When a tornado touched down in Joplin, Missouri, in 2011, Sarah Kowalski was a first-year restoration technician working 18-hour days alongside a crew of men who had decades more experience. Fourteen years later, she runs her own company and has built what she believes is the only all-women rapid response team in the restoration industry.
Kowalski's team of 12 certified technicians — all holding IICRC Water Restoration Technician and Applied Structural Drying credentials — deploys within 90 minutes of a major weather event anywhere in a five-state region covering Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Iowa.
"Speed is everything in water damage," Kowalski said. "Every hour you wait, the damage gets worse and the claim gets bigger. We built our team around response time, and we've never missed a 90-minute window."
The team handled 847 emergency calls in 2024, generating $4.1 million in revenue. Kowalski has been approached by three national franchise networks about replicating the model in other markets.
She credits the IICRC's S500 Standard for Professional Water Damage Restoration as the operational foundation that makes rapid deployment possible. "When everyone on the team is certified to the same standard, you don't need to explain the protocol. You just execute."
