Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Katrina provides business lessons

As they struggle to reopen, companies learn what they should have done to prepare for a catastrophe.

By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published April 26, 2006

As Hurricane Katrina bore down on Mississippi's Gulf Coast in August, Susan Daigre made a final trip to her boarded-up bookstore in Waveland to grab the cat. It was only on second thought that she ran back in to get her computer, which contained records of her store's inventory.

Down the road, Rickey Peters of Rickey's Bar and Grill dutifully took pictures of his restaurant's contents, including freezers full of food. But in the haste of evacuating his house when the storm came ashore, Peters left the camera behind. It was washed away in 14 feet of water.

Lucy Markel regrets she and her husband Terry left their computer and insurance records behind when they locked up their Waveland building supply business before Katrina. But she has no idea where they might have safely stored the business records. They evacuated to what they thought was high ground, only to scramble for their lives by foot in the midst of the storm.

"We couldn't have left the computers and papers in the cars," Markel said. "They all went under water."

The damage endured by businesses in Katrina's path was unprecedented and unimaginable. But as business owners along Mississippi's southwest coast try to recover, as well as prepare for the coming hurricane season, they offered these words of advice for their counterparts on Florida's Gulf Coast:

When you evacuate, take copies of your employees' cell phone numbers, preferably programmed into your cell phone.

"I took an associate listing with home phone numbers," said Ray Cox, manager of the Waveland Wal-Mart, which was filled with 12 feet of water. "But 90 percent of my associates' homes were destroyed."

Before the storm, give employees the number of an emergency operations center outside the area. Cox said Wal-Mart's ability to route employees' calls to him through its Arkansas headquarters allowed him to reopen quickly.

Take employee files. Daniel Frisella, manager of the RiteAid in Waveland, said it was a nuisance to have to collect new tax forms and proof of pharmacy training for employees as he raced to reopen less than two weeks after the storm. "I wish I had just thrown them in a box," he said.

Take phone numbers for suppliers, particularly those outside your immediate area. The Markels had to dig through the ruins of their building supply store, which was inundated with about 8 feet of water, to get phone numbers for vendors in Mobile.

"Try to network with someone out of state," said Lucy Markel. "We were scrounging to get material in. We were asking ourselves, "Who did we buy this from?"

Pictures tell the story. Susan Daigre said having pictures of the contents of both her bookstore and home helped immensely in getting insurance reimbursements, even though she had to file several times. In retrospect, she wishes she'd taken more detailed shots of antique bookcases, first-edition books, even office equipment.

"Take a close-up picture of your computer, copier and fax because you won't remember the brand," Daigre suggested. "I wish I'd had a little notebook with pictures of all that stuff."

Thoroughly review your insurance policy and fill in any gaps before storm season starts.

Restaurateur Peters and his partner Bill Boyd tried to increase coverage on the contents of their business in August. Katrina hit 28 days after they sent in the check - two days before the higher coverage would have gone into effect. "They sent back our $3,000 premium," Peters said.

Jody Compretta, owner of a medical equipment business in Waveland, said he even added earthquake insurance to his coverage this year.

"If you've got the money, buy it," said Compretta, who didn't have flood insurance before Katrina because his business was 27 feet above sea level. "And make sure you review every square inch of your policies with someone who understands them."

Another tip from Compretta: Get complete, up-to-date copies of all your insurance policies and put them in a waterproof container to take when you evacuate.

Convert paper to electronic documents and store the data off site.

When Compretta's medical supply business was filled with four feet of water from Katrina's storm surge, all patient files were lost. The same individuals' records were often destroyed at local doctors' offices and hospitals. "Their entire lives' medical records are gone," Compretta said of his clients.

Since reopening, he has been scanning all patient records into a computer and transmitting the data to a company with storage facilities in Tennessee and Texas. Records of his electronic billing to Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers are being stored in Atlanta and Miami.

"I've realized you can't take everything with you," Compretta said. "Now if this building blew away tomorrow, I could plug in my laptop and have access to my billing and patient information the next day."

Lucy Markel has an equally high-tech, though lower budget, plan for keeping her business' data safe during the next storm.

"I've got flashdrives, and I'm sending them to folks like my nephew in North Carolina," she said.

Though business comes first, don't forget to take some personal mementos.

On Ray Cox's last pass through his office, the Wal-Mart manager wishes he had grabbed a calculator from his dad and autographs from celebrities who had visited the store. Bookseller Daigre left behind scrapbooks from 17 years of store events and a plaque honoring her as 2005 Business of the Year. Rickey's Bar and Grill had accumulated pictures and memorabilia on its walls after six years in business.

"Those are the things you miss the most," said Peters, whose business was a half-block off the beach.

When you reopen, be kind to employees. Peters said his new restaurant in Bay St. Louis is closed two days a week, doesn't serve breakfast and closes midafternoon for 90 minutes so his workers can relax.

"I want to take care of my employees," he said of his crew, 90 percent of whom were with the restaurant before the storm. "They've been really busy."

Wal-Mart's manager, who reopened his store in a parking lot tent less than three weeks after Katrina, said his workers were sleeping in tents at night and serving the public by day.

"That was the toughest part," said Cox, who drove 100 miles each way to work for several months. "Our employees were drained from what they'd seen and been through."

Kris Hundley can be reached at hundley@sptimes.com or 727 892-2996.

[Last modified April 26, 2006, 01:21:08]