We have expanded our Trivia Challenge for this quarter to include Sports and Pop Culture besides our usual History question. Email the correct answers for the below questions by February 28, 2005 to laurac@pbirestores.com and your name will be entered in a drawing for a $100 gift certificate to the restaurant of your choice. We will select 3 winners – one for each category.
 
HISTORY
In honor of our Virginia office after their successful first year, our history trivia question for this quarter pertains to their home base of Manassas.

143 years ago during the First Battle of Manassas, also known as the Battle of Bull Run, Brigadier General Thomas J. Jackson’s timely arrival with reinforcements inspired a fellow commander to rally his troops by shouting “There stands Jackson like a stone wall!” giving that man his famous nickname.

Who was the commander (mortally wounded in battle the next day) that named General “Stonewall” Jackson?

SPORTS
Before Washingtonians had the Nationals, there were the Senators?

In 1926, Washington DC’s original baseball team, the Senators, participated in the longest opening day game on record.
 
How many innings did this game run?

POP CULTURE
A little Baltimore flavor

While in Baltimore from 1976 – 1977, Oprah Winfrey was a news anchor on WJZ-TV and co-host of a local Baltimore talk show on that station.

What was name of the talk show she and Richard Sher hosted?

As part of a team of PBI Restoration Resources employees that responded to Hurricane Ivan, I wrote this article in an attempt to capture the adventure we experienced
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PBI answered the call for help from the barrage of hurricanes that struck Florida this past season. As we prepared to respond to Hurricane Frances’ damages, Ivan began his path of destruction toward Florida. At the urgings of our AAORC (American Association of Restoration Contractors) partners, already in Florida for Charley and Frances, we mobilized toward the Panhandle.

The team and I left before sunrise on Wednesday, September 15th hoping to beat Ivan to the Florida Panhandle. We were driving along I-10 en route to Pensacola, just as Ivan made landfall. Amidst severe thunderstorms and lightning flashes, were outside Marianna, Florida when radio reports warned of tornadoes in the area. These were more numerous, larger and longer than typical in such situations. Radio announcers’ recommendations, if traveling on I-10, were to “Get out of your vehicle and find a ditch!” We parked on the shoulder for over an hour, scouring radio stations for updates, and readying ourselves for the worst case scenario. In the meantime, several calls to our hotel destination went unanswered. Finally, there was a break in the tornado warnings and we made a run for the hotel, hoping it was still standing and in good order. Valuable Lesson #1: If you are trying to beat a hurricane it’s best not to approach from the Northeast! Winds from a hurricane travel clockwise and are strongest between 1 and 3 o’clock (i.e. Northeast side of the hurricane).

We made it to Marianna, despite shady internet directions. Which direction off I-10 at the Marianna exit should we go? After choosing the wrong direction, we doubled back and called the hotel again. This time the owners answered, thankfully, and guided us in safely. Fortunately, we were able to dodge all the tornadoes (or did the tornadoes dodge us?)

Relieved at arriving safely to the hotel, we soon realized why this was the only hotel with vacancy. It was straight out of a Hollywood script calling for “seedy establishment.” The good news was that there weren’t any cockroaches (perhaps they, too, were afraid?). The only thing scarier than the hotel: the other guests. We were prepared to sleep in our vehicles but opted for beds. At least for the first few hours there was still electricity and TV coverage. We decided to try tomorrow to check into other hotel possibilities.

All affected counties had imposed curfews, so we were limited to where we could go the following day. In the areas we were able to access, we witnessed the extensive damage caused by the hurricane and its tornadoes. It reinforced for us just how lucky we were to escape unscathed. The first priority was to contact property owners to let them know we were there to help. Unfortunately, this proved challenging due to telecommunications difficulties though we had satellite phones and cell phones with different wireless companies. Usually one of the networks would work, only if we weren’t moving. Problems were even worse on the other end. Most affected areas lost phone service entirely. Property owners and residents struggled to deal with their own personal property damages and catastrophes. After trying most of the first day to contact property owners, we realized this was futile.  

Our next priority was to see if we could get into another hotel a night early (where we had reservations for the following night). We were optimistic that it could offer nicer accommodations, given that it was part of a chain of hotels we were familiar with. No such luck. Not to be deterred on the hotel front, we shifted our focus to food. As tempting as our own supplies were (beef jerky, tuna fish, mixed nuts, water, etc.) we thought we would see if any food establishments were serving. With just one restaurant open in Marianna, pit bbq was our only option. The restaurant was packed, but worth the wait in several ways. There we met a local woman who asked us what brought us down from the mid-Atlantic. We explained that we were there for disaster restoration in response to Hurricane Ivan. She was appreciative of our help and coincidentally, happened to be friends with the owner of the chain hotel. She said we should mention her name and the owner’s name to try and get us rooms. After we ate, we went to the franchise to try our new connection. Amazingly, when we did as she instructed, they found us rooms. What a relief to get out of the “Flea Bag Inn”. Admittedly, the owners of “Flea Bag Inn” were very nice to us. Hopefully in time they will be able to upgrade their accommodations.

Due to continued imposed curfews, we couldn’t access Pensacola until Friday, September 17th. After a decent night’s rest, we hit the road early anticipating trouble getting into Pensacola. Despite years of working in disaster restoration, we at PBI had never before seen widespread devastation like that from Hurricane Ivan. The first difficulty we faced was the closure of I-10. The bridge into Pensacola had collapsed during the hurricane. Tragically, a tractor trailer driver died as a result. That bridge was the major artery into Pensacola. As a result, all traffic was routed onto Route 90 around Exit 96, the mile marker to Pensacola. Imagine traveling 96 miles on the equivalent of Route 1 with everyone being diverted off I-95. It took us over 4 hours to get into Pensacola that first day even though we left Marianna before dawn. Along the way we made notes of staging areas, stores for supplies (Home Depot & Lowe’s), fuel sources (including diesel) and other potential hotel accommodations closer to Pensacola.
 
