higher – classifying them as major hurricanes on the Saffir-Simpson scale – and all arrived in the span of just 26 days, starting with Harvey’s landfall in Texas and ending with Maria’s strike on Puerto Rico.

“This season has been an overachiever by almost every index,” Weather Underground Meteorologist Bob Henson told the New York Times. “We’ve had more than a year’s worth of named storms when you look at the long-term average, and [we’re] just past the midpoint of the season.”

Catastrophic flooding

Harvey struck the Gulf Coast of Texas, making landfall as a Category 4 hurricane near Rockport late on the evening of Aug. 25, the first major hurricane to hit the state in nearly 12 years. But instead of striking the coast and moving on, the storm stalled and slowly worked its way back out to the Gulf of Mexico before turning north and making landfall a second time near Cameron, La. Over several days, the storm dropped as much as 52 inches of rain on southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana, breaking the all-time continental U.S. tropical cyclone rain records and triggering flash flooding in numerous states.

When BrightView’s Houston crew members were able to leave their homes, they didn’t find the normal downed trees and debris associated with a hurricane, but instead were met with floodwater reminiscent of a Hollywood disaster movie.

“When you think about a hurricane hitting, like back when Hurricane Ike hit, there were trees down everywhere, blown debris, and things like that and we really just didn’t have that this time,” said Chris Mink, BrightView Assistant Branch Manager in Houston. “There was just water everywhere. Some of the rivers and creeks rose 10 to 15 feet over their banks and turned streets into rivers.”

While the roads were unnavigable or closed, some BrightView team members from the Katy branch took it upon themselves to go out and pitch in anyway they could.

“Some of my crew members left their homes to conduct their own rescue mission,” said Sam Evans, Branch Manager at Katy. “They took out a blow-up, rubber raft and to help people in their community.”

Before the floodwaters had even receded, BrightView teams began visitng every client they could reach assess the damage and begin forming a game plan for clean-up.

“We had some trees uprooted on some sites, but that was mainly from ground saturation and them just being old with heavy canopies,” Mink said. “Anything that the water picks up as it runs down the turf areas and landscapes, we go in and clean-up for about two or three days.”

Crews from both the Katy and Houston branches spent time at some of the larger cemeteries in the area that experienced significant flooding.

“There is a creek that runs through the middle of one of Service Corporation International’s cemeteries and floodwaters from that creek affected 75 percent of the cemetery,” Evans said. “They had a dozen roughly 80-year-old trees that were down. Crews came in from our Austin and San Antonio branches to help us out, which was extremely helpful since many of our team members were personally affected by the storm.”

Once the water began to recede in the cemeteries, BrightView crews went to work cleaning high water marks off headstones and clearing debris piled up on the graves.

Unfortunately, the kind of catastrophic flooding experienced with Harvey doesn’t just dump water and spread debris, but has a heavy impact on the plants and turf.

As the water sits on the landscapes, it not only saturates the ground, but kills the turf and plants it’s sitting on top of.

“We had one site that had 10 feet of water standing on it for almost two weeks,” Mink said. “The water has just receded there, giving us the ability to assess the damage. When you have water just standing for that long, it will kill the turf and most of the plant material by eliminating the plant’s ability to obtain oxygen and sunlight. Additionally, these waters carry silt that can be contaminated, which will also negatively affect all plant material it comes in contact with.”

A corporate campus in the Houston area also felt the effects of Harvey’s flooding.

Ryan Powalisz, BrightView Senior Account Manager, arrived on the afternoon of Aug. 29 to find half of the roads on the campus underwater and debris littered throughout.

“We had about 20 feet of water that just rose the day before,” he said. “Storm riders on campus reported that water came within 15 feet of one of the buildings. On the east side, the water was so high that you couldn’t even see the perimeter fence.”

Joined by his Safety Manager, Powalisz spent the afternoon assessing the damage, finding debris like rocks and logs all over the roads, temporary irrigation lines both on the road and 10 feet up in trees, clogged drains, and dirt and debris covering the walkways. They also learned the client planned to have the campus reopened in two days for essential personnel.

