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Volume 7, Issue 4 A Force to be Reckoned With
The classic saw concerns an irresistible force meeting an immovable object. On September 17, 2004, however, one irresistible force met another. Sometime between 5:30 and 6:30 that evening, the last remnants of Hurricane Ivan formed themselves into an F2 tornado that roared north from the Centreville, Virginia, area toward Ashburn and the United Litho facility in Beaumeade Corporate Park. Packing winds of 113 to 157 mph, the tornado was one of 50 spawned by Ivan that Friday in Virginia—a state that averages about 15 to 20 tornadoes a year. ULI was among seven businesses in the immediate area to sustain serious damage, with large portions of the roof torn off, a roll-up door ripped off its track and thrown 50 feet into the building, a non-load-bearing wall buckled, delivery trailers overturned and two cars picked up by the winds and hurled against the side of the building. One of those vehicles severed the plant’s incoming natural gas supply line on impact. Preliminary figures put United Litho’s losses at roughly $550,000. Fortunately, no one was injured despite the storm’s fury, and the 22 employees who had been in the plant when the tornado struck were soon joined on the wet road in front of the building by a dozen or more staff members who had heard the news and were anxious to assess the damage and begin recovery efforts. Operations Manager Tom Naquin, Assistant Pressroom and Finishing Manager Tom Colville and Operations VP Chris Azbill arrived within the first 30 minutes, and the rest of ULI’s senior management team was notified within the hour. When the gas leak was finally shut off and employees were allowed to re-enter the building, the damage they confronted looked formidable. “It looked like a bomb hit the place,” Colville said. “There was no power, so it was dark, and it was pouring rain inside the building! There was insulation hanging everywhere, debris all over the place ... I didn’t see how we’d ever get all the water cleaned up.” From the beginning, however, the expectation—set by Azbill—was that the presses would be up and running by Wednesday, September 22, and that full operation would be restored throughout the plant by Friday, September 24. As Scheduling Assistant Charlie Goode commented later, “I’m not sure if he actually believed that at the time, or if he was just trying to give us all hope, but we all believed it because we believe in him. He gave people confidence that ULI was going to be OK.” Through the story that follows, we invite you to share our experiences with Ivan the Terrible and to see, through the eyes of our employees, both the destruction it wrought and the recovery we were able to accomplish so quickly. A Dark & Stormy Night ULI employees working the evening shift on September 17 had been tracking the weather on the Internet throughout the afternoon, and some had been alerted by friends or family that a tornado had been spotted in Centreville. As the funnel cloud got closer, several were drawn to the windows and even into the parking lots to watch the storm’s approach. Prepress Operator Derrick Mayhew and DPP Operator Gerald Byrne knew a tornado had already touched down at Dulles International Airport just 10 minutes to the south and chose the vantage point of the south-facing window in the employee breakroom. Mayhew remembers coming up behind Byrne in the breakroom and seeing the funnel cloud through the window. “It was a dark purple color, stretching from the dark clouds above to its smaller tip behind the trees in the field beside our parking lot,” Mayhew said. “We could see the air swirling around in the funnel ... it was really amazing to watch.” Transfixed by the sight, they remained at the window until the foliage and standing water at the edge of the parking lot began to move. Preflight Operator Angela Brittain and Archiver Chris Filbert had gone out to the parking lot, ready to go home for the night, when Brittain noticed a “black, swirly cloud” across Waxpool Road. “I’d never seen a tornado in person before,” she said later, “and wasn’t sure it actually was one, so I ran back inside and yelled, ‘Hey, guys, come look! This is really cool!’” At the other end of the building, the press crew had just finished a job and was taking a quick break when Platemaker Christian Koval and Proofer Gordon Dixon ran past the press shouting, “A tornado is coming!” “Luckily we weren’t running the presses, ’cause we would have laughed them off,” said First Pressman Mike Seese. “We don’t ever shut down the press once it’s up!” As it was, Seese said, about 10 press and bindery crew members walked to the loading dock to watch just as the tornado crossed the road. “We were like, ‘Man, check it out!’ and ‘Wow, that’s what a tornado looks like!’” Second Pressman Terry Boswell said that at first he even didn’t think about taking cover. “I never thought it would hit us,” he said later, adding, “I thought I’d never get another chance to see one.” Seese said they were watching, almost hypnotized, when he suddenly realized the funnel cloud was only about 100 yards away and heading toward the plant. “We