Here in sunny Bridgeport, Pa. - just outside of Philadelphia - there is little sign of Hurricane Sandy's passage. Last week, of course, was a bit different.
On Monday, trees were whipping back and forth, one could hear the intermittent crackling of branches snapping off, and it was raining very hard. I got up early and made the 10-mile drive from my house to the factory where we make our conference tables, just to make sure everything was O.K. and was surprised to find that 6 Â of my 14 workers had showed up. I gathered them and told them that I appreciated their diligence but that they should leave soon, as it was likely that the storm would get much worse as the day wore on.
I was out of the shop on the Thursday and Friday preceding the storm. My shop manager, Kyle, made sure that windows were closed tightly before he left on Friday and had moved our work-in-progress into the center of the shop, far from the windows. Otherwise, we didn't do anything. I'm not worried about flooding, as we are on the fourth floor, and I was philosophical about the potential for power loss - our building has its own power infrastructure and isn't dependent on lines strung on poles. I'm not sure what it would take to knock it out, but it would have to be an extreme event. Our building complex is right next to the Schuylkill River, but we are on a relatively high spot. The only unusual preparation I made was to stop at my bank and pick up a couple of thousand dollars in small bills, in case A.T.M.'s stopped functioning.
As it turned out, we've had very little disruption from the storm. Our shop power never went out. On Tuesday, seven of the guys showed up, even after I called everyone to tell them to stay home if they felt like it. We had a full complement on Wednesday and have been going strong ever since. The biggest disruption we have felt is from the trucking companies that deliver and pick up from us - they have been delayed and all servic e is much slower.
Have I learned anything from my experience? Not really, other than that it's good to be lucky. There just hasn't been much intersection between the type of damage that Sandy did and the list of things that we do. Clearly, however, this isn't true for many, many businesses. Have you been disrupted by the storm? What do you intend to do about it? Is there anything you wish you had done differently?
Paul Downs founded Paul Downs Cabinetmakers in 1986. It is based outside Philadelphia.