Out of his 15-person crew, only four team members were able to make it out the next day and began the clean-up process. Five more joined in Thursday.

Over those two days, the BrightView team cleaned the drains, scraped and power washed walkways, and cleared gates and roadways that weren’t flooded to give employees the ability to safely come to work and walk to the buildings.

By Friday, Powalisz had most of his team and worked into the weekend to have the final clean-up completed for the campus to reopen to all employees on Sept. 5.

Harvey caused many shipping channels and ports in eastern Texas to close and with residents flocking to stock up on gasoline before the hurricane hit, shortages were reported throughout southeast Texas.

With the shortage threat looming, BrightView’s Texas Central Vice President/General Manager Greg Jacquin made sure to have a plan in place for the teams.

“Our Equipment Manager set up a program with our fuel suppliers to have the ability to fuel up our vehicles should there be a gas shortage,” Evans said. “Fortunately for us, we haven’t had to utilize that program because we have been able to fuel up at the stations, but it is a hit or miss situation. Having a plan in place and vendors that step up and commit to supply us if needed was huge. It’s the relationships our company has with our vendors and our own teams that really helped us get through this.”

While the roadways and landscapes have dried out for the most part, it’s still going to be an extensive clean-up process. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a statement immediately following the storm that repairs to Houston will take years and cost billions of dollars.

According to the Harris County Flood Control District, roughly 1 trillion gallons of water were dumped on the county over four days and about 70 percent of the county was flooded by at least 1 ½ feet of water. As a result, an estimated 136,000 structures were flooded.

“I can tell you that once a year, someone in the Houston area experiences some sort of flooding, but nowhere near this magnitude and how widespread this is,” Mink said. “Just from speaking with a lot of people and friends I know who had their homes flooded from this storm, most of them aren’t even in a 500-year floodplain, so they weren’t even thinking of the possibility of flooding. For homes and business, they are a long way away from being done with clean-up and repairs.”

“Monster” Hurricane

Hurricane Irma, extending 600 miles across, barreled through the Caribbean as a Category 5 storm, leaving behind unprecedented destruction, damaging 95 percent of the buildings on Barbuda and leaving the island “barely inhabitable,” according to Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua.

The hurricane sustained winds of 180 mph for longer than any other storm on record in the Atlantic basin and also made it the strongest storm to ever hit the Leeward Islands.

The outer bands of the massive storm struck Puerto Rico Sept. 6, where the island’s power company warned that some areas could be without electricity for an extended amount of time.

By early afternoon on Sept. 7, almost 300,000 people had already lost power, according to the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.

“We were lucky that nobody on the team had significant damage to their homes, other than some minor flooding,” said Antonio Torres, BrightView Branch Manager in Puerto Rico. “However, 70 percent of this entire area was without power.”

The day after Irma, the Puerto Rico team was operating at full capacity and reported directly to client sites to begin the clean-up process.

“Our hospitality clients have been extremely grateful and have been giving our team members food and water throughout the day,” Torres said. “The effort by our team was incredible and they take pride in the fact that we had the Amgen Pharmaceuticals campus back up and running within 48 hours of the storm.”

After striking Cuba, Irma swung to the north to engulf Florida and made landfall twice – once the morning of Sept. 10 in Cudjoe Key as a Category 4 and again that afternoon in Marco Island as a Category 3.

“The further south you go, the more the damage becomes worse and worse,” said Charles Gonzalez, BrightView Vice President/General Manager of the south Florida market. “Our teams are working extremely hard and many of them still don’t have power in their homes, but are out servicing our clients and team members in need. It’s not easy, but it speaks to the resilience of our teams and how dedicated they are to their work and to each other.”

The devastation in the Keys and southern part of Florida was evident, as it also was around the second landfall site of Marco Island and the close cities of Naples and Fort Myers.

