Katrina takes its toll on cleaners
Everything can change in the blink of an
eye — especially for those who find themselves in
the eye of a hurricane as devastating and relentless as
Katrina.
Already, it has been labeled by the
National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration as the most
destructive hurricane to ever strike the U.S.
With hurricane force winds extending as
far as 120 miles from its center (at speeds of up to 175 mph),
Katrina was even more damaging than Hurricane Camille, which
wreaked major havoc in the coastal Mississippi region in the
summer of 1969.
Early estimates released in the
Associated Press indicate that Hurricane Katrina should cost
the Gulf Coast area over $125 billion in economic damage and
could cost the insurance industry in the ballpark of $60
billion in claims, which would easily eclipse the totals of all
previous storms in the U.S.
Of course, the economic damage pales in
comparison to the human casualties. By late September, there
were already well over 1,000 deaths attributed to Katrina,
including almost 800 fatalities in Louisiana and over 200 in
Mississippi.
Though just being alive was considered a
blessing to those who survived in the region, over one million
people found themselves categorized as “displaced”
and scattered all over the country looking for new living
quarters.
While Katrina’s savage wake was
indiscriminate toward specific professional industries, it
seems that drycleaners were hit particularly hard by her
brutality.
Only a few weeks ago, brothers Don and
Dale Velez were growing quickly and enjoying a lot of success.
As owners and operators of two Certified Restoration
Drycleaning Network franchises and several Young’s
Cleaners plants, they were taking the drycleaning industry in
New Orleans by storm. Now, a short time later, a storm has
taken it all back from them.
 | ||
Initially, the brothers believed
they’d just have to close down their businesses for a
day, but left town when they realized it was going to be a
Category 5 storm. Don and his family departed on the morning of
Sunday, Aug. 28, making the normal two-hour drive to Lafayette
in about 12 hours.
Though both brothers and their families
made it out safely, it didn’t take long for the bad news
to reach them.
For starters, they still haven’t
heard from over three dozen employees who evacuated the city,
possibly permanently. Then, there is the matter of the physical
damage sustained at their plants.
“I still have not seen all of my
stores,” Dale Velez noted. “We have not seen the
main plant; it’s still under water. We just purchased a
12,000-sq. ft. warehouse and it looks like a tornado hit it. I
mean, it’s just destroyed. That was our CRDN warehouse
with all of our restored clothes.”
The bitter irony of a clothes restoration
company hit by a terrible natural disaster is not lost on Don
Velez.
“We found some of the garments as
far as two blocks away,” he said. “Unfortunately,
those clothes will have to be restored a second or third
time.”
Making matters worse, the brackish water
that flooded through their plants rusted out their cleaning
equipment in a matter of days.
“When you walk into a plant that
has been 6 1Ž2' under water — well, you knew it would be
bad but you don’t realize it until you walk into the
building,” Don Velez said. “You can’t
recognize anything. The equipment looks likes it’s 100
years old. There are some clothes in there though that can
probably be saved because they were up so high on top of the
racks — 12' in the air — but the problem we have is
that the insurance company has not been out there yet so
they’re telling us don’t touch anything until they
see it.”
In the meantime, the Velez brothers are
making ends meet by working as “drycleaning
brokers.” Fortunately, many of their fellow CRDN members
have stepped in to pickup, clean and deliver clothes to their
customers.
“This is not a plug; this is a
fact. If we were not a member of CRDN, we would be bankrupt and
moving on with our lives,” Dale Velez explained.
“But, we still have work. It doesn’t matter where
the cleaning plant is at. We’re still getting the phone
calls. We’re still out there doing fire and water
restoration, but as far as Young’s Cleaners is concerned,
my neighborhoods are gone. They are talking about bulldozing
entire neighborhoods and starting over. So, I don’t see
any retail coming for two to three years.”
While future plans remain up in the air,
both Velez brothers are determined to make sure that the
company, started by their grandparents in 1940, doesn’t
die out.
“It’s going to be a long,
slow process, and, of course, no matter how much insurance you
have, you never have enough,” Dale added.
“It’s life-changing. You sit down the Friday before
the hurricane comes and you’re doing payroll and
everything is going great, then, two days later, it’s all
gone and you start over. Just let everybody know, Young’s
Cleaners will definitely be back. We’ve been here 65
years and we’re not going anywhere.”
Another cleaner who lost everything to
Hurricane Katrina is Eric Dubuisson of Slidell Cleaners, who
was virtually impossible to contact for an interview.
However, National Clothesline columnist
Stan Caplan posted a message on the Fabricare Forum that said:
“I received a call from Eric Dubuisson of Slidell. He
said that he and his family got out OK. He is now temporarily
in Baton Rouge. His plant is under water and all
customers’ orders are destroyed. He has plans for
rebuilding in the future, but, for now, he will concentrate on
working probably as a teacher since he has a state
teacher’s certificate.”
Communication with anybody in the Gulf
Coast region proved difficult, if not, impossible. TCATA
resorted to utilizing its web site to offer updates to members
on the status of two of its companies that were directly in the
affected area: Pellerin Milnor Corp. and Ideal Chemical &
Supply.
