This dynamic 25 year old graduated with honors from Bethany University and has a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration.  She is currently working towards her MBA, and also plans on pursuing a Masters Degree in Organizational Management.  Her ultimate goal is to achieve a PhD in Business Administration.  Shawnae enjoys working with numbers and feels her ability to see things in black and white and her attention to detail has been the key to her success.

Prior to coming to Disaster Kleenup Specialists and the Ream Companies, Shawnae spent time working for another contractor who specialized in property restoration, construction and contract cleaning, and during this time she learned the inner workings of and issues particular to these fields. Working with insurance companies, mortgage companies, and contract billing are just a few of the areas of her expertise.  Shawnae’s wealth of knowledge and experience will be an asset to those whom the Ream Companies serve.  She says, “I am excited to help our customers and to work with their insurance companies and lending institutions.  I want to help make their experience with our companies an excellent one, and I look forward to assist our companies in growing.”

When she is not working or studying, Shawnae loves to spend time with her family, her new husband and their adorable pets.  A Monterey Peninsula native, she enjoys volunteering with organizations that help the homeless in her community.  At a young age, she was called to what has become a strong vocation, when she spent time helping the homeless in Mexico on a Mission Trip.  Since then she has dedicated countless hours to the homeless, assisting in soup kitchens and half-way houses.  Shawnae feels that everyone deserves a second chance, and she is dedicated to doing whatever she can to help the less fortunate better their lives.

Terry Ream and Albert King Providing Gate Security at the California Airshow in Salinas, one of many special events that raises money for the Monterey Bay Area Chapter of the American Red Cross.

The mission of Terry Ream and the Disaster Kleenup Specialists and Ream Construction staff is to help people who have suffered a loss restore their homes or businesses quickly, so that they can begin living their lives normally.  In times of crisis, they are there to help rebuild homes and lives, and so it was a natural decision for Terry to become involved with the Monterey Bay Area Chapter of the American Red Cross, an organization which shares the same mission – to provide assistance to people in their times of need.

A lifelong resident of the Central Coast, Terry and his wife Theresa, have been active with many community charities, including the American Red Cross.  They have always believed it is important to dedicate your time and talent wherever you can to help others, and so in 2004, Terry became a Board Member for the Monterey Bay Area Chapter of the American Red Cross, a position which he held for seven years.  During that time, Terry brought the resources of his companies, which also include Floor Store USA, Cypress Cabinets, and Excel Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning, to provide assistance to the Red Cross and its initiatives, in the form of fundraising efforts and volunteerism.

Terry has shared his passion for the Red Cross with his employees, and many of them have also become involved with the Red Cross.  Terry and his staff have enjoyed volunteering their time for many Red Cross events, including the Salinas Air Show, Holiday Cards for Heroes, Gift Wrapping for Measels, and the annual Carmel By the Sea Parade.

“We really enjoy being a part of the Red Cross events.  It gives us an opportunity to raise money for the Monterey Bay Area Chapter of the Red Cross and its many important initiatives, and gives us a chance to personally give back to our community, “ Terry says.  “I am extremely proud of my staff for all that they have done and the time that they and their families have given to support the Red Cross.”

His employees are grateful for the opportunities they have had to volunteer with the Red Cross.  Ream Construction Project Manager, Richard Gilson, and Ream Construction Superintendant Brian White, along with their wives, donated their time to the Red Cross to collect signatures for Christmas Cards for America’s Soldiers serving in Afghanistan and Iraq this past November.  “This was a very moving experience for me,” Gilson said of the event. “It was incredible to see the outpouring of love from our community to our soldiers, and I felt humbled to be a part of it.”

Although Terry Ream recently retired from his Board of Directors position, he is still extremely active with the Monterey Bay Area Chapter.  He especially enjoys volunteering for the Salinas Airshow, where he and his employees assist with gate security, an effort which raises thousands of dollars each year for the Red Cross.  This fall, he was proud to have his daughter, Amanda Ream, and future son-in-law Cody Crumpton, volunteering alongside him at the airshow, and he is looking forward to 2012’s volunteer opportunities which begin April 14^th.  If you, too, would like to participate in 2012, contact Daniella Zapata at (831) 624-6921 or Daniella.Zapata@redcross.org

The Monterey Bay Area Chapter is currently seeking nominations for the Hero Awards, which recognizes members of the community who have shown courage, dedication, and character through acts of heroism and kindness. These people could be your neighbors, co-workers, friends, or family.

