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Well, those of you who remember, we got whacked with a serious flood at our main shop a couple years ago. Well, Hanna did it to us again, worse than the last time. we have been pumping since 9 this am, and are still going now 12 hours later. It is bad. Hope everyone had a better outcome than we did. It was up to my waist through the whole plant...

Ouch Dug
That's gonna hurt..........I'm thinking a lot of electric motor and control repair........

I was afraid for me that Ike was going to cause me to miss IMTS......I am watching the weather report and now it looks like Texas may be the target.....On Thursday I will most likely be off to IMTS

Hope all of you guys are physically Okay

Harry

We lucked out with Hanna here on the lower Bay. Sorry to hear you are going through tha again Dug.

Dug,
There was a business owner from Worcester interviewed on TV last night. Said that it was the fourth time in six years he had been flooded & they were going to relocate somewhere else.
Al

That was the owner of All Phase Glass. He moved in about 5-6 years ago. He is 2 doors down Cambridge Street from us. He had over 5 feet in his main building.

He is fu##ed. He has been flooded, but his floods are more common than ours due to the fact that he is lower. It was over my head when I stood in the street outside his showroom.

My next door neighbor will be declaring bankruptcy. He runs a custom car and speed shop. He got hit 3 years ago, got cleaned up, had a sprinkler blow last year, and then this. It ripped his overhead door and a section of wall right into the street. He is uninsured. He is done.

There is an electrical supply house across the street from the glass guy, that place is also destroyed.

We actually are in a decent position compared to three years ago, but picture a machine shop and manufacturing company with 3 feet of water through the whole place. Oil, electrical crap, air compressor, R&D lab, all equipment, fork trucks company vehicles, all wet. The company van had the headlights half full of water...it was up halfway up the windshield...

And this wasn't even a big storm. City manager is coming by in 20 minutes. This should be entertaining...

Dug

Dug,

Sorry for your miseries... Sounds like the city needs to get on the ball with better storm drainage for your area. Unless you're below sea level there's no reason for that much water height.

Br,

Patrick

Dug wrote:That was the owner of All Phase Glass. He moved in about 5-6 years ago. He is 2 doors down Cambridge Street from us. He had over 5 feet in his main building.

He is fu##ed. He has been flooded, but his floods are more common than ours due to the fact that he is lower. It was over my head when I stood in the street outside his showroom.

My next door neighbor will be declaring bankruptcy. He runs a custom car and speed shop. He got hit 3 years ago, got cleaned up, had a sprinkler blow last year, and then this. It ripped his overhead door and a section of wall right into the street. He is uninsured. He is done.

There is an electrical supply house across the street from the glass guy, that place is also destroyed.

We actually are in a decent position compared to three years ago, but picture a machine shop and manufacturing company with 3 feet of water through the whole place. Oil, electrical crap, air compressor, R&D lab, all equipment, fork trucks company vehicles, all wet. The company van had the headlights half full of water...it was up halfway up the windshield...

And this wasn't even a big storm. City manager is coming by in 20 minutes. This should be entertaining...

Dug

Dug- that is the pits. Will insurance cover? Start tracking EVERYTHING including lost time.

Dug wrote:
We actually are in a decent position compared to three years ago, but picture a machine shop and manufacturing company with 3 feet of water through the whole place. Oil, electrical crap, air compressor, R&D lab, all equipment, fork trucks company vehicles, all wet. The company van had the headlights half full of water...it was up halfway up the windshield...

And this wasn't even a big storm. City manager is coming by in 20 minutes. This should be entertaining...

Dug

Sorry to hear this news, I hope you can get up and running soon as possible.

I would prefer not to picture the scene you painted for us.

Is relocating on the options table? If it was, I could see your city offering you some incentives to stay.

Relocating is the long term plan for many reasons. One of the challenges is location however, as many of our employees are local. As you know your greatest asset is your employee base, so there is only so far we can go without creating the potential of losses on that front.