tried to close the shipping door, and we got it down to about 4 feet from the floor when we saw the tornado coming across the parking lot. It was a big grey monster, and boy, it was moving fast!” “There were empty 55-gallon drums flying everywhere, and people were diving for cover. I laid on my back and watched the entire roof peel off.” As Seese and the others began running, Job Coordinator Stoney Hanlin grabbed a phone at the opposite end of the building and issued an urgent page over the intercom: “We’re about to get hit by a tornado! Find cover!” Throughout the plant, there was a scramble for interior rooms—the server room, the scanning room, even the men’s room—as the tornado roared across Beaumeade. Mayhew, who ran into the men’s room with Byrne, said the tornado struck within a matter of seconds. “The most memorable sensation was the tremendous change in air pressure,” he said. “I was expecting to hear crashing glass and flying furniture from the adjacent breakroom, but I never heard it. Instead, there was just a loud wind noise for a few seconds and then a sudden quiet.” In the doorway of the server room, trying to protect Brittain’s body with his own, Hanlin heard a tremendous noise—“it really does sound just like a freight train,” he said—and felt the doorway shake. Then it was quiet again. Hardest hit was the pressroom, where—as Seese described it—“there were empty 55-gallon drums flying everywhere, and people were diving anywhere for cover.” He added, “I laid on my back and watched the entire roof peel off ... it sounded like a jet ripping it off.” Plates sitting next to the presses flew through the air, Seese said, and when the shipping door—where they’d been standing moments before—blew in and wrapped itself around the stitcher, the wheels on the door shot through the air like bullets. “People were dodging under equipment and storage racks,” Koval recalls. “You couldn’t see anything ... there was a lot of wind, a lot of dust, and it was raining in the pressroom. Debris, insulation and paper were everywhere, and the pressroom and bindery seemed destroyed.” Seese was walking around after the winds subsided, making sure everyone was okay, when he discovered the parked cars that had been thrown into the side of the building, severing the main gas line. “There was a really loud buzzing sound,” Seese said, adding that because the shop was downwind, all the gas was going into the plant. Scheduling Assistant Charlie Goode, whose office is just outside the door to the pressroom, opened the door and heard a loud hissing and a pressman screaming, “We’ve got a gas leak!” Goode got on the intercom immediately and ordered an evacuation of the building. Once outside, Goode called 911 and reported both the tornado damage and the gas line break. In the meantime, employees began to gather in the road in front of the plant—with those coming from the direction of the pressroom and bindery having to make a wide sweep through a muddy field to avoid the broken gas line. A quick headcount showed everyone was out of the building except for Gerald Byrne, who had stayed behind to shut down the servers. “I remember hearing Charlie’s voice on the intercom,” Byrne said later, “but there was no smell. I knew Earl [Douglas] had worked hard putting together emergency shut-down procedures for the servers and this seemed to be the right circumstance to use them.” Finding a flashlight and a set of instructions, Byrne shut down the servers and left through the pressroom and bindery—out the bay where the door had been blown in. “That’s when I first saw—and heard—the gas rushing out of the busted pipe,” he said. “I ran at that point.” Loudoun County Fire and Rescue had arrived by that time with an ambulance and a ladder truck. In the driving rain, approximately 20 ULI employees huddled under the tarp provided by the rescue workers, sharing cell phones and swapping stories. Unable to predict how long it would take to get the gas main shut off, rescue workers summoned a Loudoun County school bus to be used as a weather shelter and arranged for a canteen truck to provide staff with snacks and drinks. Who’ll Stop the Rain? Tom Colville, assistant pressroom and finishing manager, recalls that he’d just gotten home when he got a call from Mike Seese, saying, “You are never going to believe this ...” Hurrying back to the plant, he looked at the damaged building, looked at the employees he had just left, and sighed, “I’ve only been gone an hour!” En route, he had notified Operations Manager Tom Naquin, Maintenance Leader Tim Somin and Bryant Wilson, national account manager for Frank Parsons Paper Company—none of whom believed him at first. Naquin explains that Colville had called him at about 6:15, reporting that “Dorothy is with me ... and I just saw a dog on a bike fly by in the wind.” Thirty minutes later, Colville called Naquin again, this time saying, “The roof flew off the building.” Naquin responded, “HA, HA! Is Dorothy at the shop too?” “He had to tell me at least three times before I believed him,” Naquin said later. In the basement of his home in Waldorf, Maryland, waiting for the tornadoes to clear out of the area, Somin