Editor’s note: The following journal entry is the second in a series of articles written by Jeff Ahrens, owner of Ant-Ser Termite & Pest Control, which is located in Port Charlotte, Fla., one of the cities that was most devastated by Hurricane Charley in August. (See the October issue of PCT to read the first Hurricane Charley entry.) In the days and weeks that followed, Ahrens and his staff responded to the challenges of providing pest control services in the wake of this natural disaster. In the following journal entry, Ahrens describes the recovery process, beginning with his efforts to contact employees all the way through to the process for applying for state and federal disaster loans.
Day 2 — Saturday 8/14/2004
Today we wake up to no electricity, no water (we are on city utility) and no contact with the outside world. Our phone service is interrupted so we turn on our cell phone and have spotty service.
We have a lot of cleanup ahead of us and we are pleased to hear from our friends in Sarasota. They offer to bring us a generator, fuel and their help. We are just wandering around looking at everything. The term for our current mental state is "shell shocked."
We have oak trees blocking our front half of the house and many downed branches in our front yard. We started attacking the chaotic mess Charley left behind and we worked until 3:00 p.m.; remember it is August in Florida with the temperature hitting 80 degrees by 8:00 a.m., 90 degrees by 10:00 a.m., all the while with humidity in the 90s. With chainsaws in hand we can now see our front door.
At some point today one radio station comes back on air and it sure is nice to hear their voices.
Day 3 — Sunday 8/15
No power or water, however we now have phone service. We can call out but no one can call in. I guess this is because of infrastructure damage.
Jane, my mother-in-law, brings her nephew and niece to help us clean up. It seems like an internal desire drives us to reclaim our land. We keep working at it until we cannot go anymore. I contact three employees and they are okay, with minimal damages to their homes. Patty, our office manager, lives in North Port and she has power at her house. The storm "only" hit them with winds of 90 miles per hour. North Port is about eight miles from our office. I decide to relocate the office to her home where she has power, water and telephone service.
I post a note in the window of the office saying we made it and I would like to meet at the office around 10:00 a.m. Monday to get a headcount and damage assessment of our vehicles. It is really weird not being able to call or contact anyone. The not knowing is a hard fact of our new situation and I am not comfortable with it.
Our family decides to move in with Jane. She lives in Sarasota, which is about an hour’s drive on a normal day. This was an easy decision: cable TV, air conditioning and a pool...hmm, what will I do?
I am really concerned about the survival of my company and the people that depend on me, customers both internal and external.
Day 4 — Monday 8/16
The drive from Sarasota took more than one hour and 45 minutes. As I got closer to town the widespread damage brings me down mentally. I try to remain positive but it is very hard. Traffic is snarled since there are no traffic lights, no power and no stop signs. People are very aggressive in the way they fight for the roadway, although I cannot really blame them. Finally, I pull into the office and do a more thorough check, looking for anything that might be damaged. I don’t find any problems. As I wait, two employees pull in and we are so glad to see each other. I have spoken to Patty and she is on her way in. We now only have to account for two other employees. So far there is only minimal damage to the vehicles.
I have reflected on what to do next, with Jay and John, and we feel we should try to run our invoices and attempt to make contact with our customers to let them know we are still in business and see if we can help them. Fortunately, we ran our invoices for three days as we now cannot pull anything new up on our computer. We discuss strategy for making our way through to our customers and agree not to be heroic but helpful.
The population in Port Charlotte is older. About 40 percent are over the age of 60 with the median age being around 55. We know they need someone. Our community is also full of absentee owners, or as we call them, "snowbirds." This means that around 30 percent of our population is not here during the summer months. We are full of adult communities where you must be older than the age of 55 to live in them.
We agree to meet here every morning at 10:00 a.m. and update each other. Our only communication is from one radio station that is on air broadcasting news from an Emergency Operations Center. This is the government agency that is in charge at this time. As I listen to the radio station I wonder how I can get a message to them that will help the community. I reflect on how, as I was cleaning my yard, the fire ants and twig ants (which have a nasty sting) are very angry and aggressive. After all, they are displaced also. Then it comes to me — I will offer emergency pest control to anyone that needs it and worry about payment later. I decide to make a trip on Tuesday and see if they accept this idea.
