BEAUMONT, Texas — Ed Boone, owner of Security Pest Management, Beaumont, Texas, tells PCT that slowly but surely his company is recovering from devastating Hurricane Rita, which took a direct hit on his community. Boone, a second generation PCO, said his community did not suffer tremendous flooding but damages caused by 125 mile per hour winds.
It’s taken the Beaumont area about three weeks to recover from the storm and Boone says that both the community and his business began returning to normal on Monday.
Boone says he was appreciative of NPMA for distributing cash to his employees to help them get through the past three weeks in which his business was out of commission. Boone says that many of his customers worked in the refineries and some have not returned to work, so his customer base has still not been fully restored. Another challenge Boone faces is a labor shortage. “There are so many lucrative jobs in construction and remodeling right now. We are competing with roofing guys who are offering $18 per hour.”
Despite these hardships, Boone believes he has turned the corner. “We’re roaring back strong now,” Boone said. “We’ve been getting calls for spiders and cockroaches and ant mounds are popping up all over the place.”