concentrated on reaching two key vendors: Heidelberg USA, manufacturer of ULI’s presses, and Conewago Construction, original builders of the Ashburn facility. “I had to go through Heidelberg’s call center,” Somin said, “and it took some persuasion to get to someone who could help us. But once I reached the right person, there was total cooperation: Heidelberg flew three technicians in first thing Monday morning.” He was even luckier with Conewago; he quickly reached Conewago President Donald Smith and explained what had happened. “I told him I needed a roof on our building, and he said he’d drive down from Pennsylvania first thing in the morning.” During clean-up efforts Sunday, ULI President Ken Garner joked about the company’s “new retractable roof.” “I figured out how to get it open,” he said. “Now, if I could just figure out how to get it closed.” Wilson, who had been on the Dulles Toll Road when he got Colville’s call, came directly to the plant—beating even Colville himself. “I feel like I work for you guys,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure everyone was okay, and to help however I possibly could.” Sitting on the bus with ULI staff, Wilson called his boss at Parsons, Vice President of Sales Jim Withrow, to let him know what was going on. “Jim started contacting several local printing companies,” Wilson said, “looking for those who had extra press hours available.” Wilson also cancelled a paper delivery that was due Monday at the Robinson Terminal. “We had our people prepared to pull paper out of ULI to store elsewhere if needed,” he said. Once permitted back in the building, some employees used area rugs to try to keep the water on the pressroom floor from running under the doors into the prepress and administrative areas, while others struggled to cover the presses, the consoles and the polybag machine with tarps After calling Dominion Virginia Power to ensure that the main power to the ULI facility would remain off—“I didn’t want it to come back on overnight and fry the wet circuit boards”—Colville drove the forklift through the darkened plant in the pouring rain until after midnight, moving skids of mail and customer materials out of harm’s way. After that, Naquin said, “there was nothing we could do but let it rain.” The Cold Light of Day Recovery efforts began in earnest before daybreak on Saturday, September 18. Operations VP Chris Azbill, who’d gone to bed just a few hours before still trying to figure out how to remove thousands of gallons of water from the pressroom floor, woke up at 4:30 a.m. with an idea. In accordance with EPA spill-containment regulations, there are no floor drains in the pressroom; with nowhere to go, the 2+ inches of rain that fell between 6 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. Saturday created an enormous, murky wading pool, with Stopping at The Home Depot on his way back to the plant, Azbill bought a portable generator, a Shop Vac®, an assortment of plumbing fittings and 200 feet of PVC pipe—which he then used to fashion a combination vacuum and pump to remove the water from the building. The 60 to 70 current and former employees, spouses and friends who showed up unbidden at the plant throughout the day Saturday were given squeegees, brooms, mops and towels. “We had to get the water off the floor before we could do anything else,” Naquin said. “So everybody was moving water out of the plant in one way or another.” “The most striking thing to me was that anyone walking in off the street wouldn’t have been able to tell a member of the Strat-Tac [senior management] team from one of the pressmen,” said Goode. Among others, Finance VP Art Myers helped Purchasing Leader Jim Poponick assess paper damage and move unusable paper into the parking lot, and President Ken Garner pushed a broom and removed water from the press consoles. “The direct involvement of our management was great!” Somin said. “They really did lead by example, and I think that kept the troops motivated. I know it kept me motivated.” Meanwhile, Azbill was meeting with Conewago’s Donald Smith. As the original builder, Conewago knew the ULI facility inside and out, and was uniquely qualified to put it back together. Smith arrived at 6:30 in the morning with original plans in hand and surveyed the damage with Azbill: the roof had been damaged or lost altogether over the pressroom, the shipping dock and part of the paper warehouse; two exterior walls had suffered significant storm damage and would have to be replaced, as would all the saturated HVAC insulation; and there were several less-severe leaks in the roof over office areas. Together, Smith and Azbill laid out a plan to pull crews, equipment and materials from three other Conewago jobs, begin demolition on Monday, September 20, and have the building back under roof by Wednesday, September 22. By mid-afternoon Saturday, most of the water was off the floor, and ULI staff could turn their attention to next steps. In the pressroom, the maintenance team began working on the electrical panels. “You could pour water out of the circuit breakers,” Somin said, “obviously, not a good thing! We covered every inch of every piece of