• Rental companies worked to meet the needs of flood-ravaged towns in northern Illinois, where heavy rains caused the Fox and Des Plaines rivers to swell to a historic degree during the month of July.
• Lee Jensen Sales and Burris Equipment used Tsurumi pumps to move floodwater out of homes, waterways, public parks and municipal buildings.

Floodwaters have almost completely receded after Chicago-area rivers overflowed during the month of July. A stretch of rainless days near the end of the month helped property owners to dry out, but undoing the damage caused by the record-breaking swells was not easy. 

As neighborhoods turned their attention to cleaning up and assessing the damage caused by the floodwaters, the need for easily accessible pumping solutions was great. Rental companies like Crystal Lake, Illinois-based Lee Jensen Sales saw a flurry of activity in the wake of the flooding. 

Todd Larsen, sales manager at Lee Jensen, said his company put its confidence in Tsurumi pumps to keep remediation efforts on track.

“Many of the communities in our service area didn’t have working sewage, and a lot of homeowners came in to buy and rent pumps to handle the cleanup themselves. In situations like these, we always recommend Tsurumi pumps to give customers the most reliable pumping solution possible.”

In fact, Lee Jensen exclusively carries Tsurumi-manufactured submersible and gas-powered centrifugal pumps. Larsen commented on why the company chose to go with Tsurumi.

“Many of the communities in our service area didn’t have working sewage, and a lot of homeowners came in to buy and rent pumps to handle the cleanup themselves. In situations like these, we always recommend Tsurumi pumps to give customers the most reliable pumping solution possible.”

In fact, Lee Jensen exclusively carries Tsurumi-manufactured submersible and gas-powered centrifugal pumps. Larsen commented on why the company chose to go with Tsurumi.

“Our crews had a lot of success with Tsurumi’s LB-800 submersible pumps and KTZ47.5-60 three-phase dewatering pumps in particular,” he explained. “At the end of the day, we need to rely on the products we put out in the field, without hesitation.”

In addition to selling and renting pumps directly to customers, the company also did remediation work for several clients following the flooding. 

“One of the toughest job sites we worked on was the local golf course, which was completely underwater,” he explained. “It’s a big job when every green and fairway on the course is submerged. We had to keep pumping the water from one place to another, ‘leap frogging’ it from place to place until the water reached a retention area where it safely settled. Tsurumi’s six-inch submersible pumps have worked well for us during this project.”

Further north, in Waukegan, Illinois, Burris Equipment helped its customers with the record flooding that occurred near Fox Lake, where water rose to one foot above dock level. The company assisted the Fox Waterway Agency, which manages the major waterways in Lake and McHenry counties, with pumping floodwaters out of its municipal headquarters. 

“The last big flood we had in this area was in 2013, and this recent flooding easily topped that,” said Barry Heinrichs, owner of Burris Equipment. “We had a lot of water to move out of the Fox Waterway Agency’s headquarters, and we had great success using Tsurumi’s LB-480 electric submersible pumps.”

Burris Equipment also supplied Lake County Public Works with several of Tsurumi’s heavy-duty, vacuum-assisted EPT45-1 engine-powered pumps. The units performed well for the department as it dealt with record-breaking swells along the Des Plaines River.

“With Tsurumi, the durability is exceptional,” Heinrichs explained. “The nice thing about Tsurumi’s entire product range is the thermal overload protection. If you happen to get plugged up or the pump isn’t running, the unit won’t burn up. It’s a big reason why we use Tsurumi pumps during crises like these and why we supply those pumps to our customers.”

The resilience of Tsurumi’s pumps is the result of a design that utilizes high-chrome materials for maximum durability. But the company depends on more than just quality to respond to natural disasters. Tsurumi’s dedication to parts availability and stocking, backed by extensive logistical expertise, ensures that companies like Lee Jensen Sales and Burris Equipment have access to reliable pumps during a crisis. 

Tsurumi has a proven track record of offering quick deliveries — and in some cases, pre-deliveries — to regions across the U.S. that are stricken by hurricanes and flooding. Glenn Wieczorek, managing director of Tsurumi, said that these factors helped rental companies to implement a successful cleanup in northern Illinois.

“Our attention to manufacturing detail and willingness to invest in inventory are two aspects that many of our competitors can’t match,” he said. “We have made significant strides over the years in increasing our logistical capabilities to ensure that rental houses and customers have exactly the pumps they need, exactly when they need them.”