Distributors, Reps Still Waiting for Surge In Orders to Hit After Hurricane Isabel

Sept. 26, 2003
While Hurricane Isabel decimated North Carolina’s Outer Banks and much of the mid-Atlantic region, most distributors and manufacturers’ reps have not yet seen a huge number of orders related to the storm.

While Hurricane Isabel decimated North Carolina’s Outer Banks and much of the mid-Atlantic region, most distributors and manufacturers’ reps have not yet seen a huge number of orders related to the storm.

Sam Johnson, principal of Electra-Tek Carolinas Inc., Greensboro, N.C., cannot identify any specific orders related to the storm, but expects to start getting orders from utilities any day. Orders usually come in two “waves” following a storm, said Johnson.

“Typically, what happens is most of the utilities reorder what they need. That’s sort of a first wave. Then we start seeing more industrial-type business picking up” as they order transformers, motor starters and fuses,” he said.

“They’re usually plant-oriented and are the first things that are down when there’s water or when there’s a start-up,” he said.

While orders have been slow for Electra-Tek in North Carolina, Mike Kopf, Rexel’s branch manager in Annapolis, Md., has seen a big demand for twist-lock plugs and receptacles, rubber cords and generator panels. He said manufacturers have been helpful. Leviton Manufacturing Co. Inc., Little Neck, N.Y., shipped twist-lock plugs and receptacles from Texas. Omni Cable, Westchester, Pa., was quick to ship rubber cord, he said.

One South Carolina contractor saw the destruction on the Outer Banks. To help restore electricity, the governor’s office called on B&D Electrical Contractors, a Rock Hill, S.C.-based firm that had repaired meter bases following the ice storm of 1993.

Dale Sullivan, president of B&D Electrical Contractors and a former lineman for Texas Power and Light, said the damage on the Outer Banks was more than he expected. Meter bases had been pulled off of homes, energized power lines were lying in the streets, and trees blocked roadways. The electricians spent four days working with the utility companies to restore power under the adverse conditions.

B&D Electrical Contractors, as well as many of the other contractors, are now on standby to return to the area in three weeks.

“Once the utility crews have been able to get some of their infrastructure put back in place and it comes time to start rewiring, we may send crews back to the area,” Sullivan said.

In the meantime, many of the homes and offices still don’t have power, and essential government buildings are being run on generators. The water company also can’t supply water to its customers without electricity.

“They have real problems down there,” he said. “There have been some linemen who have been killed, and the hurricane laid trees down everywhere it went. It caused worst damage than what they thought a 100-mile-an-hour storm could do.”

Ken McBrayer, principal of Fox-Rowden-McBrayer Inc., Charlotte, N.C., agreed that the situation is still quite serious. “There still are some areas in the far eastern part of North Carolina that don’t have their systems back up and running. And there still is a lot of mess in Virginia. It is by far the worst storm that has hit the area. A lot of our utility customers have been just patching things together and starting to sit back down, take inventory on what they really need from poles to conductor to insulators to hardware. Typically, when you have a storm like this, you’re patching things together to get it running. I think there’s a lot to be done, particularly in the Virginia territory.”

McBrayer said the service provided by at least one manufacturer was outstanding. Milbank Manufacturing Co., Kansas City, Mo., made a special manufacturing run for sockets used in North Carolina. “Trucks had them here first thing Monday morning,” he said. —Amy Florence Fischbach, EC&M; and Dale Funk