equipment, using an electronic cleaner to keep the circuit boards from corroding, and left the panels opened up to dry out. Thank goodness for a week of blue skies!” Employees in pick-up trucks spent several hours driving through the business park, collecting more than 100 orange shipping pallets from as far as two miles away. Others pulled bits of insulation out of the trees surrounding the plant. Inside, Goode and Client Services Manager Shannon Marzolf began working their way through the work in process, trying to determine how best to tackle the lost production time. Approximately 100 titles were moving through the plant when the tornado hit, and a realistic assessment of where each stood after the tornado was a clear priority. “We had planned to play catchup that weekend,” Goode said, “with three overtime press crews and three overtime bindery crews scheduled to produce 14 jobs. And we had another two overtime press crews and one overtime bindery crew scheduled for the 20th through the 22nd. So, we were even further behind—and had no idea when the equipment would be back up.” With Azbill’s directive that the presses would be running again by Wednesday, Goode began looking for all the job jackets and supporting materials for the jobs in production, while Colville and his crew started going through the materials for those jobs—determining what forms were off-press and in good shape, what finished product had survived intact, and whether or not the inserts and/or outserts needed for those jobs were usable. “They did an excellent job of getting me the information I needed,” Goode said. “We didn’t have to do any rework due to bad information.” By the end of the day Saturday, Goode and Marzolf had a clear sense of which jobs could be sent to the stitcher and which were good candidates for outsourcing. Work in Process Sunday dawned clear and bright—the first full day of a week of beautiful weather to come. Power had been restored at about 7 a.m., and Somin and MIS Manager David Jordan applied themselves to bringing the “front offices,” including Client Services and Prepress, back online. By midday, power, phones and network connectivity had been restored and account managers were back at work. “I had gotten in touch with as many of the account managers as I could on Friday night,” Marzolf said, “and told them to expect anything but ‘business as usual.’” A full production meeting was scheduled at 2 p.m. Sunday for account managers, account executives, scheduling and operations staff to begin sorting through the work in process and establishing communication with clients. Sales and Marketing VP Wayne Peterson supervised a multi-pronged communications effort involving both account managers and account executives, as well as a daily news release providing updates on the recovery process. “We knew it would be critical to have information in our clients’ hands when they got to work on Monday,” Marzolf explained. “After the production meeting, we all went to work making dozens of phone calls and sending emails.” From the beginning, customers were told to expect some delays, with Marzolf informing account managers early on, “Everyone should expect to go late.” She explained, “We’ll be five days late when the presses come back up, and we’ll probably continue to be five days late for another two weeks.” Delays were kept to a minimum, however, through careful coordination of internal and outside resources, as well as the grace of a number of customers who offered maximum scheduling flexibility. Sunday afternoon, Scheduling Assistant Melissa Fisher began identifying outside vendors who could produce some of the issues currently in progress. “We originally focused on the jobs with the largest quantities,” Fisher said, “and by Sunday afternoon, we had identified 15 jobs that we could possibly send out.” She contacted 14 vendors for help with outside services, attempting to coordinate a whole spectrum of variables: trim sizes, file formats, due dates, quantities, insert/outsert details, shipping information and mailing labels. “Once vendor availability was known,” she said, “we chose those jobs that best fit the vendors and helped us stay as close to original schedules as possible.” Outsourcing was further complicated by the need to ship paper to other facilities as needed and address mailing concerns. Jobs to be mailed elsewhere would require labels to be resorted for the new point of entry, in addition to special exceptions from the postal service. Hugh Tolson, mail services manager, contacted the USPS office at Dulles and explained the problem, then crafted a letter asking for help in getting those jobs mailed. “They responded with one-time exceptions for entry, and facilitated the transfer of funds from the local post office to the post office in Hanover, New Hampshire,” Tolson said. “It’s amazing to think that we were able to generate finished product without a roof overhead. We’ve got the only pressmen who can say they’ve run a web press under a sunroof.” Ultimately, eight jobs (300,000 books) were printed elsewhere: Dartmouth Printing Company, a sister company in The Sheridan Group, printed five titles, while Cadmus Specialty