The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30 and spanned in part across the North Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. In response to historic floods and immeasurable damage brought by this year’s Hurricane Harvey, Irma, Jose and Maria, Cat Rental Power provided over 1,800 generator sets to deliver over 1.44 GW of power to affected areas.
Forty-seven Cat dealers, from as far away as Canada and California, responded to impacted areas with one of the most extensive coverage networks in North America. The local dealers directly addressed customer demands, ensuring equipment and personnel reached affected areas prior to major storms. “Our Cat Dealer Network provides much more than access to the largest fleet of generator sets,” said Robb Homolka, Eastern Region Sales Manager for Cat Rental Power. “Its knowledgeable rental power representatives ready to assist customers in designing a system, delivering equipment, providing technical support, service and maintenance – all in a time of crisis.”
The generator sets were deployed by land, sea and air to thousands of customers including hospitals, data centers, waste water treatment plants, cellular towers and commercial and industrial facilities.
More than 260 generators sets have already been supplied to FEMA in support of their efforts to restore power to critical infrastructure in the most seriously impacted regions. As one of FEMA’s major suppliers and a source of reliable performance, Caterpillar Defense expects it will be asked to send additional generator sets to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Brian Rydell, Caterpillar Defense’s Electric Power Marketing and Contracts Manager, credited the tremendous efforts and commitment of Foley Inc. and the staff at Caterpillar Defense for very quickly arranging the procurement and transportation of the generators to the areas ravaged by the recent storms. “They have done a herculean job pulling the whole Cat Dealer Rental Power network together to locate generator sets matched to FEMA’s requirements, comply with contractual terms, supply top notch technical support and deliver the units in a matter of days.”
In addition to generator sets for dealers, their customers and FEMA, transformers, pumps, heaters, fuel tanks, miles of power cable and hundreds of light towers were also deployed to meet customer needs.
“This hurricane season has been relentless in its scope. It was important for our support to match that,” said Josh Eggert, Global Sales Manager for Cat Rental Power.
Backup power plays a critical role in recovery from all manner of disasters. With Cat Rental Power, a global network of technical experts is always standing by with unmatched support including the largest fleet of generator sets and ancillary equipment to help sustain facilities that safeguard public health, safety and welfare, even through extended utility outages.
“The coordination and teamwork displayed by our dealers and suppliers helped mobilize equipment to where it was most needed, and deploy hundreds of technicians to ensure the equipment was working as it should be in this time of great need,” said Marina Waters, Engineering Manager for Caterpillar Electric Power.
