Lessons From The Gulf Coast

Disasters come in many forms. Will your company know what to do?

It's been one year since Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma hit the Gulf Coast. GAWDA members lost stores, lost business, lost employees. For 2006, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts an 80 percent chance of an above-normal hurricane season. The 2006 hurricane season will end on November 1. Welding & Gases Today revisits GAWDA distributors hit hardest by the hurricanes last fall and examines where they are one year later. Faced with shifts in population due to evacuee relocation, inventory damaged by flooding, and the looming question of whether it will happen again, companies on the Gulf Coast modified and updated the way they run their businesses. With experiences ranging from rebuilding stores and implementing emergency response plans to updating technology and witnessing a surprise increase in business, GAWDA distributors on the Gulf Coast discovered that, along with luck, true survival takes planning and patience.

	Many distributors in the path of a hurricane are prepared for wind, but not water. Katrina left major damage to Industrial Welding Supply's New Iberia, Louisiana warehouse, pumping area and store.

Safety First
“Our primary responsibility is to keep our employees safe,” says Billy Fields, safety & compliance officer at Aeriform (Houston, TX). Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit three Aeriform stores in Louisiana and Texas, causing three months' worth of rebuilding, and taught Fields that keeping tabs on employees' safety was easier said than done.

Fields cites an experience with one employee who could not be contacted for ten days after Hurricane Katrina hit. “We didn't know if he was dead or alive,” Fields says. “We decided we couldn't have that; we must know where our employees are in an emergency.”

Fields found that the biggest problem with employee communication was the lack of a secure phone system. People relocated to Florida during evacuation but, because of storm damage, could not get through the phone lines in Louisiana to report where they were. As a result, Fields and a safety committee developed an 800 number system to provide employees with 24-hour service during a disaster. Four 800 numbers are now located in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and Louisiana. Aeriform's stores, divided into four districts (North, South, East and West) now have corresponding 800 numbers outside the districts. If disaster strikes, the call is sent away from the disaster area. “When a tornado hits the north district, employees call the 800 number to ring in Louisiana,” Fields explains.

Every Aeriform employee was recently issued a Natural Disaster Phone Card. The laminated card includes all four 800 numbers and instructions as to what number to call if one is out of commission. The numbers are manned 24 hours a day when the company goes into the natural disaster plan. “Now employees can call us and let us know where they are, what their situation is, and that they are safe,” Fields says.

Aeriform encourages employees to be aware and be prepared. Hurricane response is talked about at monthly safety meetings. Says Fields, “It's been a year and we want to refresh everyone's minds.”

This year, Aeriform also devised a four-page, 150-item checklist that is handed out to employees every time a warning is issued. The checklist provides guidelines for securing the safety of employees, prioritizing customers, and protecting the inventory. “The checklist starts with people and goes to paperclips,” Fields says.

Fields has learned his lesson. “We weren't as prepared as we thought we were. I think we'll do better now.”

Never Enough Preparation
With headquarters located in Prichard, Alabama, and only minor damage to its store in Moss Point, Mississippi, Welding Engineering Supply Company came out of Katrina virtually unharmed, but with a lesson in the power of water. “The water was something we weren't used to,” President Jenny McCall says. “We were used to dealing with strong hurricane winds until Katrina came through bringing rain and lots of water.” Although Welding Engineering Supply Co. had their I's dotted and T's crossed in preparation for the storm, the water surprised them. McCall says they learned quickly to handle it. “You have to put everything up high and anticipate flooding on your bottom floor,” she says.

Experiencing the water flow fine-tuned the company's already efficient emergency response system. Because the company had been through so many hurricanes prior to Katrina, they knew what to do. Welding Engineering Supply Co. was up and running the next day thanks to a skeleton crew of employees who stayed until the final second before the storm, strapping down cylinders, covering materials and selling generators. “We do shifts,” McCall says. “Some employees leave to take care of their houses and then come back, then the next crew goes out.”

McCall is proud of the communication she has with her employees and their response to the hurricanes. “We make sure everyone has contact names and numbers,” McCall says. “Our employees must communicate with us.”

2005: Welding Engineering Supply Company's Moss Point, Mississippi, roof sustained severe wind damage.

2006: Post-storm renovations

McCall prides her company on its hurricane awareness and protocol. “We watch the hurricane closely, then when the path is determined, each location starts to buckle down,” McCall says. The path of preparation and awareness for hurricanes has served the company well. Even with $20,000 worth of damage to the Moss Point store, Welding Engineering Supply Co. is in for a record year. “Many of the people who left the devastated area relocated to Prichard,” McCall says. “That has increased our business.”

Pay Attention to Detail
“We certainly got the message that we needed to do things differently,” acknowledges Marty Kearns, CEO at Industrial Welding Supply (Baton Rouge, LA). Eleven of the company's 23 locations suffered damage from last year's hurricanes, and almost a year later, they still are out of touch with almost 300 customers. In the year since the devastation, Kearns learned the importance of paying attention to detail and communication in the way he does business.

“We're much more observant and careful of how the companies we depend on do things,” Kearns says. After Katrina, Industrial Welding Supply lost all use of its phones and the Internet because its provider's line ran through the middle of New Orleans. To prevent that from happening again, the company now has telephone service running in two directions in case one service area goes down. They also are installing the company's first gas-powered generator.