Publications—which had called to offer press hours as soon as they heard about the tornado damage—printed three more. ULI account managers remained the point of contact for all titles, whether manufactured at ULI or elsewhere. Scheduling for the issues that were kept in-house was “very fluid,” Production Control Manager JoAnne Bland said. “We reevaluated the schedule constantly and shuffled jobs regularly. We looked at two things in particular: ‘must’ work [titles with newsstand distribution or show dates] and which issues had been in the plant the longest.” “For two weeks following the tornado,” she said, “we left ‘older’ due dates as high up in the schedule as possible, while balancing them against close-in ‘musts.’” Monday morning saw the bindery up and running, stitching titles that were otherwise complete for delivery Monday and Tuesday; Mail List Services re-running the labels, bag tags and postal documents that had been damaged by the rain; and Digital Prepress busy preparing files for jobs to be outsourced and remaking all of the 425 printing plates that were drenched when the roof came off. “They were really wet!” Bland explained. “And even under the best of circumstances, digital plates have a shelf life of about a week. Since we weren’t sure when the presses would be back up, we weren’t taking any chances that the plates wouldn’t be any good once we were ready to print.” Of course, it was also essential to determine what client-furnished materials were salvageable and what would have to be replaced—a difficult and time-consuming task since each box had to be opened and its contents examined. “We’ve been amazed that some of the boxes pulled down have been in really good condition,” Bland said. “Because the product is packed tight in sturdy boxes with plastic wrapped around them, we’ve been fortunate that we have not lost as much as we feared initially.” Fewer than 30,000 pieces, affecting seven titles, had to be replaced. The technicians from Heidelberg worked closely with Somin’s team, running checks on all the equipment. “Basically,” Somin said, “we just started up the 8-unit and dealt with problems as they arose. By Tuesday evening, we were running paper through it, checking components and controls. Whenever something didn’t work, we stopped to fix it and then moved on to the next issue.” In what Naquin described as a “minor miracle,” the Tuesday night press crew was able to finish running the final two forms of Wine and Spirits—a title with a “can’t miss” newsstand distribution date—under the stars. “It’s amazing to think that we were able to generate finished product without a roof overhead. [First Pressman] Helmut Pusch was joking that he’d have permanent bragging rights as the only guy to run a web press under a sunroof.” The 8-unit press was shut down again briefly during the day on Wednesday because of the work on the roof and falling debris. “We wound up building a cardboard and plastic tent to go over the presses because nails and screws kept dropping as the roofers worked directly above us,” Naquin said. Fortunately, disruption was minimized as a result of the roofing system chosen to replace the damaged portions of the old roof. Once damaged materials were removed back to a clean joint, the new decking was applied first, followed by insulation panels and, finally, a waterproof membrane. This allowed ULI staff to continue working safely underneath the roofers once the decking was down. By Wednesday evening, both presses were up and running, albeit with a few kinks: web guides (which control the paper going through the press) weren’t working properly on the 8-unit press, and the 5-unit had some problems with the drive motor and register control system. “They were up and down all night,” Somin said. “And we were placing orders left and right for new parts. We used all the parts we keep in stock ... we keep a little of everything, but not as much as we needed that week!” Back on Track Beginning Thursday, September 23, both presses were not only up, but were crewed to run 24/7 to get through the backlogged work as quickly as possible. “A normal staffing week is 180 to 204 hours on our presses,” Goode explained. “When we started working ’round the clock, the press staffing week expanded to 336 hours. We did the same thing with the Kolbus [perfect binder] ... there, a normal week is 36 hours, and an overtime week is 48 to 60 hours. We staffed it at 168 hours!” Just a week after the tornado hit, both presses were running at 75 percent of capacity. The maintenance team had temporarily changed their hours to work eight-hour shifts, ensuring that there would be a maintenance person on site around the clock throughout the following week. Representatives from many of ULI’s vendors were brought in to examine the equipment and—while maintenance had been told to expect some minor problems off and on from rust and corrosion—Somin said he’s feeling pretty confident about how things are running. “Two weeks after the tornado, all of our machinery was up to 100 percent,” he said. “If there is a positive in all this, it’s that the spirit of the employees undid everything Ivan had done. It’s made this a better place