Upon arrival, we were immediately overwhelmed. The upheaval of people’s lives was shocking. Our team quickly went to work reaching out to offer their assistance. We had two Florida map books, but no Pensacola Street Atlas. Using “the force” to navigate around Pensacola the first day, we made out okay. Besides not knowing the area, we had to deal with downed power lines, non-functioning traffic lights, fallen trees blocking roads, and missing signs on many streets. Later that day we picked up a Pensacola street map. This helped but we still had the aforementioned hurdles to overcome. On one occasion, the President of our company, Mike Popowski, drove through a neighborhood that really took it on the chin. The homeowners had already ripped and carted out anything that was beyond salvaging and piled them along the side of the street. One homeowner had a cardboard sign with red spray paint stating “Lot N Get Shot!” Other homemade signs were more friendly and thanked people who were there to help in the recovery efforts. It was encouraging and a credit to our country to see the resources that responded to the disaster. We saw convoys of utility trucks, tree removal trucks, police, generators, fuel trucks, insurance company vehicles, Salvation Army and American Red Cross trucks, and many others. Speaking of the Salvation Army, we never thought rice and beans would taste so good! The Salvation Army fed people affected by the hurricane and recovery workers. We appreciated it so much that we made donations to them despite their insisting it wasn’t necessary. We will all get a generous feeling when we see the Salvation Army charity buckets and their staff ringing bells this Holiday Season.

Another critical resource we had to watch was fuel. The nearest functioning gas stations were at Exit 98 off of I-10. Given the time spent in traffic we had to manage our fuel efficiently to return to Exit 98 without running out of gas. We took the “better safe than sorry” approach and we never ran out of gas. Thank heaven for small favors.

The early days were spent assisting Escambia County in their damage assessment of municipal buildings. A benefit of working for the county was that they gave us passes to get our vehicles past the Road Block at Exit 96 on I-10. This pass allowed us to go all the way to the last exit (Exit 28) before the I-10 bridge. This was a huge time saver as the traffic from Exit 96 to Exit 28 was very light and the speed limit was 75 mph. We were still diverted to Route 90, but only for the last 28 miles. This cut our commute from 4 hours down to 2 ½. By the weekend of September 18th we had a full crew of approximately 30 workers, 4 tractor trailers, 1 water truck, 1 van and several PBI vehicles loaded with equipment and supplies on site. It was quite an undertaking to mobilize our crew members, large desiccant units, air scrubbers, dehumidifiers, etc. from Maryland to the panhandle. We located a staging area (municipal playing fields) just north of Pensacola for the equipment and other supplies. We cleared this with Escambia County just to make sure we didn’t run afoul of any of the municipal authorities. We were ready for action.

It was very interesting to see our major competitors and partners working in the Florida panhandle. Even with all of the restoration companies in the area, there still were not enough to meet the needs of those affected. Unfortunately, some companies overcommitted themselves or took jobs they weren’t equipped to handle. Compounded by hesitation on a number of property owners to commit, this only exacerbated the situation. They were overwhelmed and did not realize the longer they waited the more their property would have to be demolished and reconstructed. The sooner the structural drying process is started the more need to demolish can be mitigated. This was frustrating but given the turmoil it was hardly a surprise.

Our crew went to work for a large commercial property owner in Gulf Breeze, just outside of Pensacola. The owners of the office complex had 100% occupancy and quickly realized the sooner they lined up a contractor, the shorter the road to recovery. They were sharp property managers and wanted to keep as many tenants as possible. The office complex was located between Pensacola Bay and the Santa Rosa Sound; between a rock and hard place. They felt the full force of Hurricane Ivan as it hit land. The property lost most of its roof and windows on the main building. This resulted in every floor suffering water damage. The other buildings all suffered damage mostly from windows being destroyed. The entire complex was without power for close to one month. Our team handled the board up, structural drying, demolition, mold remediation and interior cleaning. They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, but it is hard to say whether all the pictures can do justice to the damage from Hurricane Ivan.

One of the positives of working in Gulf Breeze was that the logistics were markedly better than Pensacola. We were able to avoid the whole Route 90 detour and reach the job site in about two hours. Eventually, we were able to move our crews to hotels off I-10 Exit 56. At the same time we discovered an alternate route into Gulf Breeze which shortened the commute. Given that “time is money”, this was like finding a bankroll in a pocket of your jeans before putting them in the wash. Not only did this save time, it also boosted our spirits from a psychological standpoint. A two to three hour commute after a long day really took its toll on everyone. We completed the project in about one month. Our clients were so pleased with our work that they referred us to two other large property owners in the Pensacola area.
 
While there were many hurdles, it was an amazing learning experience. It was a good business venture and very rewarding to see how much people appreciated our being there to help.

It was also a lesson on how to handle a major hurricane in our own backyard. Given our existing customer relationships and emergency response agreements, we could face the same “contention of resources” we saw in Florida. Our experience has better equipped us to handle such a scenario and utilize our partnership/ownership in AAORC. It’s good to know that we can call on our partners to help us in our efforts to assist.

While we hope that we never see another hurricane season like this past one, we take pride in our ability to respond when duty calls. Our best wishes go out to the victims of Florida hurricanes in rebuilding their lives, homes and businesses.