Although Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were mammoth storms that tested the service capabilities of utility distributors, experience and advance preparation is guiding distributors through the restoration process on the Gulf Coast.
In Electrical Wholesaling’s cover story this month, several utility distributors said preparing for and responding to natural disasters is a central and inevitable part of their business, especially along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts where hurricanes like to visit in late summer. “This company has been in business for 50 years, and we’ve seen a lot of hurricanes,” said Wade Patterson, president of Tri-State Utility Products, Marietta, Ga. “When you’ve been through it so many times, you know you have to have a plan in place before the storm ever comes.”
For Orlando, Fla.-based Hughes Supply, responding to disasters becomes a way of life year-round. “Twelve months out of the year, we have the potential for a natural disaster. We’re always in some sort of storm mode,” said Joe LeNoir, southeast regional vice president of the company’s utility division.
As seasoned as utility distributors may be, nothing could prepare them for the widespread devastation Katrina would bring to Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. As the storm blew near, taking aim at the coastline between New Orleans and Pensacola, Fla., the pace of preparations stepped up. Distributors were in constant communication with their primary manufacturers, getting updated information on inventory and availability, letting the manufacturers know what the situation was like on the ground, and making sure they had emergency contact information for night-time and weekend communications.
The distributors began bringing in people, inventory and equipment from other branches and staging them just outside the expected path of the storm. Stuart C. Irby Co., Jackson, Miss., moved 60 people from other branches into its facilities in Jackson, La.; Baton Rouge, La.; and Little Rock, Ark., the branches that would supply product into the storm-affected area. They brought in tractor-trailers, delivery trucks, forklifts, generators for emergency backup power and several truckloads of pole-line hardware, automatic splices and all the other material that would be necessary for their customers to repair a damaged power grid.
Sales reps from Hughes Supply set up temporary offices in their customers’ facilities to coordinate supply lines. Hughes equipped them with radiotelephones so that even if the phone systems were knocked out they could communicate with Hughes’ nearest branch locations. The company also arranged with its core freight carriers to have additional trucks, trailers and drivers on hand, stationed indefinitely at the company’s facilities in Pensacola, Fla.
WESCO Distribution, Pittsburgh, which primarily serves Entergy and Cleco Corp. in the area, prepared its utility branches in Hammond, La., and Lafayette, La., picking and packing prestorm orders throughout the weekend. Three employees agreed to stay in the Hammond facility and ride out the storm to be ready to take care of Entergy as soon as the danger had passed.
Priester Supply sent people and supplies from its headquarters in Arlington, Texas, to its branch in Hammond, La., while Tri-State Utility Products bulked up its inventory and personnel in Birmingham, Ala.; Tallahassee, Fla.; and Atlanta.
Preparations continued into the last hours, as wind and rain at the front of the storm began to be felt on land. “Preparation picks up in intensity as we find out more about where the storm’s going to come in,” said Rick McClure, vice president of utility operations for Hughes Supply. “We had our last conference call with our customers at 8 p.m. on Sunday, just hours before Katrina hit.”