We are insured, and that will blunt the financial impact long term. Short term we still need to ship. As most know, your customer might sympathize but it is better for them just to get the parts that they need. The last thing you want is for them to think you are vulnerable, thus they will go somewhere else where they feel more confident in ability to respond. Our customers ultimately don't care that we had a flood, fire, or anything else happen. They want parts. We should be back with very limited production later today, and moving in the direction of full rapidly in the days to follow.

Fortunately we are practiced with this crap, so our team is tracking, cleaning, and repairing with well practiced experience.

Patrick I agree with you. You are right. The city on the other hand doesn't. Hence relocation...

We have been in this building since 1957. We have had two major floods in the 51 years we have been there. Once yesterday. Once 3 years ago.

Food for thought. The city needs to make some adjustments.

Relative to the relocating, this may light a fire under them to incent us, it may not. Time will tell. Long story short, we have the shop I run that was not affected at all, and we didn't have that 3 years ago, so we have redundant equipment, and to a smaller degree people. That is a true asset. But relocating will need to happen. We cannot stay, remain vulnerable, and continue to have this happen. This wasn't even a big storm...as I already said.

As you know your greatest asset is your employee base

Truer words were never spoken. I wish more major American companies would ignore what their MBA educated idiots are telling them & realize that.

Al

Doug,

Sorry to hear about your shop...

We were spared this time...Been in downtown Peabody for 20 years and have seen (3) 100 year floods in that time...last time had 12" in shop and 16" in showroom....Building owner finally stepped up and paid for all through his policy.....

Worst of it was the Mold that grew in places not visible..Contaminated and eventually condemned building for 30 days after water receded till health officer gave us a clean bill...Make sure your clean up company doesn't alert public health officer as to possible mold issue...That's what kept his drying equipment on site for over 30 days @ $600.00/day..!!

Sucks to have to go through that.......

Best of luck...

Ray

In the late 80's I had a Cheverolet dealership in a "flood zone" on the south shore on Long Island. There was a creek and wetlands behind the building but the building was elevated enough that the storm surge would not effect the showroom, shop and parts dept. But the used car lot was a problem. We moved the cars into the service area when needed and then put some down the street on higher ground. We had full coverage on everything and the insurance company stated that everything must be done to protect our assets. We had business interuption insurance also.

If I were you, I'd make a strong case to the city to correct the drainage. A bleake picture should be painted ... the business is too important for the ecomomics of the people who are employed there.

Dick,
Business interuption is good, but that does not cover lost customers. Even the most devote customer will need to look elsewhere if they cannot receive product. Once they add that new source to their Rolodex it's a crap shoot as to whether or not they will come back or you can win them back.

Dug, glad to hear you are not completely down as you have another shop. I'll take a guess the CNC's are in your shop. I can't see them getting back on-line so quickly after being flooded. My service tech has been working in a PA company for over a month trying to get them back up and running after a fire. Most machines where fine from the fire, it was the Firemens hoses that really did the number on them.

Hope it all works out for you.

Carl

Dug-I assume yours is a Union shop. Now's the time to sit with them and ask their help in getting Worcester to fix their drainage system in your area. The voice of the union bears more weight with the politicians than your companies. The Union knows you were hurt twice and relocation might be your only long term solution without a drainage correction. Let them know you don't want to do it, but it may be your only recourse if nothing changes. They're not dumb, they'll know what that means to their members. With them on your side, you have a better chance of getting things done. Walter

Sim,

PLC's and CNC's in both places. At the plant affected, this is just the tip.

1 Okuma Captain lathe
2 Hurco VMC's
1 Charmilles EDM
2 Sodick Wire EDM
1 Mitsui surface grinder

Many, Many press and machine controls...

The damage is not fully assessed yet, though suprisingly most came through the last flood 3 years ago pretty well.

Walter, our people have been amazing. We are fortunate to have a damned good employee base, and this kind of event only highlights that fact that we are lucky enough to already know.

By the way Al...I have an MBA. But I know what you are saying! :)

I am crossing my fingers and hoping those machine tools pull thru again.

Walter made a real good point. You have a bunch of advocates in your corner, let them make some noise.


Carl