to work.” Goode pointed out that while the plant typically delivers 25 jobs in an average week, 44 jobs were produced during the week of September 27th. All told, from Monday, September 20, through Friday, October 8—despite having lost 130 press hours and 60 bindery hours—ULI delivered 100 jobs: 28 of them on-time, 38 one or two days late, and another 34 three to five days late. Significantly, only two jobs were pulled from the schedule—the September 17th and September 24th issues of CQ Weekly—and ULI did not miss any of the 23 must-dates on the schedule. By October 11, the plant was back to full on-time performance. The Silver Lining Most would agree that there were many small miracles involved in United Litho’s recovery from Ivan’s assault on September 17: • that no one was injured, either during the storm or during the clean-up; • that the weather cleared almost immediately, providing more than a week of cool, dry days and nights to expedite the refurbishment of the presses and the reconstruction of the roof; • that the building lost power before the roof came off, since the damage would almost certainly have been greater had there been electricity running through the equipment when the rain started to fall inside the building; and • that both Heidelberg and Conewago responded so quickly and professionally to the emergency—“almost like they were ULI employees,” Naquin said. “They really came through for us.” But even more critical, President Ken Garner said, was the unflagging spirit of ULI’s employees. “Our recovery truly was miraculous,” he said. “But like most things that happen here, it didn’t happen by accident. We talk a lot about the importance of our organizational culture, and sometimes it seems kind of abstract. But it was tangible during the recovery. The individual and collective commitment and cooperation were really something to see! I’ve been amazed at how people responded—everyone was willing to do whatever was required to get our company back on its feet again. “It’s not something I’d ever want to go through again,” Garner said, “but it’s certainly shown me how incredibly resilient we are. I don’t believe any other company could have accomplished so much in so little time.” Despite their tight focus on deadlines, many publishers find that there’s one that gets away from them year after year. All Periodicals publishers are required to file USPS Form 3526—the Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation—by October 1 of each year at the original entry post office; deadlines for publishing the complete statement of ownership in your publication are outlined in Section E216.3 of the Domestic Mail Manual. The USPS promises to suspend Periodical mailing privileges if the Statement of Ownership is not filed in a timely manner—and it’s no idle threat. ULI Mail Services Manager Hugh Tolson notes, “In almost 30 years in this business, I saw that for the first time last fall—when we probably had five or more customers who were suspended. And I assume that USPS checks will get even more stringent this year.” For more information, see publication DM-204 from the USPS website. This publication is a step-by-step description of the information needed to apply for periodical status and the requirements for the statement of ownership. Angela Brittain & Stoney Hanlin: Sounding the Alarm With home and family in Oakland, Maryland—145 miles away from Ashburn—Job Coordinator Stoney Hanlin rents a room from a ULI colleague three nights a week to ease the pain of an excruciating commute. When he woke up in that room on September 17, he spent some time watching the Weather Channel before his 2 p.m. shift. Hanlin, who’s been with ULI just a little longer than he’s been married—16+ years—rode in with his wife’s words of caution in his ears. “I knew there had been a tornado on the ground near the North Carolina-Virginia border,” Hanlin said, “and I knew it was heading due north.” Once at his desk, he began monitoring the weather on his computer, and with radios turned on in different departments, he’d heard the tornado warnings for areas south of Ashburn. In swift succession, he heard about a tornado spotted in Centreville and then at Dulles, about 10 minutes to the south. At about the same time—roughly 6:30 p.m.—Preflight Operator Angela Brittain was clocking out, ready to leave for the night. “I heard the door shut behind her,” Hanlin said, “and then she came right back in, calling to us to come out to the parking lot.” Brittain said she’d seen a “black, swirly cloud,” but didn’t recognize it as a tornado at first. “I just thought it was really cool, and wanted the guys to take a look,” she said. Hanlin, however, recognized it immediately. “It was very eerie-looking ... there was no wind where we were, and just little sprinkles of rain, but I could see the rotation of the clouds near the hill at the end of the parking lot and knew we had to get inside.” Running back inside the building, he grabbed the nearest phone to send a page through the plant, warning others to take cover just as the lights flickered and went out. He shepherded Brittain back to the server room, where they crouched in the doorway. “I