On Friday, June 29th, West Virginia was hit by a major storm with up to 90 mile per hour winds in some areas, followed by another strong storm Saturday evening. On the East Coast, millions of people were left with damage to their homes, properties, businesses and vehicles due to downed trees, power lines, and very limited cell phone capabilities. Power outages are still in effect for over 418,000 people as of Tuesday afternoon in Wood and Washington Counties. With long lines at the gas pumps, folks struggle to cool down without power as mid to upper 90 temperatures force heat advisories. Water and low ice supplies are an issue as many counties have established boil water advisories. Cooling stations have been setup for people to go to for water and rest from the high temps.
At a local West Virginia Walmart, one employee stated, “I have filled the bread isle shelves several times in just one day, only to start at the beginning of the isle and have to refill it by the time I got to the end.” Many businesses still closed, have forced crowded stores in the ones that have been reopened. In some neighborhoods you will hear the sounds of generator motors keeping refrigerators and freezers going, saving food for their respective homes and friends homes. Power outages may remain in effect for several days to a week in some areas.
State of emergencies have been declared in Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, the District of Columbia and Virginia. For some states affected, this has been the largest non-hurricane outage in history.
The storm created damage from Indiana to New Jersey, although the bulk of it was in West Virginia, Washington and the capital’s Virginia and Maryland suburbs. More than six were killed from the storm in Virginia, including a 90-year-old woman asleep in her bed when a tree slammed into her home. Two young cousins in New Jersey were killed when a tree fell on their tent while camping. Two were killed in Maryland, one in Ohio, one in Kentucky and one in Washington.
Woodcraft and their employees were no different in being affected by this storm. Although Woodcraft Corporate was open on Monday following the weekend damages, it took the IT department to work throughout the weekend making sure it was up and running for the weeks business. The Woodcraft Magazine in Parkersburg, WV along side the Woodcraft Corporate store were not as fortunate and were left without power until Tuesday morning.
Power was restored to the Woodcraft Warehouse located in the Industrial Park area of Parkersburg on Tuesday mid-morning, but with limited numbers of employees present due to power and phones being out of commission. That didn’t stop Mike Townsend, Woodcraft warehouse manager from getting orders out to customers. Woodcraft Corporate came to the rescue Tuesday morning with office volunteers to assist Mike in getting the job done. They didn’t miss a beat in satisfying customer and franchise orders going out the door for on-time deliveries. Woodcraft President, Jody Garrett stated, “It’s employee responses like this that make Woodcraft stand apart from the competition and I personally appreciate the efforts from all involved in helping during this storm recovery.”
I caught up with Mike at the warehouse during today’s whirlwind.
I would like to point out that many Woodcraft personnel are giving up their 4th of July holiday to reinstate normalcy in getting product out, making sure they are Helping YOU Make Wood Work!
From all of us at Woodcraft, have a great 4th of July everyone,
auf Wiedersehen!…Frank
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