The Hero Award recipients will be selected by a committee of community leaders based on the degree to which their acts of heroism uphold the values of the American Red Cross and leave a lasting and positive impact on the residents of the Monterey and San Benito Counties, and heroes will be honored at the celebration.

All nominees must work or reside in Monterey or San Benito County; though the heroic acts may have occurred elsewhere. Nominees for the Hero Award must have performed an act or acts of courage to save or attempt to save someone’s life. The heroic event must have occurred between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2011.

The deadline to submit nominations is February 28, 2012.

We invite you to nominate a hero for one of the following categories:

• Animal Rescue Hero
• Fire Safety
• Good Samaritan, Adult
• Good Samaritan, Youth
• Law Enforcement Hero
• Medical Professional Hero
• Military Hero

The Monterey Bay Area Chapter website at www.arcmontereybay.org has more details on each of the categories as well as a nomination form. For more information about the Hero Awards or to attend and/or become a sponsor of the Heroes Celebration on May 19, 2012, please contact Daniella Zapata at ZapataD@usa.redcross.org or call (831) 626-5251.

About American Red Cross Monterey Bay Area Chapter

With office locations in Carmel, Salinas and Hollister, the American Red Cross Monterey Bay Chapter is a non-profit, humanitarian organization that depends on the generous contributions of time and money from Monterey and San Benito Counties residents and companies to provide services and programs that help our community prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies. For more information on disaster preparedness, health and safety classes, volunteer opportunities, and financial contributions, visit our website at www.arcmontereybay.org or call us at 1-831-624-6921. You may also find us on Facebook and Twitter.

Capitola Village Drying Out; One Critic Raises Environmental Concerns

By Jondi Gumz

CAPITOLA — Companies large and small are hustling to prevent mold from growing at homes and businesses flooded last week in Capitola Village, but one restoration specialist has opted not to work there, citing concerns about airborne contamination. It’s hard to say how many people were cleaning up Tuesday, but it’s safe to say the village was abuzz with activity.

Fans blowing. Dehumidifiers running. Boxes being stacked and packed on the sidewalks. GreenWaste dumpsters sat on almost every block, compliments of the city, to help businesses get rid of debris like wet carpet and drywall. The city also hired a mom-and-pop company from Salinas, Everclear Hydro Jetting, to wash mud off the streets.

Karen Batista of Disaster Kleenup Specialists Monterey Bay, based in Sand City, was called in Thursday by The Village Mouse gift shop and again on Saturday after the second flash flood.

“Everything we cleaned, we’re cleaning again,” said Guy Clendenin, a manager with Disaster Kleenup. “They have flood insurance.”

The company at one point had 22 of its 60-member workforce on the job in Capitola. Clendenin said the water damage in the village involved “Category 3 Black Water,” which includes sewage.

“It has to be tested,” he said, citing the potential for E. coli pathogens.

Asbestos or lead-based paint in water-damaged buildings triggers federal rules for contractors.

“If you’re going to do demolition, any building materials need to be analyzed before demolition takes place,” Clendenin said.

Many business owners have ripped out carpet and floors themselves, trying to prevent mold.

“A lot of people don’t have flood insurance, so they’re paying out of pocket,” Clendenin said. “We’ve had some undercut our prices.”

Valley Cleaning & Restoration, owned by Bill Shevlin in Watsonville, is working with about 20 homes and businesses.

“An amazing amount of progress has been made in the past three days,” Valley Cleaning office manager Jessica Arias said. “Our crew was walking in 3 feet of water.”

The company was called Thursday to Riverview Avenue, where backyards touch Soquel Creek, and sent eight of its 15 employees to Capitola on Sunday. Other clients are on Lawn Way, close to the beach. Some homes need major restoration involving walls, cabinets and flooring.

“We are working with homeowners who are insured,” Arias said, predicting homes will be ready for use by mid-summer. Some homeowners have not done anything yet about the damage, which surprised her because of the potential for mold or electrical damage. For business owners with minor damage from an inch or so of water, the dry-out costs anywhere from $400 to a couple thousand dollars,” she said.

Belfor Property Restoration, which worked on cleanup in Chile after the earthquake and in Hawaii after the tsunami, has been retained by city Police Department and the Central Fire District.

“Normally the insurance company recommends us,” said David Warters, Belfor’s general manager in San Jose.