was really scared,” Brittain said. “I kept thinking the servers would fly off the walls and hit us in the head.” Hanlin said the tornado was on them in seconds, and passed just as quickly—in about 15 to 20 seconds. “It all happened so fast that I didn’t even have time to think about my family or anything. I was just trying to keep Angela safe.” Soon, the shaking stopped, and it got really quiet. He got up and went to open the pressroom doors—they didn’t budge at first and then they flew open as the pressure was released. With enough daylight remaining to see the destruction, they were terrified, Brittain said, that people in the pressroom had been hurt. “We just started running down between the presses, screaming to see if anyone needed help.” There were no answers: no one had been hurt, and most of the press crew, already aware of the gas leak, had begun to evacuate. By that time separated from Hanlin, Brittain ran out through the open shipping door and into the parking lot. “The guys were already in the woods, yelling at me to get away from the building. I ran out through this cloud of gas, sure I was going to blow up,” she said. Together, she and the press and bindery crews made their way through the muddy field in the pouring rain, toward the rest of the employees gathered at the edge of the road. Once the ambulance arrived, Hanlin and Derrick Mayhew sat with Brittain in the back, talking and reassuring one another. Hanlin used Mayhew’s phone to call home, and then dialed Brittain’s husband for her. “I was really shaken up,” she said. “I remember when I was little, our house caught on fire and all our neighbors were standing in the road crying. I didn’t understand that then, but I do now. This place is like family.” Hanlin agrees. “The best thing about working here is that we’re all so close it’s like having a family away from my own. People here would do most anything for you, and you for them.” TechTips: Beep ... Beep ... Beep (or, Backing Up) Nobody expects a tornado to hit their building. The bad news for us is that it happened at all. But the good news is that we didn’t lose a single bit of computer data. If you’re not doing so already, here’s how to preserve your hard work from the unexpected. Back it up Backing up files is like buying insurance: if you can’t afford to lose it, back it up. Make sure you’re not backing your files up to the same computer’s hard drive; if it goes, your backup will do you no good. Earlier this year, we began archiving jobs not only onto CDs and DVDs, but to large portable hard drives such as the LaCie “Bigger Disk.” For about $1,000, these hard drives hold over a terabyte (1,000 gigabytes). The advantage to these drives is that backing up and restoring is extremely fast. They work with both Macs and PCs with no special drivers needed. Back it up again Although we didn’t need to “go to the videotape” after our experience, tape backups serve their purpose very well. These devices are usually attached to servers and, with the properly configured software, automatically copy the files to a removable medium. We back up all of our customers’ data to tape every night at 2 a.m. and take them to our off-site storage facility twice a week. We use the Quantum SDLT (a budget-buster for most customers), but regular DLT-based tape drives can be found for about $1,500. The advantage of tape backups is that they can be configured to save a set of files and subsequently back up only the files that have changed. Therefore, if a production file is ever corrupted, it’s possible to go back to a prior version of the file. Incremental backups like this are also faster to execute. UPS Tornadoes and storms wreak havoc on the electrical supply. All of our production machines and servers are plugged into a UPS (uninterruptible power supply). When the power spikes, flickers or goes out altogether, these devices kick in with a temporary supply of electricity, keeping the machines up and running. Power fluctuations are not always apparent; small interruptions may not affect the lights in the room but can easily take down a computer or corrupt data. The only time you notice this happening is when the device beeps, indicating it has switched its battery on. Keep an eye out for sales on these devices, as they are often deeply discounted. We had enough power on the 17th to safely save our files and shut down gracefully. Online backup With high-speed internet access getting cheaper all the time, how about a more high-tech backup solution? Mac users can buy a “.Mac” membership from Apple ($100/year) that gives access to a 100 MB disk easily accessed from the Finder. While this may not hold an entire job, it might work well to back up your layout files. Other online backup companies such as iBackup charge $15 a month for 4GB of online storage and unlimited usage. Extraordinary Customers: Counting Our Blessings In the immediate aftermath of Ivan, and for days afterwards, we received dozens of messages of concern, encouragement and support from our clients and friends, as well as numerous offers of assistance and even some “care packages” full of goodies. Without a doubt, our customers are the best in the world.