Both companies reported no loss of life
or serious injuries and only minimal damage to their
facilities.
Yet, cleaning companies such as Allyson
Supply — a laundry and drycleaner supplier in Harahan, LA
— that only sustained minor damages had other problems
with which to contend.
The company, owned by Chris Eichhorn, is
located about 20 minutes from the Superdome in New Orleans.
“Personally, our building came out
great. It might have a dent or ding from stuff flying around
that wasn’t here before,” Eichhorn said. “I
live in an industrial district and some folks fared a lot worse
that I did with overhead doors blown and windows broken and
things like that. We have these galvanized protection sheets
that are all pre-cut that we bolted over the glass so it was
secure.”
Even without sustaining heavy physical
damages, however, the business has been fiscally hampered due
to all of the citizens who left the area, paralyzing the local
economy.
“It’s been a right hook to
our business, but we are committed to serving our remaining
customers,” Eichhorn said. “We are also looking to
service anything that we can do in the reconstruction effort
and the supplies they are going to be needing. We’ve sold
everything from safety glasses to traffic cones to chainsaws.
We started putting flyers out in the construction areas where
the folks are hauling off debris and we started getting phone
calls.”
Eichhorn also noted that he felt
fortunate to be a member of Cleaners Care Group because his
fellow distributors have acted as “pillars of
support.”
“I always knew that they were good
friends, now I know that they’re tremendous
friends,” he said. “They are there for us.
It’s good to know you’ve got friends like
that.”
While Louisiana was bombarded the most by
the storm, the states of Alabama, Florida and Mississippi also
felt the huge ripple effects of Hurricane Katrina.
In Picayune, MS, Allied Heirlooms is
located 100 feet above sea level, so flooding was not really a
problem. But it was still hit by heavy hurricane winds which
caused the company to lose power for a week. One of the
company’s storage buildings lost a roof and the
plant’s boiler room suffered some damage, as well.
Plant manager Jim Ford and his wife
decided to head out early to Dallas before Katrina arrived.
“I don’t know which is worse,
being here for it or watching things happen on TV,” he
said. “We couldn’t get a hold of a lot of relatives
back here because of the power lines. At least I was in contact
with one of my sons. He was on top of Tulane Medical Center, a
big hospital in New Orleans. He is an E.M.T. He was flying
patients out.”
Upon his return to Picayune, Ford was
just grateful that all of the company’s wedding gowns
survived unscathed.
“This is our peak season, after the
June wedding season,” he said. “We are extremely
busy. Before the hurricane, we were running about six-week
service time. I imagine that’s going to be up to about
two months now.”
Another cleaners in Mississippi that lost
power for a long time was Safeway Cleaners in Pearl, owned by
Linda Ferguson. She decided to continue paying her employees
despite the fact that her business had no money coming in
during an entire week.
According to company controller Jo
Parris, the abruptness of the power outage damaged their
boiler, as well.
“We couldn’t get a part in
here so we were shut down for six days without turning out any
work at all,” she said.
Though business has returned to normal
since, Parris noted that it was frustrating dealing with the
insurance process.
“We have business interruption
insurance, but we can’t get an adjuster to call
us,” she continued. “We can’t even get
anybody to call us to tell us how that works. I’ve called
our broker every day and our broker said we should have heard
from an adjuster by now, but we haven’t heard anything
from anybody.”
According to Ann Hawkins, vice president
of NIE Insurance, it’s been difficult to get adjusters
into some areas in order to reach clients.
“I know it’s been extremely
frustrating for them but we have not been able to get into the
area to view the damage yet in Louisiana,” she said.
“Our adjuster is in the process of calling each claimant
to meet with them in the next 14 days.”
One way to speed up the process, Hawkins
stressed, is to cooperate as much as possible with the adjuster
and to make sure to keep appointments with them once they are
set up.
Since Hurricane Katrina is the
“biggest natural disaster any insurance company has ever
had,” Hawkins also added that it is still too early to
estimate exactly how hard the drycleaning industry has been
hit. However, the owners of flooded plants might suffer the
worst financially.
“Most of our policyholders have
excellent coverage, but flood needs to be purchased independent
of a commercial package policy, which does not cover
flood,” she explained.
In terms of future stability, though, NIE
should be in good shape itself. President Bob Aikin emphasized
that the company wisely prepared for such a worst-case
scenario.
“I want to assure people that
we’ve got catastrophe reinsurance in place, so while this
is a big event for the entire insurance industry, it really
shouldn’t leave NIE in a weakened financial
position,” he said.
As for those who had insufficient or no
insurance, there may still be a little hope for them to cling
to, as well.
After all, in the three weeks since
Hurricane Katrina, Americans have donated over $1 billion to
charities aiding families who became homeless following the
disaster.
Though not homeless himself, Allyson
Supply’s Eichhorn has been inspired by watching the
entire country quickly respond with kindness.
“There’s no comparing what
happened to any previous disasters, be it acts of nature or
even terrorist acts — but I think we have a peace about
this whole thing so it must be the prayers of the
country,” he said. “We’re certainly feeling
the prayers and support of the country because, personally
speaking, that’s got to be the only thing that is driving
me.”