The Houston Branch on Riding Out the Storm
Riding Out the Storm: As homes are torn apart, people are brought together
Meltdowns, bankruptcies, and recessions may be top of mind across the country, but sometimes disaster strikes businesses, families, and individuals in its purest form. Hurricane Ike wrought terrible damage across the Southern United States and neighboring countries. It is times like these, when there are those who are without homes, or food, or power, that people rise to the challenge.
We caught up with Warren Dunn and Jill Hawkins from Hodes' Houston Branch to find out how people overcame the difficulties they were faced with and how being a part of Hodes made a difference.
Q: Before Ike hit, did you have any idea how bad it would be?
A: Before any hurricane, the media whips everyone into such a frenzy, it's hard to separate the facts from the fiction; however, upon seeing the satellite images starting Wednesday, September 10th, we knew Ike was one bad storm and there was a possibility of a Texas strike.
By early Thursday, the storm was simply immense. Seeing what it did to Cuba had us more than a little concerned. And as the cone of uncertainty narrowed with Galveston/Houston as the predicted target, our stomachs dropped right along with the barometric pressure.
With a landfall predicted for late Friday or early Saturday, we knew it was time to activate all emergency procedures - both professionally and personally. In addition to packing up our servers, shipping out vital data, moving breakables and equipment from office windows, as well as notifying clients, appropriate corporate staff and back-up branches, we held an emergency team meeting to review hurricane procedures. There is always a propensity to panic during this time so it's important to remind folks that there was still time to fill bathtubs and water jugs, charge flashlights, etc.
Our normal procedure is for each employee to call their immediate supervisor to let him/her know their current status. Supervisors then call into one designated employee who keeps a master "all safe" list. With this storm and its projected winds, we knew cell phones probably wouldn't work. So we agreed to text each other so we'd know each other's status - and/or if anyone needed help. We also knew power may be out, so conserving battery life would be key. As is our way here, there were many offers for families to join together to ride out the storm or offers for "ride alongs" for those going out of town. Staff members left early on Thursday and were given the day off on Friday to prepare families and homes.
Friday was a complete frenzy of storm preparations and double-checking with staff that everyone had a safe place to stay and that they were able to find the most urgent necessities. If they couldn't, we tried to tell them where to get it or who lived close to them that might have extra.
Ike hit in the very early morning of Saturday - a category two but with a storm surge of a category four. For those who have never been in a hurricane, it's terrifying. Your entire house shakes, shingles get ripped off the roof, fences fly, the wind roars, and you hear tree branches groaning and breaking all around you. It's quite the Wizard of Oz moment when you could hear the whistles of a tornado coming closer and you have to literally run to, and sleep in, interior closets for safety. With Ike's size, we were pounded by 150-mile winds for five hours - that's how long it took for this gigantic storm to pass. Unfortunately, it took a lot longer to get our lives back together.
Q: Between the Hodes office and employees' homes, how badly were you hit by the hurricane?
A: Roof damage is expected. Huge trees, fences and gutters down as well. But for some, damage went far beyond that. One team member had a downed electrical transformer dripping carcinogenic acid on her garage. Another had a huge tree that smashed through her front bay window and another had huge pines trees literally on her roof. But most importantly, everyone survived safe and sound. And that is the only thing that matters. The office survived with very minor damage: broken windows, rain, etc. - all in all, everyone was very lucky. And while the actual hurricane screaming at you is bad, it's the aftermath that causes the true trouble. Some were without water for 5-7 days and most of us were without power for over 10 days (homes and office).
Q: Morale, for Hodes and most of Texas, must have been terrible. How did you cope?
A: On the contrary, morale never sagged - for us as well as our fellow citizens. Immediately after the storm, we started texting each other to find out if everyone was all right and checking to see who needed what to get through this time. Since practically no one had power, we were unable to see the extensive damage to downtown and to Galveston. But the radio did a thorough job of providing a mix of stories - devastation as well as the triumph of the human spirit. We heard some truly crazy things - like a hungry tiger on the loose in Galveston. And some person was holed up in a church with his pet lion! Luckily this was neither coworker nor client. But it seemed for every bad point, there seemed to be three others that showcased people helping each other.
Q: How did local people reach out to help one another?
A: The outreach was incredible. Our Creative Director had three huge trees down in his yard, blocking the garage. A complete stranger stopped at 6:00 am on Sunday morning with a chainsaw and cleared his drive - without accepting a cent. With fences down, neighbors who had lived next to each other finally got to meet - and help each other out with food, water or extra supplies. Our SVP of the region (who lives a street away from the Creative Director) has a gas cook top which became a communal kitchen - and the only reliable hot meal without building a fire. There were daily text messages on where to find gas or other essentials. Staff members came over to each others' homes to help clean mounds of debris and put up fences for safety. When one person got power, sleep-overs occurred among families. Some staff members took turns each day standing in FEMA lines for water, ice, and food to share. Those who had power restored fastest leapt into action to help other Hodites each day. There were regular deliveries of groceries, water, and ice to each other's homes. Our receptionist, who quickly had power and water, made daily runs to staff houses to pick up laundry (yes, we even had a laundry service) and took our kids and elderly family members over to her house so they could be out of the heat and entertained for a brief while. One AE's husband installed Internet access and a power adapter in their car so she went from home to home to allow staff to check emails and recharge cell phones.
Night time brought impromptu barbeques as thawing ribs, steaks, and roasting chickens had to be eaten. Poker games were conducted by tiki torches. And despite it all - the mountains of debris, the rain tarps covering holes in roofs, the sticky humid heat - there was a lot of laughing. Laughing always makes things better.
Q: How did being a part of Hodes affect your experience?
A: Firstly, the Texas region is a family who over the years has pulled together in good times - and in bad. Bad experiences are made better by having one another to lean on- and this was certainly one of those times.
And the Houston office would not have been able to get back to business as fast as we did without the sublime help of Leah Broderick and the Miami office, the AMS team, as well as Freedom Baisley and Keisha Dunstan in Dallas. And there's more people to include in a very long list of those who were essential to helping us prepare and recover, specifically Dwaine Maltais of Technomedia-Hodes iQ. With Houston covering such a large expanse, he was one of our team members who had little damage - and also had restored power. He and his wife graciously allowed us to create a temporary field office where we could get basic creative and communications services going. While some in our community are still in temporary housing, our Houston family is not only intact but going full speed ahead.
It is times like these when you especially realize what being a part of the "Group" means - friends and colleagues you can always count on.
Employer brand explorer, creative pioneer and storm survivor just begin to describe Warren Dunn. A proud leader of the Texas Region for 11 years, Warren has helped create and direct award-winning campaigns covering a wide expanse of industries, from aerospace and healthcare to finance and energy.
Jill Hawkins is Senior Vice President/Texas Operations at Bernard Hodes Group. Jill has overall accountability for the Hodes Texas regional operations in Houston and Dallas. After managing the finance and human resources functions at a national corporation, she joined the agency 23 years ago.
