Steve Miley from Lundberg Construction arrived and with his wealth of knowledge plans were being made for that night as well as the days to follow. Several rolls of plastic were hung from ceiling to floor to help keep the weather out for the night. With help from Steve Miley, several outside contractors were called in to start working the next day. The following week was spent building walls, patching walls and roofs, restoring electricity and sprinkler sys tems, fire alarm, and securing the building the best we could. A huge THANK YOU goes out to all Crest employees as well as all of the outside contractors, who I won’t try to list in case I miss one, for all of their help. It’s hard to believe that 100,000 square feet of building was destroyed and 5 months later a new building is in its place and almost ready to move into. Incredible!!! Thank you again! Steve Zera, Engineering Manager: To say that dealing with the tornado event was a “trial by fire” might be an understatement. In my 30 years at Crest, the worst I’d ever seen was a flood at the old warehouse and a roof membrane blowing off in a blizzard. As bad as those events were, they don’t compare to the tornado this year. When I got the call and pulled up to the warehouse and saw the damage, my thoughts were going in a hundred di- rections. As people asked “what should we do?” or “now what? I realized that I had to make some big decisions for the first time without Jim Spangler’s help (Jim Spangler retired on December 31, 2014 and Steve stepped into his shoes). It was extremely important to make sure we dealt with anything that could be potentially harmful and dan- gerous, for example, natural gas leaks, live electrical issues, structure failure, and making sure the affected area was secured and people and product were protected. From there I immediately called our general contractor, who knows as much about our entire facility as anyone. He was here that same evening, helping to assess the damage. By this time, Brian Schafer, Facilities Manager, had al- ready made sure the utilities were turned off and secured. That evening, I called several of our contractors and explained our situation. The next day we had everyone on site working on building electrical, gas, HVAC, and ad- ditional damage assessment. At this point we had two goals: secure the damaged area and make it safe; and do what was necessary to get the warehouse back to a usable state so we could continue doing business as usual. So, by the next day, the “great wall” started going up, walls and roof panels were patched and replaced to keep the weather out. My department worked on making sure we could be operational as soon as possible regarding equip- ment and building functionality and worked through the weekend along with many others to make that happen. As it turns out, we lost only one day of production and use of the remaining part of the warehouse was restored for Monday morning. For me, having worked with Jim (Spangler) and Pat (Hillilker) for a long time, I already had relationships with the people we needed on site to get back on track. Having Brian Schafer in his new position was huge for me. He knows our facilities as well as anyone and is able to make quick, sound decisions in an emergency. The night of the tornado, Jeff Meiners got everyone together with a plan going forward. This did more for our ability to get through this than anything. It was important for everyone to know their role and for everyone to know who to go to. It’s been 6 months since the tornado and we’re back into the warehouse. From the highway everything looks com- plete, but we still have areas of roof and siding to replace and structural pieces to identify and replace. By the way, we also built a new Ingredient Warehouse at the same time. The events of the last six months gave me more train- ing than I thought I could handle. I just hope we never see another tornado again. Elton Turner, QA Director: I live an hour away so I was one of the last members of the team to arrive on site for the initial response. The entire team had assembled and as we talked through our initial activities, I remember looking around the room and seeing the resolve and commitment on everyone’s faces. I knew at that moment that we had a great team and would rise to the challenge. My first activity was to walk the warehouse to understand the magnitude of the affected area, including ingredients, packaging, and finished product. The next task through to the
October, November & December 2015 Crest Ink 15
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