United Rental in Soquel has rented out eight fans and three dehumidifiers in Capitola.

“Also water pumps,” said branch manager Tim Davis, who plans to volunteer with the Builders Exchange to help with cleanup Saturday.

Mike Mosbach, who heads restoration services at DMC Construction in Monterey, criticized people who set up fans that could be sending bacteria from contaminated “Category 3 Black Water” into the air for everyone to breathe.

“They’re not breaking any law, but they’re acting inappropriately,” he said. “You can’t have floodwater that flows through a town that doesn’t have a high degree of bacteria.”

He said he reported his concerns to the Santa Cruz County health department. The Capitola Village Business Improvement Association and the Western Service Workers Association plans a seminar featuring local attorney Bob Katz at 11:30 a.m. Monday at Mr. Toots on the subject of insurance.

Gonzales Fire Guts Salon, Displaces Businesses
Cause OF Pre-Dawn Blaze Undetermined

By Clarissa Aljentera

Note: This article details the process leading up to Disaster Kleepup Specialists performing a fire restoration and clean up of this salon and neighboring businesses.

The business Julie Rocha and Anna Trujillo spent the past five years building in Gonzales went up in flames early Thursday. But Rocha said the show of support she has received since word spread about her loss has been gratifying. Friends and clients have offered to help raise funds to get her hair salon back in business.

“It is amazing how caring they are,” Rocha said.

The early-morning fire swept through her business at 26 Fourth St., destroying the salon and damaging four neighboring businesses in the aging building. Firefighters estimated the damage at $2.5 million to $3 million. No injuries were reported, and the cause of the blaze is under investigation, firefighters said. The other damaged businesses were a mortgage company, another hair salon, a farm labor contractor and a Mexican restaurant.

Firefighters said a newspaper carrier was on his route when he noticed smoke from the rood of Anna’s Hair Studio about 3:40 a.m. Thursday and called 911. Rocha, president of the Gonzales Chamber of Commerce, co-owned Anna’s Hair Studio with Trujillo for the past five years. The partners renewed their five-year-lease in January 2006. “I’m still in shock,” Rocha said.

One of her business neighbors, Jessica Ramirez, said Thursday she considers herself “one of the fortunate ones.” Her mortgage business, which she stated six months ago, sustained minor damage. “It is mostly water and smoke damage,” Ramirez said while pulling files, computers and furniture from the office. The building’s owner, Ted Arnesen, said he cringed when he got the pre-dawn call from the Gonzales Fire Department.

“When you get calls that early you hope it is the wrong number,” Arnessen said. Arnesen bought the building in 1975 when he ran a pharmacy in the city. Five of the six tenants have been displaced by the fire. Arnesen said only El Rinconcito Restaurant is expected to open again soon because it sustained only minor damage. At the scene Thursday afternoon, Arnesen reminisced about the pharmacy he once owned and his renovations to the building.

“You feel rather sad about seeing everything destroyed in such a short time,” said Arnesen. “I’m concerned about my tenants and I’m so sorry it happened.”

Air to be Sampled for Mold Particles at Agriculture Office

By Larry Parsons

Note:
This article details the process leading up to Disaster Kleepup Specialists performing the mold remediation of the University of California’s Cooperative Extension.

A cleanup of potentially harmful mold in the Salinas office of the Monterey County agricultural commissioner is expected to be wrapped up today.

But another round of air sampling must be done to determine if it’s safe for about 50 employees of the agricultural commissioner and the University of California Cooperative Extension to return to their offices.
“Hopefully, we’ll be back in the building by Thursday,” Agricultural Commissioner Eric Lauritzen said Monday.
Workers moved Friday from the agricultural building on Abbott Street after test results showed two offices with a potentially harmful mold.

No workers reported any ill effects from the mold, which evidently sprung up in parts of the building where roof leaks had recently been repaired. The black mold, which can trigger serious problems for people with respiratory ailments and allergies, was moist, Lauritzen said. The mold becomes more troublesome when it dries and particles become airborne, he said.

“We found out late Friday morning and were able to get folks out,” Lauritzen said. “We were exercising abundant concern.”

Contract workers cleaned the building over the weekend and were still scrubbing Monday. Some areas were cordoned off with plastic sheets and sections of wallboard and carpet were removed. Lauritzen said his employees continued to work at temporary sites – an on-site portable building, the county’s data center, agricultural branch offices in Pajaro and King City, and in the field.

