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Ben Seegars
Seegars Fence Company
919-735-8211

Enterprise: Lessons Learned From Hurricanes Past
Small-Business Owner Prepared to Be on His Own When Another One Hits

By Gwendolyn Bounds
Sep 27, 2005


AS HURRICANE OPHELIA crept, maddeningly slow, toward eastern North Carolina two weeks ago and newscasters warned of possible flooding, Wes Seegars kept his computer screen locked to the National Weather Service Web site. Six years earlier almost to the date, he'd seen his family business, Seegars Fence Co., in Goldsboro, N.C., pummeled by the unexpected floodwaters that spilled out of the Neuse River after back-to-back hurricanes Dennis and Floyd doused the region with about 30 inches of rain.

But waiting for the storm this time around, the 54-year-old Mr. Seegars says he felt a certain "peace of mind" not just from precautions he has implemented since Floyd -- from sounder building materials to a waterproof safe -- but also because of his own response to the destruction six years ago.

"Having gone through it one time, it sharpens your senses of what you can do to make a difference," Mr. Seegars says. "We've abdicated to the government in some ways. And as much as I hate what happened to me and in New Orleans, there's got to be some personal responsibility."

Federal and state government shortcomings during Hurricane Katrina continue to be documented in detail. With that has come a heightened sense among individuals and business owners that they may be left, in small and large ways, to determine their own fate immediately following a disaster. Even as emergency officials mobilized to respond to Hurricane Rita last weekend, officials warned citizens that they might be on their own in the immediate hours after a storm.

Certainly every catastrophe is different, as are the challenges it inflicts. But for smaller enterprises that don't have far-flung national or global operations as backup, "the choice is not whether to recover quickly or to recover at a more measured pace," says Donna Childs, co-author of "Contingency Planning and Disaster Recovery: A Small Business Guide," "the choice is whether to recover quickly or not to recover at all." In the case of Seegars Fence, which opened first as a hardware store in 1949, speed made all the difference.

In the days after Floyd passed, water crept over desks, submerging computer towers on the floor, soaking accounts-receivable records, short-circuiting fax machines, ruining carpet and expensive welding machines, saws and compressors. Outside, acres of valuable steel and wood corroded from the acrid floodwaters, rendering them suitable only for scrap. Truck batteries shorted out; rubber radiator hoses decayed. The total cost of damage: $400,000. Because Mr. Seegars didn't have flood insurance (he was in a 500-year flood plain), he received a mere $2,254 for wind damage to shingles.

But rather than wait for additional federal or state aid, while the water was still rising Mr. Seegars summoned five friends and co- workers to don hip-waders and help him haul any salvageable materials -- a copier, one laptop, keyboards and monitors -- to his home so he could re-establish a temporary headquarters. Less than 24 hours later, he says, "We were back in business."

It didn't stop there. One week after the storm, just as water began receding, he ordered a truck, generator and four men from each of his other offices in the state to help gut the buildings, cut out wet walls, and spray Clorox throughout the 3,300 square feet of office space to mitigate contamination. They did this six times over the next 45 days.

"It's one of those things where you say, 'OK, this is the hand I've been dealt, now how am I going to play it?' " Many insurance policies actually require policyholders to do what they can to protect property once they are aware of damage.

With no way to get thousands of pounds of water-logged desks, chairs and old invoices to a landfill amid flooded streets, they began burning them in a dry spot out in the yard. When local police showed up and tried to cite them for violating the town's burning code, Mr. Seegars told the officers to write him a ticket if they wanted, but that he was going to take care of his business. He says the cops told him to have a nice day and left.

As soon as flooding receded, the owner moved operations back on site, using a rented mobile trailer as his office. In months to come, Mr. Seegars paid his staff hundreds of hours in overtime to sort through thousands of pages of soggy business records to decipher just a name, or telephone number, so accounts receivable could be re- established.

He also began re-examining his own operations, from the obvious -- forking over an additional $4,300 a year for flood insurance -- to rewiring his electrical conduits from the ceiling down to protect from high waters, and placing current business records (those that weren't digital) in top drawers of filing cabinets where flooding would reach last. His staff even made sure heavy equipment could be unbolted and removed from the floor in short order.
"We've looked at everything," Mr. Seegars says. "Those that don't study history, are unfortunately doomed to repeat it."

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