When Patty arrives we start moving the office to her house and agree to make our project getting payroll done. We pay bi-weekly and under normal circumstances we would have distributed checks today. I know that everyone will need their pay today.
Day 5 — Tuesday 8/17
We have moved the office, got payroll done and have the phones transferred. Under the circumstances we have performed a miracle, in my opinion. I am starting to think clearly today and I start to feel a sense of my company surviving.
I arrive at the office and see power workers clearing debris off of the power lines. They are from Mississippi and complain of the heat. It is a normal weather day for us, temperatures in the 90s with 95 percent humidity.
The two employees we have not made contact with now check in and Tom has a large tree through his house and needs the rest of this week to get his things in order. Jim has some roof damage but not too bad, he also needs the rest of the week off. We check in and discuss how yesterday went and agree to continue with the same strategy, running our invoices and getting a feel for our community. I feel my responsibility is now to look forward and ensure the survival of Ant-Ser is not as a scaled-back version.
I make the trek to the radio station to make my community announcement. The devastation is far worse than the cameras can show on TV. It takes about one hour to get there as compared to the normal 25-minute drive. I go inside and a DJ listens to my proposal to help people with insect problems on an emergency basis and if they cannot pay at that time we will work them. He thinks it is a good idea and is needed and asks if he can be the first customer. I walk back to the truck and within five minutes I here the announcement. He announces Ant-Ser Pest Control will do emergency work for bugs and it is FREE — that is not what I said but is too late now. He makes the same announcement every hour.
I get through to Patty on the cell and she tells me she does not know what I just said to the radio station but she received eight calls in three minutes. After I hung up I felt really good about that response.
By the end of the day we had about 20 calls in response to that announcement.
Day 6 — Wednesday 8/18
We go through the same routine today. We now run the new appointments from the radio and get about 20 more calls today.
I work with Jay on these calls and the second person we get to says, "I have money to pay you." I thought that was so cool for her to say. We treated her front yard and she said she would be interested in having regular service when things settle down. She then wrote us a check. All in all we made three sales today and I am feeling better about this situation we are in.
Days 7-11 (Thursday 8/19 — Monday 8/23)
The daily scenario really does not change much until next Tuesday when our power is restored so I will pick up the story then.
Day 12 — Tuesday 8/24
Today we are very active. We now have power restored at our office and that means we can move operations back. This is very encouraging as normalcy is coming back. My two employees who had damage at their homes still need more time off and I agree to extend their time off until next Monday, but we need them back for sure by then. Our business is picking up and it looks like we should be back to normal within two months. I definitely see we need at least one more route back and that would leave only one route in question. Currently we have lost 35 percent of our customer base. I hope this is a bad estimate. I had a discussion with an executive with Truly Nolen and he said they lost approximately six to eight routes. We agreed that we would have to make an aggressive move to replace our customer base and we would be fighting for the same customers to replace the ones we lost.
Since last week we have been out in the community volunteering and talking to as many FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Association) representatives as we can, and there are a lot of them. The reason we did this is they said they will offer monetary assistance to the public and it will include pest control if needed. We have handed out a lot of cards to them. It is very important to be opportunistic at this time of crisis but NOT to take advantage of anyone.
The Small Business Administration has moved into an office and has dedicated it to the business sector. They offer two programs and have professional counselors available to help us stay on track. The first program is called a bridge loan and offers loans from $1,000 to $25,000 with 0 percent interest for 180 days. The process and approval can put a check in your hand within seven days, or so they say. The SBA has a loan for economic loss due to lack of revenue but their process takes four to six weeks and offers up to $1.5 million at 2.99% for 30 years. I applied for the bridge loan yesterday and am working on completing the SBA packet, which is very time consuming.