“Actually it’s not bad. We are in the front end of the season,” Lauritzen said. “We are able to conduct business with some inconvenience.”

The agricultural building is 10 years old, but design problems have caused roof leaks, Lauritzen said. Roof repairs that cost more than $120,000 were completed before the rainy season and that likely prevented the mold from being more widespread, he said. The temporary closure and cleanup of the office marked the second time in 17 months that county building in Salinas have been hit by mold problems.

In October 2003, an office suite used by county social service workers in the Quadrangle Building on South Main Street was sealed and cleaned after so-called “sick-building mold” was found in a building wall.
The discovery forced about 20 workers to move to other areas in the Department of Social Services’ leased headquarters while a wall section was removed. County spokeswoman Maia Carroll said the cost of this week’s cleanup probably won’t be known until follow-up air testing is completed. Some windows might also need work. Carroll said it wasn’t certain if the cost would be covered by insurance.

“The agricultural building was completed in 1995 and was built by Mill construction of Salinas,” she said.

AN INDOOR ISABEL
PROBATION ASSESSES FLOOD DAMAGE

By Virginia Hennessey

Monterey County probation workers have some special sympathy for the storm-ravaged folks on the Atlantic Coast after a flash flood swept through their building Wednesday.

“It was like Isabel in the Probation Department,” Margaret Mudd, assistant Probation Department chief, said of the river of water that first came whooshing down the hall toward her office and then seeped through the floor to rain down on expensive copiers, computers and files on the first floor of the Natividad Road building in Salinas.

Surprisingly upbeat workers labored Thursday to put back the pieces after a water main break inundated the operation. Thousands of files that were intermingled in the frantic rush to scoop them out of harm’s way had to be laid out, page by page, to dry and then be reassembled.

Dozens of waterlogged computers were being dried out at the county’s information technology department on Moffett Drive. There was no electricity in parts of the building, and no Internet access or e-mail anywhere. Several units of the department had to be moved off site, including the finance department, which was struggling to move records to the Monterey probation office so it could meet today’s deadline for payroll.
Juvenile court operations were moved to the Salinas courthouse on Church Street and will remain there today.
“It’s a nightmare,” Mudd said. “I’m praying that old adage about bad things coming in threes is not true because the last couple of things have been pretty hard.”

Duane Tanner, Chief of probation, was in Sacramento on Thursday to meet with the Board of Corrections concerning the department’s last crisis, the discovery of earthquake damage that has closed most of Juvenile Hall.

Probation’s latest disaster happened about noon Wednesday when a facilities employee was trying to fix a leaking toilet in the second-floor men’s restroom. Facilities Manager Ross Richards said the worker loosened the water valve, planning to then tighten it down. Instead the rusty, corroded valve blew off, spewing water with the force of a fire hydrant into the bathroom and out into the hall.

Mudd was in her office a few doors down when she heard a whooshing noise and then finance department staff members yelling to get the computer server off the floor. Peeking out her door she said, she saw a flash flood sweeping down the hallway.

“It was like being chased,” finance worker Mikki Arnold said of the inches of water that quickly flooded her office. The deluge didn’t stop there. Within minutes, water started seeping through the floor and showering down on the first-floor offices.

“We started grabbing everything to get it out of the way of the water that was cascading down,” Mudd said. “It was like a waterfall. Only two county workers possess the key to turn off the main water valve for the building. It took the first one 15 minutes to get to the probation office from across town as water, powered by 60 pounds of pressure, continued to spew from the 1 ¼-inch pipe.

By the time the water was turned off, many of the ceiling tiles on the first floor had turned to mush on the floor and probably officers were pouring water out of their laptop computers.

“ I’ve never in my 30 years of experience seen that much water in a building,” said Richards.
Manuel Real, director of the juvenile probation division, said it is unknown whether any of the waterlogged computers and copiers can be saved. Files that were destroyed can be recreated from the department’s databases and court records. Mudd and Real praised the rescue and cleanup efforts of their staff, as well as the work of Disaster Kleenup Specialists, which worked through the night to dry the building and ward off mold.
On Thursday the building was noisy and smelly. Hallways were lined with dozens of large blue fans and dehumidifiers powered by a web of electrical cords running from areas of the building that had been cleared for electricity by an electrician.