“It has been encouraging to see all of our people return safely to their homes with minimal damage, but it’s also extremely sad to see the destruction to gardens and landscapes that we’ve maintained for many years,” Gonzalez said.

Though many of the landscapes were severely damaged or destroyed, one BrightView team did find a little glimmer of satisfaction among the ruins.

At a project on the southwestern tip of Marco Island, the BrightView Development team in Tampa was 85 percent complete when Irma hit. When the team visited the site after, they found that the palms installed just five months earlier, which were fully exposed to the ocean, all remained upright and standing straight.

“This was a true testament to the skill of our installation crews,” said Micah Gravel, BrightView Development Project Manager in Tampa. “Looking at the collateral damage to the area, no one would ever believe these big palms would soldier the storm. This makes me proud to be a part of this team of landscape professionals.”

Though the Orlando area missed a direct hit and therefore didn’t have quite the devastating damage as the western areas had, there were plenty of downed branches and trees pushed over.

“I just spent four days without power,” said Ron Claassen, BrightView Development Branch Manager in Orlando. “It sounds pretty insignificant, but four days without power is rough. First and foremost was making sure everyone was safe and were alright in handling this disruption in our lives. The next thing was to focus on our clients.”

Unlike with many other natural disasters, people typically have time to prepare for an incoming hurricane and Claassen and his team did just that on their client sites.

“We spent some time the week before going to each client to make sure we understood what they expected after Irma and making sure we communicated what they could expect from us,” Claassen said.

Prior to Irma’s turn to the north, BrightView organized crews across many states to be on standby to lend labor and equipment to Florida when needed. Two days before the storm hit, 50 teams from New York to Georgia were awaiting the green light to head south.

Teams as far as California were even willing to make the trek.

“Teams from New Jersey just arrived here in the southern part of Florida at 3 a.m. (on Sept. 15),” Gonzalez said. “Four hours later they were at the branch, eager to help out in any way they could.”

BrightView’s team at The Villages, located roughly 45 miles northwest of Orlando, began surveying the damage to create a plan for clean-up a mere couple of hours after Irma passed. The team of 115 was joined by an additional 40 BrightView team members from Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; and Santa Rosa Beach, Fla, to quickly respond to such a large area.

“Our entire team stepped up to the challenge and showed why BrightView is the best to handle these situations,” said Aaron Strange, Branch Manager at The Villages. “Together, we were able to show the strength of BrightView by responding to all 100,000 homes in a 36-hour time span and all the common areas within the week.”

Puerto Rico darkened

Puerto Rico may have escaped a destructive hit from Irma, but close on her heels  was Maria, which strengthened from Category 1 hurricane to a Category 5 in 15 hours.

Only four other Category 4 hurricanes in history have tracked within 75 miles of central Puerto Rico – that is, until Irma and Maria came through two weeks apart. Unlike Irma, the island wouldn’t be spared from a direct hit from Maria.

Making landfall as a Category 4 on the morning of Sept. 20, Maria became the most intense hurricane to hit Puerto Rico since the 1928 San Felipe/Lake Okeechobee hurricane with sustained winds of 155 mph.

After 14 hours of slamming the island of nearly 3.5 million people, Maria moved off the island, leaving behind collapsed rooftops, shattered windows, trees toppled, roads turned to rivers, and cement structures yanked from their foundations.

Yennifer Álvarez Jaimes, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló's press secretary, informed NBC News that power to the entire island was out following Maria’s destructive landfall.

In the wake of Maria, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz told MSNBC “the San Juan that we knew yesterday is no longer there.”

Officials estimate the power could be out for four to six months in Puerto Rico.

BrightView’s top priority is the safety of its team members and their families. Leaders are reaching out to the Puerto Rico team with support standing by.

BrightView lends a hand in hurricane devastation, Total Landscape Care

 BrightView team members set out with an inflatable raft to join rescue efforts and help their community anyway they could. They rescued a family of four, a couple, and a woman with her two cats.

(For the full transcript, see below.)