Integreon Operates Through Hardship of Fargo Floods
In general, we write here about economics, business, outsourcing, and the markets we serve. Periodically, however, events in locations where we operate become national news and compelling stories of both personal and business challenges.
Many of our readers undoubtedly know that Fargo, where we have a delivery center, is battling record floods. The dikes seem to be holding, though damage to Fargo is extensive and the risk continues. More snow may soon fall and waves caused by high winds may threaten dikes.
I thought readers would be interested in an e-mail from Penny Retzer, our Fargo VP and General Manager. Penny sent the e-mail below internally and, with her permission, I publish it here.
We have been fortunate to be able to continue operating, in large part because of the dedication of our associates. Of course, in the event that we did have to shut down our Fargo facility, many of our customers have elected business continuity options that would automatically transfer their work to one of our other delivery centers.
The difficult situation in Fargo and all along the Red River is a reminder that no location is immune from natural or man-made disaster. For companies that must continue their work, hope is not enough. Business continuity plans (with back-up locations) and spirited teams are the requirements to keep operating in the face of major disruptions.
Penny, all of us at Integreon wish you and the team well and good luck getting through the crisis!
[Sent by Penny Retzer, Sunday night US Central time, 29 March 2009]
Hello from flooded Fargo! What a week it has been!
Unless you have been in hiding, I think everyone around the world knows that Fargo has been experiencing the worst flood since records were started in the 1890’s. We are hoping that the river will crest today or tomorrow at a historic height of 41 feet (32-34 feet is flood stage). Our team has worked diligently to keep services available for all customers while we were short-staffed with many employees fighting the flood or evacuated from their homes. Our “Success Team” which is our inter-departmental group of managers has been holding conference calls every day at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. to keep abreast of employee safety, to organize customer communications and in general prepare for every possible alternative that might happen. To date, we have only a few employees whose homes have been flooded but we have many more employees who have been evacuated from their homes or have left the community in order to be safe.
We’ve also had many employees who have covered shifts for other employees who were impacted and even some who left their own families to stay in Fargo to continue working. (Erin has hosted two of these employees.) We have experienced an unbelievable amount of stress and chaos throughout this. Not only have we experienced the flood but we received almost 9 inches of snow during the flood and now we are anticipating another winter storm on Monday afternoon!!! I’m almost ready to move to California!!
This past few days all non-essential businesses were asked to close; travel was limited on many of our major roads in order to allow sand trucks through; our community now has 46 miles of dikes comprised of over 3.5 million sand bags and clay dikes; hospitals and nursing homes patients were all evacuated to other communities; colleges have been closed for almost one week and will likely be closed for another week; many people have totally lost their homes and last night we lost one major school campus due to dike breakage. Throughout all of this, our team has been in good spirits, filling sand bags, helping others, keeping our customers happy!!
I want to personally thank all of you that have contacted me to find out about my personal welfare. It really means a lot when everything else around you is in great turmoil. Last week Wednesday I left work and have not been able to return since. Our home was surrounded by water so much so that I was unable to leave the subdivision to travel anywhere in the city. On Thursday we lost all phone, television and Internet access. On Friday, our house succumbed to sewer water when a lift station in our area went under water and we were forced to evacuate when all water was cut off. We are now unable to return to our home until water is turned back on and our home has been inspected. We were able to move most items in our lower level up a level so we believe we have saved most of our belongings but we won’t know for sure until we return. Our house has never been subjected to flooding, even in 1997 when it was the most severe prior to this flood, so we had not anticipated needing to move 1800 sq feet of belongings up a level in less than 24 hours! It becomes a good indication that you should really clean out your unused items at least once a year!! While it’s been traumatic and very depressing to move out, we are safe and very well cared for by Steve’s cousin and his family. Belongings mean very little when you have friends and family that support you!!
I plan to be back in the office on Monday and we should be able to operate back at close to normal speed with some rearranging of scheduling. Since the colleges are out, we will utilize our college students for additional shifts until our other team members can return to work. We are also considering a temporary day care facility in our employee break room as a solution to schools being closed and employees not having any day care available. It’s amazing how resilient a team can be when faced with crisis!! When I am back in the office, I will send some photos but if you are curious before then, check out the photos from www.inforum.com or www.startribune.com.
Thank you once again for all your calls and e-mails of concern!! I really appreciated hearing from you!