Mudd said electricity in much of the building was shut off because the wiring is now “suspect.” She’s been told the county may need to remove 12 inches of Sheetrock from the bottom of the walls to prevent mold. And it will be weeks, if not months, before the county is given an estimate on how much it will cost to repair the building and replace destroyed equipment.

Through it all, Mudd kept her sense of humor. “We’re trying now to sort everything out,” she said. “People will never get their same keyboard back. I feel sorry for the people who had a particular mouse they liked. They’re never going to see that one again.”

Monterey County Business
Keeping Things Together
Busy Woman Balances Family, Work

Editor’s note:
Theresa Ream is a busy woman.

A wife, and mother of two, the Seaside resident is active in her church as well as several organizations, including the Parent Teachers Association for the Monterey Bay Christian School, and the Seaside/Sand City and Monterey Peninsula chambers of commerce. She has received accolades from her colleagues in the Professional Women’s Network (PWN) of the Monterey Peninsula, which named her 2004 Woman of the Year.

She does all this while managing five businesses and more than 70 employees with her business partner and husband of 27 years, Terry: Ream Construction; Disaster Kleenup Specialist; Cypress Cabinets; Excel Carpet & Upholstery; and FloorUSA.

The Herald’s Victoria Manley sat down with Ream recently in Ream’s Sand City office to discuss balancing work, family and everything in between.

Q: I’m curious about how you balance not only five businesses but all that you do outside of that.

A: We’re nut cases, is what we are. But actually the businesses piggy-back on each other. The main thing in all of this is to keep the customer satisfied and do a good job. We don’t think about money. It’s always been about the name of the company and doing a good job for people, and the relationships we have with our clients.

Q: Ream Construction was the first business, started in 1981, correct?
A: Yes. And then we started doing reconstruction work,… and then we started the cleaning division (Disaster Kleenup) in 1993. When we got our first fire, our warehouse was our garage. I had all these people’s burned up stuff in our garage. We immediately got a warehouse, and then off we went.

Q: As your business has grown, your family has grown. Your first child was 4 months old when you started the business. How did you balance that?
A: It was kind of nice because since I worked for myself, I could take my bookkeeping at home. While my babies were sleeping, I could work.

Q: What is your typical work day?
A: When I get up, I usually have a list for Terry to go over, which we do over coffee. I always exercise, usually with my tapes.

I come to work about 9 a.m. and go to my calendar, where I have everything mapped out, even the things I’ve delegated to other people.

If my kids need me to do things with them, I’ll go on my lunch break or arrange time. Depending on their needs, I’ll go home anywhere between 4:30 and 8 p.m. I sort of arrange things around so that when I’m with them, I’m with them.

If I’ve got my obligations for PWN or for church, I schedule it out so that I’m there, and I’m focused.

If I have to block out a time during work, I’ll do it and then I’ll go back. Sometimes I work on payroll until 11 p.m. Maybe we watch TV together as a family, and when the kids are off doing their thing and Terry’s in bed watching the news, I’ll go ahead and do more work.

Q: What’s the typical weeknight like at home?
A: I usually try to pay my daughter to do some chores. I just got a housekeeper – it’s wonderful – and that feels real good. I do my laundry, like, every day. One load a day. I just keep up on everything as it needs to be done.

And I was blessed with a lot of energy.

Q: Who does most of your household work?

A: I do everything.

Q: How do you keep up your energy?

A: I exercise almost every day. I don’t eat a lot of sugary stuff – except every once in awhile, if I crave a chocolate cream pie or something, I’ll have it.

I enjoy being with my family and keeping house. It’s kind of like I’m two different people: I enjoy that really homey feeling, but then I have this other part, this business person who really loves the hunt, closing the deal. I’m like two different people, but they work well together.

Q: Does one Theresa ever win out over the other?

A: My family always wins out. My kids are my precious jewels.

Q: How do you do it all?
A: You make allies with the people around you by doing what you’re good at. My strength is hospitality. I can have you over at my house, cook for you and make you feel real comfortable, and then we can plan our whole year together.

Q: What are your other strengths?
A: I’m consistent, and try daily to improve different aspects of my life. I put them in big blocks – work, family, body and spirit – and then I consciously try to improve on those blocks in little steps. It’s one foot in front of the other. Improving a little bit on myself in those four areas daily.

It’s also keeping my relationships clean. If I upset somebody, I say I’m sorry, and we move on. I keep things clean across the board. That way you don’t have to step over the garbage as you go along.