Congratulations from all of us at AMERICAN THEATRE on your ultra-swift recovery from the storm. And thank you for another crisp and spiffy issue of the magazine, which we were particularly pleased to receive sooner rather than later. Please convey our thanks to everybody who worked on this oversized issue in a time of adversity. You’re our heroes. Jim O’Quinn, Sarah Ballantoni, Sarah Hart, Randy Gener,
Please thank everyone who worked on the October Issue of AFD. The issue looks great and I know that everyone here is extremely excited to have it ready in time for our big convention. I know how hard you all worked (despite all the hiccups, tornado and all) to get it out on time for us. I can’t express how much we appreciate everyone’s hard work. Allison Sullivan, Editorial Art Director, American Funeral Director
Please extend a big thank you and “WOW, are we impressed!” to the ULI team. We’re delighted to get this issue almost on time in spite of the tornado and the advertiser problems! Nicole Harris, Publisher, National Glass Association
Kevin, the education division at ACS wants to thank you and United Litho for all the effort and commitment to getting ChemMatters printed and out. The magazine looks great as usual. In spite of all your team went through, you did a marvelous job. We appreciate everything. Thanks again. Cornithia Allen Harris, Senior Designer,
Thanks for the update, Dave. I’m sorry to hear that you and the gang at United Litho are having to go through all of this, but glad to hear that no one was injured—that is what is important in the big picture. Your prompt attention to calming the fears of your customers is to be commended. It just reinforces what I already knew—United Litho is one class act of a company. Keep up the great work. Diane Balogh, Editor & Director of Communications, Pi Beta Phi
Ray: We’ve been talking here and we are so impressed with everything that UL has done—knowing that you have a great back-up plan in place has really solidified our desire to continue to do business with you. Good luck with the clean-up and thanks for keeping us posted. Kari Mitchum, ICBA/Network News
Donna, it is most unfortunate that UL sustained such damage, but you have been positive, reassuring, proactive and most helpful in taking care of this for me. As always, your customer satisfaction is top quality! Susan Taylor, Advertising Services Manager,
Shannon, you guys have done a fantastic job keeping us (and all your other clients) informed. I’m sure you’re all up to your eyeballs with everything that’s going on, and sending out daily updates is over and above the extraordinary service we have come to know. Good luck to you all in your recovery! Laura Porinchak, Editor, Construction Dimensions
Dave, thank you for your phone call and the various updates about United Litho’s brush with the tornado. We, too, are relieved that no one was hurt and that the damage, while certainly significant, did not destroy your plant. I wanted to use this opportunity to compliment United Litho on its extraordinary customer service during this crisis. The sincere concern ULI has demonstrated to its clients about pending jobs—while having no roof in some parts of your building!—is nothing short of extraordinary. Thank you for outstanding efforts to keep us apprised of all developments. Peg Nichols, Director of Communications & Media Relations, Executive Editor, Attention! Magazine
Robyn: We were all so sorry to hear all that you guys went through, but as usual, you all were so professional that it was amazing. Thank you for your sweet note. We should be thanking our lucky stars for having you all on our team. It makes our job such a joy when we are working with kind, pleasant, competent and supportive people like ULI. Patty Kramer, Director of Design & Publications,
Paul, I’m very sorry to hear about the news but I’m glad no one was hurt. I’m also happy about UL’s recovering so fast. As usual, you and your Green Team always put your best effort and support for your clients—I think especially for us. Linda Bautista, Graphics/Production, Naval Reserve
Donna, I wanted to tell you we are all so impressed with United Litho — your communication, your ability to get back up to speed, your professionalism under such tumultuous circumstances. We continue to be amazed with each subsequent update. All I can say is: Wow. Melissa H. Jackson, Director of Publications,
When I became aware of the tornado that touched down in Ashburn, my thoughts were very much with the employees of United Litho. It is reassuring to hear that nobody was injured and that the damage to the business was minimized. I would like to let you know that Heldref will do what we can to help United Litho recover. We will be as flexible as possible. Richard Pepple, Production Manager/Print Buyer,
Sharon and Julie: We were so busy oohing and ahhing among ourselves after getting your news today that I forgot to tell YOU guys ooh and ah. WOW, I can’t believe you got hit that badly! We’re so glad you’re OK and that there wasn’t worse damage to people or property. It’s pretty impressive how quickly everything is back up and working—United Litho is nothing if not efficient. Lesley Hall, Deputy Editor, Mortgage Banking Association
Donna: I am very sorry to hear about the damage to the plant and truly appreciate the dedication you all display 24-7 in keeping your clients on schedule and looking good. What you do to keep the presses rolling proves truly amazing. Thanks for the tremendous support. If there is anything we can do to help out, please give a yell. Nancy M. Davis, Editor in Chief, Glass Magazine & Auto Glass
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