During Sunday’s deluge, a portion of Drainage Pumping Station 7 lost power and it took approximately an hour to bring a backup generator online. However, unlike the sleeping workers during the great 2017 flood, John Chiasson, woke up only 30 minutes after the ear-piercing alarm went off.

John explains:

I’m normally a really heavy sleeper at work but, since the fiasco of 2017, I have been training myself to wake up when the alarm is sounded. It took a while but I have whittled my reaction time from 68 minutes to now only 30 minutes. It has taken a lot of mental training to become more sensitive to alarms.

For his accomplishment, the Sewerage and Water Board will present Mr. Chiasson with a brand new Rolex Submariner at a ceremony to be conducted at The Fly.