Flood

[Dug]

Worcester had some rain on Friday night...in fact we got 5" or so in an hour and a half. The whole city was affected in ways I have never seen before, and I have seen a lot of water in this town. Needless to say we didn't make it to the main plant in time to prep, as the weather guys and girls had only predicted showers.

We received 40" in the plant, and 110" in the basement. Those of you who have been here for a while know this is not the first time.

Our team is killing the recovery, and its starting to look like home again already. Every piece of equipment is affected in one way or another. Desks and benches were all under water, electrical system, etc.

It will be months before we are 100%, but we are shipping good product as of Monday, and are working hard to get cleaned up and back on line as needed.

If you have not prepped for flooding or other emergencies, I always suggest you give it some thought. Many of us have hurricane plans, and so much recovery has been driven by Sandy and Katrina, it is not a topic far from any of our minds. Being boat owners, we are exposed to high water risks. But it is something that being prepared for makes a big difference.

Be well my friends.

We are pumping!

Dug

[TailhookTom]

Dug:

Sorry to hear of the stress -- nothing like 10 feet of water to ruin your day. I imagine the insurance man has lost his/her sense of humor at this point.

Thank god no one got hurt and that you have a strategic plan for disaster recovery.


Tom

[Tony Meola]

Dug

Flooding just wreaks havic. Be glad you can keep shipping.

[Carl]

Shipping by Monday is a testament to a good plan and crew, at least that is one shining star.



Curious as to how you prep for a flood...yes, move light stuff up and away...but can't see you lifting machines or pulling motors and electrical from them.

I'd assume scale is way off, but I was intrigued to hear the governments "Build It Backs" plan to raise half a duplex (Semi Attached) to meet the new Flood Code when one family does not want to raise their portion of the house.
They fill in the lower floor or floors, pull off roof, add the lost floors to the top of house, slap on a new roof and call it done.
Of course this is the government talking so they don't bat an eye spending 300K to raise a 150k house.

[Dug]

Hi Carl,

Well, there are many things...

1) we have installed a pumping system with sumps etc that is pretty massive. at any given time, if we are here, we can pump effectively 15" plus of water from our basement without power. Add power and the electrical sumps pump another 8". So we can move a lot of water. We treat the building like a boat, and try to remove water fast enough that it does not sink, even if it gets wet inside the hull. This only works if we are on site, which we were not.

2) we install flood boards. They actually help retard the water entry. They slow it. Along with sandbags if we know its coming.

3) we have hoists over most machine controls. Our presses have motors etc on top. CNC equip not much you can do...

4) inventory can be stored on racks off the ground. That helps.

Beyond that knowing what to hit first due to practice...

Scales needed to be replaced.

But in an event like this, you figure out who your good vendors are pretty quickly. That is always a good thing!

Dug

[Carl]

Too bad you couldn't waterproof building or build a retaining wall around...keep water out instead of pumping out the water that gets in.

It's always good to know who your good customers are...but I prefer not to test them.

[Amberjack]

Hi Dug--

I was in a Boston hotel that night and we received flood warnings on our Seattle based cell phones--that is a great disaster warning system. Next day walking along the Charles River we saw food vendors' trucks that had parked overnight for the race had high water marks halfway up their wheels. Good luck on your clean up.

[Rawleigh]

Sorry you had to go through that again Dug!