Flood Cleanup Is Big Business in Tennessee

This month’s flooding gave disaster restoration companies more work than they could handle and has attracted crews from as far away as New Hampshire.

A ServiceMaster Clean franchise cleans up a business on Riverside Drive.

Two of the bigger corporate players are based here in Tennessee. ServiceMaster Clean is headquartered in Memphis.

A local franchise in Clarksville is pressure washing the last of the river grime off the concrete floors of a home health business on Riverside Drive. Daniel Duncan is co-owner and says gutting and then drying out a building is something that needs to be done right.

“Somebody has to clean this stuff up, and it might as well be a professional as opposed to anybody else.”

Dennis Allen talks to a homeowner before starting work cleaning up and drying out a house in Whites Creek.

SERVPRO, based in Gallatin, has called in 300 crews from all over the country and completed 1,700 jobs so far. They’re drying out buildings as large as The Pinnacle in downtown Nashville and some as small as a ranch home in Whites Creek, where Dennis Allen is getting a crew started. They’ve put in 16-hour days since the historic rainfall.

“Obviously, it’s good for us as far as business goes. But you’ve got to be very empathic with the people you’re working for.”

Allen will take his SERVPRO team back home to Chattanooga this week as the cleanout work dries up and the rebuilding phase begins.