Questioner, Victory Manley can be reached at 646-4478 or vmanely@montereyherald.com

House Seriously Damaged in Overnight Blaze
Firefighters Prevent Spread of 40-Foot Flames to Neighboring Homes

By Mary Brownfield

In the largest fire to hit Carmel since a fatal incident in 2002, flames caused major damage to a Santa Lucia home just after midnight Monday. Louise Frost was home alone with her two dogs and sound asleep when snapping sounds coming from the garage awakened her. Thinking rodents had triggered traps or, worse still, an intruder was inside, she banged on the adjacent bedroom wall.

Then she smelled smoke and, rather than opening the door to the garage next to her bedroom – which could have been a fatal mistake – she went down the hall and opened the kitchen door to look back toward the garage. It was on fire.

As she dialed 911, police arrived, having already been alerted by neighbors. They told her to get out of the house, and she took her dogs with her. “We got out just in time,” said Frost, who had just returned from a vacation in the Sierra Nevada, while her husband, deputy district attorney David Frost, stayed on a bit longer.
Police evacuated adjacent homes and told arriving firefighters no one was inside the burning building.

“At that time of night, if there’s a fire, we’re just going to assume people are in the house,” Carmel Fire Capt. Ian Watts said. But after hearing no rescue was necessary, the crews on the first engine and ambulance arrived with fire suppression in mind. They connected a hose to a hydrant more than a block away and began attacking the fire from the outside but had to wait for more firefighters to arrive before going inside, since safety laws require at least two emergency personnel to remain outside a burning structure while others enter it.

Several moments later, a second ambulance arrived from Carmel Valley, providing the necessary bodies. But by then, “the fire had extended into the attic, and that led to damage in the rest of the house,” Watts said. “Once in the attic, it was really difficult to control.” Complicating efforts were the tight spaces alongside the home, which sits on a characteristically narrow Carmel lot. Crews had to cut through the neighbor’s fence on the west side and use the property on the east side for access, according to Watts.

When the 20-to-40-foot-high flames burned through the top of the garage, “the fire got into the trees and could have very easily gotten into the neighbors’ houses,” he said. With recent dry weather creating highly flammable conditions, “the neighbors must have been afraid to have a fire that close. And it was not small,” Watts added.
Two dozen firefighters and three supervisors on seven engines and two ambulances contributed to the effort according to Watts, with Monterey Fire Division Chief Dave Potter (not the county supervisor) in charge of the incident.

A Cypress Fire crew received orders to chop holes in the roof, while firefighters from Carmel Valley, Monterey and Pacific Grove were assigned to other parts of the blaze. Working together from all directions, they closed in on it. “We just slowly took control of the fire, extinguished it and overhauled it,” Watts said. “It took about five-and-a-half hours.” An Eight Pacific Grove Fire volunteers arrived at an opportune moment.

“Once everything slows down, and you’re wet and soaking and cold, these guys show up, warm and dry,” and ready to work, Watts said. “They helped us move the hose and did all the dirty work. You can see how many people it takes, and that was just for one house.”

“The fire department was phenomenal,” said Frost. “They saved the neighborhood.”

The Carmel chapter of the American Red Cross also mobilized its emergency response vehicle to provide hot drinks and food for the fire crews. No cause determined.

Investigation of the fire had to wait for the debris to cool, because the Frosts had hunting ammunition stored in the garage, according to Watts. The garage also contained wooden hunting decoys, and some cans of paint and varnish used for restoring the decoys, but David Reade, the Monterey Fire marshal in charge of the investigation, said the residents denied having any piles of used rags that might have spontaneously combusted. Frost reported she had spent the day doing laundry in the garage, but Reade could not say whether the washer or dryer was to blame. “A lot of the time, the evidence is consumed in the fire,” he said, though burn patterns indicated the fire originated in the garage.

While an insurance adjuster will ultimately assess the damage, Reade said the cost would likely exceed $200,000, depending on how much of the original structure can be saved. “We’re assuming we’ll be out for quite a while,” said Frost, who went to stay with her sister in Carmel Valley. Her husband also immediately left the Sierra after receiving Frost’s call about the fire and returned to the Peninsula Monday. “The living room wasn’t touched – there’s just smoke and water damage – and kitchen is OK. But from the pantry back, there’s no roof.”

