CBI grinders shred up a storm for S. St. George Enterprises Inc.: Magnum Force 4800 and Annihilator tackle hurricane debris.

In less than a year, Florida has seen its share of unwanted visitors--Charley, Dennis, Emily, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne--and they've left behind quite a mess to clean up. Millions of tons of downed trees, houses and businesses left in the wake of these powerful storms have had to be moved to open areas around the state for processing prior to disposal-a job that requires both the right experience and the right equipment. Enter Steve St. George and his grinders from Continental Biomass Industries Inc. (CBI).

St. George, owner of S. St. George Enterprises Inc., has had years of grinding experience as part of his site preparation and utility business in Fredonia, N.Y. But when an ice storm hit the Carolinas four years ago, he found a new way to capitalize on his resources--cleaning up storm debris on a contract basis.

When Hurricane Ivan hit Florida in 2004, St. George moved operations to Pensacola where hundreds of thousand of cubic yards of storm debris were being staged at the Naval Air Station on airstrips used by the famed Blue Angels. Realizing that the scope of work required greater reliability and production than he could get from his tub grinder, St. George purchased his first horizontal machine--a CBI Magnum Force 4800. After always having been a tub man, St. George marveled at the versatility of the 4800 for its ability to handle both C&D and land clearing debris.

Vegetative waste was processed into a fuel product and shipped overseas, but when huge stacks of C&D started coming in--more than 400,000 cubic yards from Hurricane Ivan alone--St. George knew that he needed a second piece of equipment. The 4800 had enough backlog with just the vegetative material, so to handle the C&D, St. George turned to CBI again for a portable Annihilator, a slow speed, high torque unit dubbed the MOAS (Mother Of All Shredders).

Since delivery in May, the Annihilator has been processing some of the toughest hurricane debris imaginable, with more on the way. "What we are running is the worst of what was washed up or knocked down by the hurricane," says St. George. Both the Annihilator and the 4800 have been running 12 hours a day, seven days a week with surprisingly little wear, especially compared to the other shredders he tried out. "The Annihilator eats the rest of them," he says.

Throughput rates can vary depending on the material, but St. George points out the unit reduces volume of the material faster than his excavator can load it. The whole operation requires just two people--one to load the unit and the other to direct the outflow. "I couldn't do this without the great crew I have working here," says St. George.

"We tried one of the dual-shaft shredders before we bought our Annihilator," says St. George, "it didn't work. The machine needed to be dug out a minimum of six, and as many as 15 times per day, because the discharge conveyor continuously jammed. Wear was a huge problem. We were changing tips every few hours with the other machine, but the Annihilator's tips last for weeks before they have to be turned. We also had trouble with another single-shaft unit we tried out."

St. George is highly complimentary about CBI's service of his machines. "The CBI service is second to none," he says. "We have had a couple of minor issues, nothing big, and they have come out and corrected and improved the Annihilator's performance. They once sent three people out for something that I think they could have talked me through on the phone."