Staff have worked around the clock responding to severe damage to the countywide water and wastewater infrastructure. The recovery process will take a long time.
ONWASA is a member of the Water and Wastewater Response Network (WARN), which has now been activated to send assistance to our hurricane-ravaged area. Just as ONWASA and the City of Jacksonville sent teams to the Florida Keys in 2017 to help with their recovery from Hurricane Irma, water and wastewater utility teams will arrive at ONWASA’s main office in Jacksonville tomorrow, Thursday, September 20, 2018.
A total of five (5) teams are arriving from the City of Raleigh, the City of Wilson, and the Greenville Utility Commission. The teams include:
- One information technology team to assist in telemetry and plant computer recovery
- One wastewater team to assist at the Northwest Regional Water Reclamation Facility which experienced catastrophic loss
- Three distribution and collections teams that will work both on the mainland and on Topsail Island to restore the water distribution and sewer collections systems.
The recovery work to be undertaken by these teams are under guidelines approved by FEMA and should be eligible for FEMA reimbursement.
ONWASA was proud to represent North Carolina as part of a WARN response last year, and are deeply appreciative to our sister utilities for their help now.
