Blumenthal disaster plan works
By Susan M. Andrews -- Furniture Today, October 10, 2005
New Orleans — Harry Blumenthal, president of Blumenthal Print-works, a major supplier of ticking and upholstery fabric, is a big believer in the value of a good disaster plan.
That's because the plan Blumenthal has been refining for his company in the past few years worked when it was tested by Hurricane Katrina.
Despite the flooding of the company's two-story headquarters building here and the evacuation of the city, Blumenthal's business has barely missed a beat.
About half the company's New Orleans-based staff — customer service, administration, finance, design and information technology — has relocated to Marion, S.C., for a couple of months, the location of the company's mill. Blumenthal, with about 375 employees at the plant, is a major employer in Marion.
Because Blumenthal's computer systems in New Orleans and South Carolina were mirror images of each other, "we had customer service up and running even before everyone got (to Marion)," Blumenthal said. "Our design department is up and running, samples are going out as needed, customer service is up and running and our e-mail system is completely functional with the same addresses."
The company's New Orleans telephone numbers are not available, of course, so the number for the company while it operates in South Carolina is (843) 423-6591.
An employee who got an early peek into the building on Broad Street in New Orleans said water had been at least three feet deep in Blumenthal's offices, and mold already had formed in the ceilings. Blumenthal built the building in the mid-1960s. A team of employees still in the New Orleans area planned to enter the building for a better assessment of the damage.
"We'll obviously have a lot of repair and renovation to do when we get back," Blumenthal said, "but we're still going forward in the meantime. We've just purchased two more knit machines for ticking production and we are hiring an additional stylist for the design department."
When Blumenthal employees first arrived in Marion, most stayed in a motel, but the community has gone the extra mile to make them more comfortable.
"All the people here have been so nice to us. Carolinas Hospital Systems in Florence, S.C., is letting us use some apartments they had, and now they are putting in furnishings for us," Blumenthal said. "And there are racks of clothes in our shipping area that local residents have collected for us."
Blumenthal is very proud of his employees — the ones in Marion and the ones scattered elsewhere around the country.
"Everyone has been a great sport," he said. "Some brought their families with them and have enrolled their children in school here, but some are separated from their loved ones, and some have family members still unaccounted for. So it's very difficult."
