Latest news with #BryanRoney
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
GPS steers family into roads flooded by Haw River, man rescues them
HAW RIVER, N.C. (WGHP) — The Haw River rose quickly Sunday night in the wake of Tropical Storm Chantal, and it took many people by surprise. As major roads like the interstate had water flowing over them, navigation systems started suggesting people take alternate routes, but those routes weren't safe either. A family from South Africa traveling to Virginia followed an alternate route down Stone Street Extension, which is a dark, rural two-lane road right over the Haw River. If it weren't for the help of a man who saw them at the right time, they would have been washed into the river. 'We had to make a detour… I never come this way. You don't want to use the words 'divine intervention', but why not?' said Mebane native Bryan Roney. Roney, taking an alternate route himself, knew it wasn't safe to go over the bridge. 'I was attempting to turn around and saw two cars coming this way,' Roney said. He knew the cars were stalled and knew he had to act fast. He got to a man with a little girl first. The man was in shock, gripping his steering wheel. 'I said, 'You got to listen to me. You're fixing to die,'' said Roney. He got them out of the car, and the family of four in the other car. 'The only thing I had was my log chain, so we all grabbed onto this log chain,' he said. And the Haw River nipped at their knees. 'Hold onto this rail, so we held on. We had the chain in one hand, rail in the other,' he said. As the water was rising on the bridge, neighbors in a mobile home park on the riverbank were terrified. 'I looked out, and my entire front steps was floating away,' Kenneth Saum said. Nearby, one trailer was half underwater. Saum checked on his neighbors closest to the river and got devastating news. 'They ended up losing a dog that was still outside,' he said. As daylight broke, waterlines, tree leaves coated in river mud and the washed-out cars were visible. The cars were hauled out Monday afternoon and were total losses. They have their lives and some new clothes. 'I said, 'Let's go to my house.' I called my wife to get some towels ready, and I had a lot of extra shirts, so now that family is all dressed in triathlon shirts, and a family member came from South Boston [Virginia] to pick them up,' Roney said. Roney said the entire ordeal is a good reminder not to depend on GPS in a storm and to back up if you see water over the road, and he's very grateful he was able to help. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Calgary Herald
05-05-2025
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Parker: TRL and Associates marks 25 years of helping build Calgary
Article content Regina-based Cochrane Engineering used to have a fairly successful office in Calgary, but three men who were running the structural engineering department were not happy with the emphasis it had in being a multidisciplinary firm. Article content Brian Tomecek, Bryan Roney and Ken Little decided to leave and start their own stand-alone, service-oriented firm to specialize and focus purely on their experience and knowledge in structural engineering. It must have seemed a bit of a gamble at the time, but 25 years later TRL & Associates has prospered and currently has a talented and energetic staff of 31 busily working out of its 10 th Avenue S.W. office. Article content Article content Tomecek is a principal and senior structural engineer of the firm, with extensive experience in a wide range of building types over the past 31 years. Principal Roney is technical design partner, with a considerable amount of knowledge of construction document production and co-ordination capabilities, and is responsible for project deliverables. He provides project management services to clients, sub-consultants and contractors, and leads the business development team for TRL. Article content Article content Little retired six years ago and his partnership position was offered to Jason Finell, a structural engineer with a diverse experience over the past 15 years in wood, steel and concrete building system design. Article content The newest partner in the firm is Jose Mexia, who joined in 2012 after he and his wife moved from Ottawa where he had worked as a structural engineer with Star Engineering and Construction. Mexia graduated with a degree in civil engineering at the Institute of Sonora, Mexico, and earned his master's degree in civil engineering, with specialization in structural engineering at Carleton University in Ottawa. Article content When the original partners launched their company, they began with fairly small projects, but their reputation was soon recognized and quickly attracted a wide variety of clientele who trusted TRL with bigger undertakings — today it is working on 100 active projects. Article content Its portfolio of more than 5,000 completed buildings includes some highly recognized structures, including the four highrise residential towers at Stampede Station, the Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo, SAIT's Clayton Carroll Automotive Centre and the Art Smith Aero Centre. Article content The types of jobs are quite diverse, but as a company earns a certain reputation in one area, so come more similar ones. An early challenge for the engineers was adding floors to a former furniture store on 11 th Avenue S.W. that Centron Group planned to become the first of its Vintage Towers.
