Nev. quake a "wake-up call" to food industry
"I can't emphasize enough the importance of having a central command post."
By Brice Wallace
Deseret Morning News
OGDEN, Utah — The Feb. 21 earthquake near Wells, Nev., was "a wake-up call" for the food industry, according to an official with Associated Food Stores.
Steve Miner, president of Market Development Inc. for the Salt Lake-based company, said Tuesday that "with proper preparation, recovery is achievable" in the wake of a disaster.
"We need to do a better job of preparing," Miner told a crowd of more than 150 people at the third annual Top of Utah Ready Your Business Conference. "It's been a wake-up call for us in the food industry on ways that we can better prepare."
The annual conference featured sessions that focused on business involvement in local planning for response and recovery, expectations of the military and National Guard following an emergency, and business continuity plans during disasters. The event was presented by the Utah Department of Public Safety's Division of Homeland Security and the Ogden/Weber, Brigham Area, Cache and Davis chambers of commerce.
While no one was seriously injured from the 6.0-magnitude quake in Nevada, Miner described the damage to both the building and its contents at the town's only grocery store, Stuart's Foodtown, where two-thirds of the products fell off shelves. "In a matter of 60 to 90 seconds, we lost about $50,000 in inventory and probably $50,000 to $100,000 in damage on the ceiling," he said.
Associated Foods mobilized its emergency response team to assess damage and get the store ready to reopen as soon as possible. They were aided by independent grocers in several Nevada cities. The quake hit at 6:17 a.m., and the store was back in business that evening.
"The city of Wells felt it very important to get the grocery store open to give a vote of confidence," he said." They wanted to be able to tell the community that the grocery store is open, that food is available, and it was important for us to be able to tell people in the community that we have a million-square-foot distribution center four hours away, in Farr West, Utah, that can serve their needs, and there's no need to make a run on the store, and get the word out there's going to be plenty of bottled water there available."
The store, like any business following a disaster, had myriad issues to confront. Among the most pressing ones were the availability of electricity, the capability of conducting electronic transactions in a world where more than half of customer purchases are with credit cards, accessibility for trucks to deliver products to the store, insurance coverage issues and store building integrity and security, he said.
"I can't emphasize enough the importance of having a central command post, to be able to have an individual be authorized to be able to make important decisions in a timely fashion and so that people can call back and forth and have that single point of contact," Miner said.
The damage could have been worse, he said. Had a sprinkler system kicked on, about $300,000 of inventory would have been destroyed.
Bob Carey, earthquake program manager for the Utah Division of Homeland Security, said many disaster-related problems can be avoided with adequate preparation.
"The more you do up-front ... the better you are," he said. "And this isn't just for earthquakes. An illustration was broken water pipes. That's all it takes (to cause major problems). How do you handle broken water pipes? In the big scheme of things, you relocate, and how do you deal with your vendors? How do you deal with your employee calls? And rather than doing that on the fly, that would be something that would be useful to think through." E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com
Copyright 2008 The Deseret News Publishing Co.
By Brice Wallace
Deseret Morning News
OGDEN, Utah — The Feb. 21 earthquake near Wells, Nev., was "a wake-up call" for the food industry, according to an official with Associated Food Stores.
Steve Miner, president of Market Development Inc. for the Salt Lake-based company, said Tuesday that "with proper preparation, recovery is achievable" in the wake of a disaster.
"We need to do a better job of preparing," Miner told a crowd of more than 150 people at the third annual Top of Utah Ready Your Business Conference. "It's been a wake-up call for us in the food industry on ways that we can better prepare."
The annual conference featured sessions that focused on business involvement in local planning for response and recovery, expectations of the military and National Guard following an emergency, and business continuity plans during disasters. The event was presented by the Utah Department of Public Safety's Division of Homeland Security and the Ogden/Weber, Brigham Area, Cache and Davis chambers of commerce.
While no one was seriously injured from the 6.0-magnitude quake in Nevada, Miner described the damage to both the building and its contents at the town's only grocery store, Stuart's Foodtown, where two-thirds of the products fell off shelves. "In a matter of 60 to 90 seconds, we lost about $50,000 in inventory and probably $50,000 to $100,000 in damage on the ceiling," he said.
Associated Foods mobilized its emergency response team to assess damage and get the store ready to reopen as soon as possible. They were aided by independent grocers in several Nevada cities. The quake hit at 6:17 a.m., and the store was back in business that evening.
"The city of Wells felt it very important to get the grocery store open to give a vote of confidence," he said." They wanted to be able to tell the community that the grocery store is open, that food is available, and it was important for us to be able to tell people in the community that we have a million-square-foot distribution center four hours away, in Farr West, Utah, that can serve their needs, and there's no need to make a run on the store, and get the word out there's going to be plenty of bottled water there available."
The store, like any business following a disaster, had myriad issues to confront. Among the most pressing ones were the availability of electricity, the capability of conducting electronic transactions in a world where more than half of customer purchases are with credit cards, accessibility for trucks to deliver products to the store, insurance coverage issues and store building integrity and security, he said.
"I can't emphasize enough the importance of having a central command post, to be able to have an individual be authorized to be able to make important decisions in a timely fashion and so that people can call back and forth and have that single point of contact," Miner said.
The damage could have been worse, he said. Had a sprinkler system kicked on, about $300,000 of inventory would have been destroyed.
Bob Carey, earthquake program manager for the Utah Division of Homeland Security, said many disaster-related problems can be avoided with adequate preparation.
"The more you do up-front ... the better you are," he said. "And this isn't just for earthquakes. An illustration was broken water pipes. That's all it takes (to cause major problems). How do you handle broken water pipes? In the big scheme of things, you relocate, and how do you deal with your vendors? How do you deal with your employee calls? And rather than doing that on the fly, that would be something that would be useful to think through." E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com
Copyright 2008 The Deseret News Publishing Co.
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