Day 14 — Thursday 8/26
Today is one of better days in a while, all of our jobs went well yesterday and we even received payments. One big setback is our accounts receivables as they are really coming in slow. We still have very spotty phone service and a lot of customers might want to pay but are not sure we are open; life is still in turmoil for many.
Our leads for service are picking up due in part to volunteer work by Jay, who is manning an ice station for the Red Cross. Also, the radio announcement and staying visible in the community are helping.
I have finished the SBA application and was on my way to review it with the local representative when Patty calls me with great news; the bridge loan has been approved and we can close next week. This gives me a huge boost in spirit and security knowing now that we have financial resources coming in to help ease the burden of our accounts payable that are due. They have approved me for $25,000 at 0 percent interest for 180 days. That is a big YEAH!! Our workload has increased enough so we need all of our routes starting next week. They have full days through next Thursday. Things are really looking up. Now let’s hope they can get here.
Day 15 — Friday, 8/27
Things are really unchanged with one exception — Hurricane Frances is looming and heading in our general direction.
People are calling in with structural damage for us to look at. What we find is since so much damage was done to the structures we now can look into areas we could never see before. This helps us find a lot of termite damage. We are now experiencing a silver lining to a nasty cloud — Hurricane Charley.
Today I get another bit of good news. Power was restored at my home. We can move back in.
Day 21 — Friday 9/03
We have avoided a direct hit from Frances but expect to have some weather from it. A lot of people have evacuated including one of my employees who said his nerves just cannot take it. Tom is his name and I do not expect him back. Fortunately I have recruited a solid person to replace him. With all the businesses damaged there are some good people looking for work. Alas, another silver lining to our storm cloud.
Our crew is scheduled only until midday so we can make preparations for the potential tropical force winds.
Day 25 — Tuesday 9/07
Labor Day was a nice day off. We got to sit around and worry about more storms. We emerged relatively unscathed from Frances; we suffered some minor wind damage and we got a lot of rain. The town has seen at least 50 percent of the population evacuate. It is weird — it seems we are in a ghost town. We are running our routes with few problems — just a little ground saturation which affects our lawn treatments.
We also started our new employee, Danny, today. He brings with him some energy and enthusiasm — I sure need that.
Day 26 — Wednesday 9/08
Just as people come back and return to their routines we now have another storm to worry about, Ivan. The concern I now have is it appears to be taking the same track as Charley. I know that if somehow it hits us again there will be nothing left of Port Charlotte. Our infrastructure is so damaged and fragile this would set us back years.
Day 28 —- Friday 9/10
Ivan is just sitting in the southern Gulf of Mexico, not really moving and we do not know if or when we might be the target.
My senior technician, John, informs us he is evacuating with his family after work today. I understand his concern and wish him well. He does have vacation time and he is going to use it. I agree to waive our normal policy, of prior notification, and wish him well. I am really getting sick of this constant worry and preparation.
Day 33 — Wednesday 9/15
We received a lot of wind from Ivan over the last two days. Nothing too bad, though — 30 mph with some higher gusts. Again we were a ghost town, as evacuation did require some residents to leave. We were very close to leaving but just boarded our home up and wrapped the office equipment instead. We did have a party after we knew we were safe and that was a nice distraction from all this stress.
I got approved for the SBA disaster loan yesterday. I received the closing documents in the mail. I received a 2.9 percent rate for five years with no payment for five months and it is adjustable as far as an option to get more funds if needed. I think that is pretty fast for our federal government to act — 20 days from application to approval with documents.
Day 38 — Monday 9/20
Last week was pretty normal as far as business projections are concerned. We are tracking to hit our budget this month and I will say opportunities are opening up from Charley. We knew we were on peoples’ list of things to do to get back to normal; we were just towards the bottom of the list. It now appears that we are being moved up the list. I believe this is mainly due to people collecting from their insurance and getting their homes closed up so they are more livable.
Stay tuned for future installments of Ahrens’ hurricane diary in upcoming issues of PCT and at PCT Online.
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