The job of recovering
a community, city, even an entire region is a difficult and hazardous
duty. There are countless agencies, companies and volunteers that come
to an area to help people after a disaster
strikes. Sun State Trees has real life experience and training over the years, needed
for situations such as these. Sun State Tree has worked with FEMA, USACE
and countless municipalities for emergency tree removals from homes, cleared
roads and provided clearance for electrical repair service.
Debris clean up
is then phased in to recover and transport piles of debris consisting mainly of trees and trash. Sun State
Trees uses Apprentice Trucks or "Grapple Trucks" to quickly
and safely remove tree debris or C&D (Construction & Demolition) to a Solid Waste Facility or Debris Site.
Disaster
Debris Sites are pre-planned locations like solid waste facilities,
or contracted sites, where all the collected debris is sent for disposal.
Sun State Trees employees huge tub grinders, to grind wood at these sites,
to reduce wood debris volume (4:1 ration; raw wood to +/- 5" wood
chips) and also make the debris safer to transport. The wood chips can
then be recycled or disposed of easier for new and
innovative renewable energy markets, paper plants, or landscaping needs.
Sun State Trees
owns two of the largest Tub Grinders in the industry. The Morbark 1600
can grind debris faster and more efficient than most of the grinders
in it's category.
Tree debris can
be branches, huge pieces of timber, root balls, stumps or foliage that
is considered "Yard Trash". All of this material is recyclable
and can be used as mulch or renewable energy in the form of Biomass for
ethanol or gas fired power plants. Sludge and Solid Waste facilities
use the mulch as a compost medium to accelerate decomposition and produce
clean reusable soil. The outlook into the future for our company is
exciting with new discoveries and innovations just beyond the horizon.
Sun State Trees will continue to set standards and contribute to the
development of our industry for years and generations to come.
SERVICING THE SOUTHEAST
SINCE 1992
DISASTER HISTORY
Sun State Trees history and experience in Natural Disasters
HURRICANE ANDREW - 1992
Sun State Trees evolved from a small landscaping and tree company after the wake of Hurricane Andrew. The book was literally written for Emergency Urban Tree Service during the clean up from this hurricane. Thousand of trees on homes , in the streets, and over power lines. It was here when Tub Grinders were originally considered for Debris Reduction from disasters. Sun State Trees purchased one Vermeer 750, then later on we upgraded to the Morbark 1200. Most of our work consisted of removing trees from power lines and cleaning up numerous communities and golf courses.
HURRICANE OPAL - 1995
Our company was well prepared for this storm and the tornados, which kept us busy for 6 months. We used our Morbark 1200 during this tour but it was utilized as our own personal debris management facility on private property. 100% of our captured debris was recycled at our facility and in some ways pushed the idea toward providing Disaster Debris Sites that are currently implemented by the Army Corp. of Engineers and F.E.M.A. to this very day. Sun State Trees was not the first to provide such services but we have been a leader and it all began around this time.
HURRICANE FLOYD - 1999
This was our next storm that we attended for Disaster Recovery and Emergency Trees Services. This was the first time our company had traveled far from the home state of Florida, in order to aid areas in North Carolina and Hilton Head Golf Courses. Phillips & Jordan was our general contractor for Tub Grinding and we performed Emergency Tree Removals, Debris Removal, and Tub Grinding. P&J held the contract with F.E.M.A. for Debris Removal and they used us on one of the many sites. This was a very popular storm for Apprentice Trucks (Grapple Trucks), because a good portion of the debris consisted of heavy timber.
HURRICANE ISABEL - 2003
Sun State Tree returned to North Carolina once again. Phillips & Jordan and Chrowder Gulf contracted us for Emergency Tree Service, Debris Pick-Up, and Debris Site Reduction. This is the year that Sun State Trees tries out the new Hogzilla Horizontal Grinder 7600. The biggest horizontal grinder in the world. We also started using larger excavators and wheel loaders to handle the production. We recorded close to 800,000 yards of debris being processed, at our site alone, over the course of 5 months.
HURRICANE CHARLEY, FRANCES, & JEANNE - 2004
This was the busiest season of our company's disaster recovery history. Our crews were all over Florida providing Emergency Tree Service, Debris Pick-Up, and Debris Reduction/Management. In Punta Gorda we worked for Grubbs, P&J, and several golf courses spanning from South Sarasota to Naples. This was the first time we've ever managed two debris sites in different areas of the state. The other Debris Site was located in Pompano Beach, Florida under Dorado Services and Ashbritt, Inc. We accomplished this by using the 7600 Horizontal and a new 1300 Morbark Tub Grinder. The recorded processing of about 2.7 million yards totaled all three locations with Orlando leading by 1.2 million yards. Our Seminole County contract was through the City of Casselberry, Florida.
HURRICANE KATRINA - 2005
This Hurricane reminded everyone how dangerous a hurricane can be and how much damage they can cause over large areas. Our company literally worked our way to the epicenter from the Pan Handle of Florida to the streets of New Orleans over the course of 15 months. Every single Disaster Company or self-proclaimed company worked cleaning up major cities along the Gulf. Our company could slowly see the mistakes being made by unorganized bureaucracy and greed from company's proclaiming to be disaster specialists. Even the time we spent cleaning up this vast area, the land still has not recovered to this day. Due to the unorganized and cut-throat contracting by unreliable disaster companies we returned our Tub Grinders to Florida. Records are estimated around 1.2 million for several sites we used our grinders, but records were lost or unrecoverable.
HURRICANE IKE & GUSTAV - 2008
Once again we entered Louisiana and eventually Texas to help in Emergency Tree Removals, Crane Services, Debris Pick-Up, and Disaster Site Reduction. In the past we used Cranes for Tree Service and severe cases in which large trees were completely impacted into homes and commercial structures. This tour we took our Cranes, Crew Trucks, Grapple Trucks, and Tub Grinders to help communities from Slidell, LA. to Houston, TX. This was the first initiative of the Army Corps. of Engineers in the structure of Debris Removal and Reduction. Due to cost, ACE was forced to burn waste in the beginning, before they found out that this would only work in very rural areas. Downtown Houston was a debacle and our grinders spent most of their time in outlined areas of Houston with more success. This was the first year preposition of Disaster Contractors was implemented in order to keep government funds in state owned companies jurisdictions. The damage was so extensive that additional sub contractors were to be utilized for Debris Pick-Up and Disposal. Recorded Debris for our sites in East Texas was estimated to be roughly 800,000 yards.
Ice Storm - 2007
Ice Storm - 2009
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A SUN STATE TREE SERVICE