When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Bob Uhler’s first concern was for
the welfare of 40 MWH Global Inc. employees in the heart of the flooded
city.
“Our offices were flooded, the windows were blown out and once the storm
passed we had to find our employees, and that took seven days,” said the
president and CEO of the billion-dollar Broomfield-based environmental
engineering company that employs 6,100 in 36-plus countries.
MWH had a 15-year history with the City of New Orleans water and wastewater
treatment programs, so after relocating their families to Kansas City, Mo.,
and Michigan, MWH employees went into action – disconnecting sewer lines,
taking inventory of damaged lines and engineering ways to drain the city in
anticipation of the next storm.
“Our people were incredible, putting in 18-hour days, seven days a week,
sloshing through miles and miles of devastation – the worst natural disaster
I have ever seen,” said Uhler, who has witnessed a lot in his 28 years with
the company, logging more than 4 million air miles traveling the globe.
“We
were worried about their safety and the environmental conditions. But the
city had turned to us for help in the aftermath and we were proud our people
wanted to get the city back on its feet.”
.