Frost has spent the days following the fire surveying the damage and said she was impressed with the Disaster Kleenup Specialists crew that came in, cleaned out the debris, stored the salvageable furniture and boarded up the house. Another Carmel couple has loaned their house to the Frosts and their two dogs for several weeks while they search for a rental.

“I’m astounded at how kind everyone has been,” Frost said.

Monterey County Business
Standing Up to Disaster
Restoring Homes and Offices

By Jordanna E. Berger

It wasn’t until a drunken driver crashed through their living room that Terry and Theresa Ream found their calling in disaster restoration. The insurance adjuster who was handling the Reams’ case liked the estimate they provided for the damage, so he started calling them for other jobs.

“I like the urgency, the high intensity of disaster restoration,” said Theresa Ream. “It’s so different than normal construction because it’s an emergency situation on a daily basis. We go out and we take care of the problem. There’s a high energy level around the office that you wouldn’t get with a normal construction company.”

The Reams founded Ream Construction & Disaster Cleaning in Sand City in 1981. It now employs 38, with Theresa, 43, serving as president and Terry 45, as vice president. A native of San Jose, Terry Ream moved to the area in 1970, when he was stationed at Fort Ord. He has been in construction all his life. Theresa Ream grew up in Marina. Ream Construction specializes in fire damage and water damage restoration, handling both content and structural renovation, as well as trees falling on home, suicides and animal smells. Its staff can clean air ducts, and do light restoration, painting, carpentry work and sand blasting. For other work, Ream Construction has more than 100 subcontractors.

“We specialize in structures that have been affected by smoke, soot, water, heat, etc.,” said Terry Ream. “We bring them back to life ad salvage them.”  The Carmel Pine Cone newspaper called Ream Construction in 1995 to clean up flood damage after sprinklers were triggered by a power-strip fire. Employees arriving at work had found a foot of water in the offices. Ream Construction restored the newspaper’s archives as much as possible.

“Ream Construction worked as quickly as possible and made us as comfortable as possible while walls were being dried or torn down,” said Gilda Soul, bookkeeper at the Pine Cone. Ream Construction has worked on fire-restoration projects for other businesses, such as KAZU public radio station in Pacific Grove and the six-story Santa Cruz Administration Building.

At any moment, Ream Construction is likely to be working on 15 projects in structure restoration and 25 in content restoration. Its largest disaster-restoration project has been in the range of $375,000 to rebuild the structure and $120,000 to restore the contents.

“Home rather than commercial disaster restoration is a more stressful environment because of the loss of personal items and loved ones or pets,” said Theresa Ream. “Our crew is trained in compassion.”  The staff will even make temporary living arrangements for clients, she said.

“If you have a fire today, I can get there in the next hour, as soon as the fire department leaves. I’ll board up your windows and start pulling your carpets out so they’re not sitting in the mucky water. We’ll do whatever we have to do to control the damage,” Terry Ream said.

“This work is very different than working with someone who is planning an addition,” he said. “We’re all builders, but not every company knows how to get that odor out. When your house is fixed and done, you don’t want it to smell like smoke.”  The company is a member of Disaster Kleenup International Inc., a network of 120-member contractors throughout the U.S. who are experts at disaster restoration.

“Ream Construction came highly recommended to us. The company has been a member for just over a year,” said Derry Strong, president of DKI. DKI candidates must pass stringent criteria to become members, including experience with insurance companies, minimum revenue of $500,000 and full-service handling of fire and water damage, content and structural restoration.

The candidacy process takes approximately two months and includes site surveys, review of financial statements and employee interviews. Members must attend four training meetings a year and serve a territory with no more than 2 million inhabitants. Ream Construction is the only DKI member in the tri-county area.

During the floods in 1995, Ream Construction handled the contents of 25 homes, down to the forks and knives, putting everything in warehouses for drying. Some of the houses were done twice because floods hit again in 1997. Ream Construction won the 1996 Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce Small Business Service Excellence award for handling the 1995 floods.

When El Nino hit the area in April 1998, Ream Construction received 40 calls in two hours. Basements were flooding and trees had fallen on roofs. It received 120 calls in three days. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which handles natural disasters, disbursed $1.1 million to Monterey County residents for temporary housing during the El Nino storms. Ream Construction formerly was more involved in regular construction and Victorian remodeling, but has focused on fire and water disasters.

“We’ve made a commitment to be the best fire and water restoration company in the area,” said Terry Ream.