SERVPRO Is The Top Choices Among Water Restoration Companies in Augusta

1/10/2021 (Permalink)

Augusta Residents Rely On SERVPRO As Their Go-To Water Restoration Companies

Augusta is a jewel in the South’s crown. It has beautiful weather, nearly year-round, natural, scenic beauty, and a city that offers many conveniences and exciting venues to explore. When looking at the town’s size in the present, it is hard to imagine most of the population centered around a river.

The city of Augusta got established along the Savannah River, and in the 1980s, the revitalization of the riverfront began. Like-minded individuals formed an organization called Augusta Tomorrow, which laid out plans for developing the riverfront area to attract tourism and boost local businesses’ economy in the downtown area. Further funding for the project came from Citicorp USA.

The group designed a plan for the Riverwalk that would involve levees to limit the flooding in the area after heavy rains and create a wider path for the Savannah River, redirecting it. The initial breach required permits to get issued through an act designated by Congress in 1985 to allow for the needed cuts. Special consideration got applied to the trees growing along the river, and they got left as is while the workers planted additional trees to line the walks along the banks of the river.

Flooding in Augusta had been a fact of life for residents since the establishment of the city. The original levees were built in the early 1900s to halt the flooding problem, particularly downtown. In 1929, heavy rains caused the levee to fail, and the area severely flooded. As a result, the state congress passed the 1936 Flood Control Act that funded a more powerful, higher, better levee system built by the Corps of Engineers. Downtown got more protection from flooding in the 1950s when workers constructed the Clark Hill Dam to help control the rivers and provide a power source for the area. In the present, the Riverwalk is:

• A source of income for local businesses
• A draw for tourism
• Protection for the city from flooding 

Great Places to Visit in Augusta

While the Riverwalk is a significant draw for the area, there are many great venues that locals and tourists enjoy. These venues are both a tourist draw and boost the local economy: 

• Augusta Canal Discovery Center is an interactive museum built in an old cotton mill that tells the interesting story of the canal built in 1845 and how it was a crucial part of both the city and the industrial revolution in the South. 
• The Imperial Theater has a listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Nearly 100 years old, this theater still hosts plays, concerts, and other productions. 
• The Lucy Craft Laney Museum highlights the life of Lucy Laney. She was an educator who founded the first school for black children in Augusta. She went on to be a principal for 50 years at the Haines Institute. Then-Governor Jimmy Carter posthumously chose her to have her portrait installed in the State Capitol of Georgia for her contributions to the community.

Augusta Hero: The Amazing Life of Lucy Craft Laney
Lucy Craft Laney was born eleven years before the end of slavery in 1854 as the seventh of ten children. Both of her parents were former slaves who purchased their freedom and were big proponents of education for all; this attitude strongly influenced Lucy from a young age.

Education of black people in Georgia had to get conducted in secret as it was a punishable offense for blacks to know how to read. Many people in the state thought this was wrong, including the sister of the former enslaver of Lucy’s parents, Ms. Campbell. The sister worked with Lucy from a young age, and by the time she was four, Lucy could read. Later, as those restrictions on education were lifted publicly, Lucy went on to school and then Atlanta University to pursue a degree in education to be a teacher. She got her teaching certificate in 1873. 

After teaching for a few years, her health took a downward turn, and she moved to Augusta and founded the city’s first school for black children. Her first class was just six students during the first year in 1883 and grew to over 200 students the second year as word of her teaching spread throughout the community. A gift from local benefactor Francine E. H Haines of $10,000 gave Lucy the seed money she needed to grow her school and reach a greater portion of the city. Although schools and public establishments were still segregated in the South, Laney made it her mission to unite people and was very active in the Interracial Commission, which worked to integrate the YMCA and YWCA. Hence, they no longer had separate organizations for white and black residents. When Lucy died in October 1933, the internment occurred at the corner of Laney Walker Boulevard and Phillips Street, where the first of her schools, the Haines Normal and Industrial Institute, once stood. 

What Can Water Restoration Companies Do For Local Augusta Homes?

Many home disasters call for the services of water restoration companies in Augusta properties. The most common are pipe breaks, hot water tank failures, sewage backups, and flood damage from storms. One of the first actions that SERVPRO technicians perform is testing the water if it has been on-site longer than 24-hours or came from groundwater. This action tells the techs if there are potential hazards such as:

• Microbes and pathogenic elements
• Sewage
• Chemicals or toxins

If anything harmful gets identified during the water testing, the techs treat it with their professional biocide formulas to make it safer to handle during the extraction. The potential for water hazards is one of the biggest reasons to outsource the cleanup task to a professional company. Sewage can wind up in a home if a pipe is clogged, stormwater backed up, or toilet malfunctions. All of these scenarios leave water that is unsafe for homeowners to come into contact within the home.

The use of professional extraction equipment helps deliver the best outcome to a property after a water damage incident. The drying equipment that the techs use is so powerful that it forces embedded moisture to rise that conventional household fans cannot match.

SERVPRO of Columbia County at (706) 868-5441 remains the top choice among water restoration companies in the Augusta area. The techs have comprehensive training to deal with any size or type of water damage in local properties.