Kearns quickly became aware of the company's lack of preparation as Hurricane Katrina hit. With no emergency communication plan in place before the storm, the company was fortunate to have employees with the ability to quickly put together an Internet site, where people could check in with their whereabouts, regardless of their location. “During the storm, we depended on word of mouth to spread the news about the Web site, but now it's part of our corporate manual,” acknowledges Kearns.

2005: Flood-damaged showroom at Industrial Welding Supply's New Iberia Store

2006: Restored showroom

With its changes to communication protocol and increased attention to detail when it comes to employee safety, the company is now struggling with finding and hiring employees. The storm damage caused people to relocate and the company to lose workers. “We now operate our business with about eight percent fewer employees than we did this time last year, because people aren't available and the cost of hiring has drastically changed,” Kearns says. “We still have stores that are not functioning.”

With increased salaries and extra efforts, Kearns is doing all he can to keep his workers. “One of our drivers didn't have a place to stay and we worked with him to get a trailer that is now located on our property,” Kearns says.

Evacuees Bring Business
Although the F.R. Blankenstein Company of Natchez, Mississippi, is more prone to tornadoes than hurricanes, during the past year they have seen unique side effects of life after Katrina: business life in a town offering a new start to evacuees. “Business in general has improved with all the construction taking place,” President F.R. Blankenstein Jr. says.

Filled with churches that supplied evacuees with a safe haven as they fled their homes because of the hurricane damage, the town of Natchez has served as the starting-over place for many people who were left homeless after the storms. With a booming real estate market, business in the town has improved this past year, including Blankenstein's.

“Natchez is doing an excellent job of helping people out, and our community is benefiting from having more people in town,” he says.

Prepare for Customer Demand
With only a few downed trees and some wind damage from last year's hurricanes, B & R Industrial Supply (Laurel, MS) is now focusing its hurricane preparation on keeping emergency items in stock. “We made lists of things that were common commodities, and we are keeping a large supply in stock of those items during the hurricane season,” President Nathan Stringer says. Generators, lanterns, batteries and gas cans are among Stringer's stockpiles.

Last year, B & R suffered only from power outages, and few employees dealt with the aftermath of storm damage to their houses. As such, B & R does not have an emergency evacuation plan. The company's main focus is providing for customers. “We have in stock the things everybody panics for,” Stringer says.

Communication Is Key
Last year, Airgas Gulf States closed two locations due to hurricane damage: Buras and Chalmette, Louisiana. Six other branches were damaged, but are now fully operational.

Through the process of restoration and the closing of the two stores, President Rusty (Henry) Coker III has been working to modify and update Airgas Gulf States' emergency plans. He explains, “On our internal Web site, we now have individual contact num-bers for employees, information where they report back after the storm, and where and how customers can contact them.”

After Katrina, Airgas Gulf States was missing one employee, found a week later by the Sheriff's Department unable to leave a flooded area. That experience heightened the importance of emergency response. Communication is now essential to the Airgas response plan. “We do a lot of talking and training ahead of time, making sure employees know what their responsibilities are and what their contact numbers are.”

2005: Nesting and tying did not protect these cylinders from Katrina's 150 mph winds at Airgas' location in Buras, Louisiana.

2005: After the water receded, the parking area at the Airgas store in Chalmette, Louisiana, required major paving work.

In addition to its intranet site, Airgas Gulf States' contact numbers are posted in offices, and the critical numbers are now also organized on a card and laminated for employees to carry in their wallets. Critical numbers include Coker's and an 800 number connecting to the national Airgas HR department.

“We had emergency plans in place, but we've updated and modified them,” Coker says. “The communication pre-storm and post-storm are most important for us.”

Upgrading and Updating Is Necessary
Although his stores were hit by only minor damage from the hurricanes, Michael Dempsey, president and general manager of National Welding Supply Company (New Iberia, LA), spent the past year perfecting his survival tactics through attention to technology, inventory and employees.

Facing Down Mother Nature GAWDA Members took advantage of the series of articles on Disaster Planning in Welding & Gases Today's First Quarter 2006 issue. Read Emergency Planning for Businesses and Distributor Risk Management Plans again.

This year, Dempsey took several steps to secure his business by securing his technology. He re-evaluated the company's ten-year-old computer system and decided that a new one would allow National Welding Supply employees more flexibility in accessing data from home and between stores in case one location is hit by a storm. Through working with the local power company, Dempsey is considering the installation of a knife switch to be able to switch to auxiliary power in an emergency. He also is looking into new storage for inventory and contemplating how much that would actually save him in a major category storm. “It's not a fail-safe effort,” Dempsey says. “How much precaution can you take?”

Dempsey has made an effort to take as much precaution as he can, though, when it comes to employees. After losing one employee last year who was traveling through flood waters, Dempsey has put together an information sheet for employees on how to react to storms. “They need to have cash, prescriptions, medicine, any or all important documents. If they are going to stay, they need a generator,” Dempsey says. When it comes to emergency protocol, Dempsey is adamant that people come first. “Number one is get to safety. After that, branches must contact members of the management team.”

This past summer, Dempsey prepared his company and his employees for this year's hurricane season. He points out the irony of the need for rain and stormy weather. “This summer, we've had some of the driest weather in a hundred years.

We could welcome a tropical storm right now,” he says. “We just would like a valve to turn it off.”