Challenge

St. Margaret’s Daughters’ Home, located in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, was virtually destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. While all residents were safely evacuated before the storm hit, the building was declared unsalvageable after it was flooded with up to six feet of standing water for two weeks. St. Margaret’s officials immediately began searching to find a new home for residents as quickly as possible. They found a new home in the former Bywater Hospital on St. Claude Avenue. Although suitable, the building needed total renovation of the HVAC systems that would require many months of work. Meanwhile, the residents and staff needed dependable heating and cooling systems to provide a comfortable, clean indoor environment.

Solution

While the HVAC engineers at the Trane office in New Orleans went to work on designing a permanent HVAC system for the building, Trane Rental Services leased a 60-ton capacity portable air-cooled chiller to St. Margaret’s Daughters’. Along with the chiller Trane provided the chilled water pump plus special vertical piping as the chille d water had to be connected to the building at the fifth floor penthouse equipment room. Trane had the rental chiller up and running within just a couple of days.

Meanwhile, Trane designed a new, permanent HVAC system and hired the mechanical, electrical and structural subcontractors to install the new systems. The new system includes Trane 100-ton capacity chillers, chilled water pumps, hot water boilers, domestic hot water heaters and a Tracer Summit™ building automation system for precise, efficient operation and control of the HVAC systems.

Results

Larry Stansberry, chief executive officer of St. Margaret’s, said, “Residents and staff are a tight-knit group. Those relationships survived the storm. It became my number one priority to get everyone under one roof again after this horrible tragedy. I consider the residents and staff of St. Margaret’s to be like family and I wanted to bring them back home.

Stansberry added, “If not for Trane’s generous offer to lease us an HVAC system, I would have needed to start at square one again to find another suitable temporary location. Thanks to Trane’s help, the St. Margaret’s family will be back together once again.”

Systems Installed

Trane Rental Services provides shortand long-term temporary cooling or heating solutions for emergency and planned situations. Trane’s modern fleet of HVAC systems are prepped and ready to ship at a moment’s notice to manufacturing facilities, hospitals, universities, ice rinks, on-location television shows, tournaments and special engagements.

About St. Margaret’s Daughters’ Home

St. Margaret’s Daughters’ Home is a faith-based nonprofit facility offering affordable quality nursing care to its residents. Opened in 1931, the original building serviced the community for nearly 40 years before creating two additional wings. Prior to the storm, 95 elderly men and women called the residence home.