Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/883641
AGGREGATES MANAGER / October 2017 3 October 2017 Vol. 22, No. 10 aggman.com /AggregatesManager /AggManEditor Editorial Editor-in-Chief: Therese Dunphy Editorial Director: Marcia Gruver Doyle Senior Editor: Kerry Clines Online Editor: Wayne Grayson editorial@aggman.com Design & Production Art Director: Sandy Turner, Jr. Production Designer: Timothy Smith Advertising Production Manager: Kim Knight production@aggman.com Construction Media Vice President, Construction Media: Joe Donald sales@randallreillyconstruction.com 3200 Rice Mine Rd NE Tuscaloosa, AL 35406 800-633-5953 randallreilly.com Corporate Chairman: Mike Reilly President and CEO: Brent Reilly Chief Operations Officer: Shane Elmore Chief Financial Officer: Russell McEwen Senior Vice President, Sales: Scott Miller Senior Vice President, Editorial and Research: Linda Longton Vice President of Events: Stacy McCants Vice President, Audience Development: Prescott Shibles Vice President, Digital Services: Nick Reid Vice President, Marketing: Julie Arsenault For change of address and other subscription inquiries, please contact: aggregatesmanager@halldata.com. Aggregates Manager TM magazine (ISSN 1552-3071) is published monthly by Randall-Reilly, LLC copyright 2017. Executive and Administrative offices, 3200 Rice Mine Rd. N.E., Tuscaloosa, AL 35406. Subscription rates: $24 annually, Non-domestic $125 annually. Single copies: $7. We assume no responsibility for the validity of claims of manufacturers in any advertisement or editorial product information or literature offered by them. Publisher reserves the right to refuse non-qualified subscriptions. Periodical circulation postage paid at Tuscaloosa, Alabama and additional entries. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage retrieval system, without written permission of the copyright owner. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. (See DMM 507.1.5.2); NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: send address corrections to Aggregates Manager, 3200 Rice Mine Road N.E., Tuscaloosa, AL 35406. Standing Tall in Rising Waters by Therese Dunphy, Editor-in-Chief tdunphy@randallreilly.com EDITORIAL I n late August, Hurricane Harvey dropped nearly 52 inches of rain on Houston. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, nearly 600,000 structures were damaged, with one in four of those structures sustaining major damage or destruction, and almost 35,000 people sought shelter away from their homes. While many of us watched coverage of the storm and donated funds, members of the local aggregates industry did much, much more. They got in their trucks or their boats and helped with rescue and cleanup efforts. Rob Van Til, a managing partner of River Aggregates, LLC, and his family worked with local teams to help people whose homes were damaged. "What I'm proudest of is the community's response," he said. "It's not about cars or buildings or equipment. It's about people." Rob and his son volunteered with a crew helping to gut homes that needed to be torn back to the studs. His wife and daughter made food and transported those who had lost their homes as needed. Although he'd joined Alamo Cement as its central Texas market manager less than a month before, James Oquin quickly volunteered to help with rescue efforts. With the full support of his company, James hauled his airboat to Houston, where he spent a night sleeping in his truck before getting a call from the Fulshear Police Department for help with an emergency medical evacuation. He transported a woman who was 36 weeks pregnant, along with her husband and two dogs, to the hospital. Over four days, he helped rescue 60 people from their homes. "It was amazing," Oquin says. On his second day in Houston, James spotted the bright yellow safety gear sported by a crew from Hanson Aggregates, including its Houston area operations manager, Darryn Lindsey. When Darryn learned that James didn't have a place to stay, he offered him one at his house and made sure he had shelter until returning to San Antonio. "I was really just pleased to run into a fellow industry guy out there doing the same thing; sacrifi cing his time and using his own boat to come down and help out. I thought that was pretty awesome," Darryn says. Darryn was assisting rescue efforts with his incoming and outgoing Brazos Plant managers Jake McCurry and Sean Steagull. They took a boat used to access the plant's dredging operation and shuttled residents out of the Weston Lakes area. Over the course of the day, they ferried between 25 and 30 people to high-water vehicles that could transport them out of the neighborhood. "Everybody was pretty grateful. They knew we were all there as volunteers, just trying to help them," Darryn says. When disaster struck, these are just a few of the members of the aggregate indus- try who quietly went to work helping neighbors and strangers alike. So, walk a little taller, hold your head a little higher, and know that your industry friends and peers truly served as good neighbors to the greater Houston community.