3rd hurricane in 5 weeks doesn’t do much damage to Steen
Article by Mike Whaley
After getting hit by Hurricane Jeanne, the fifth hurricane in five weeks, we are back up and running. Power and phones were restored on the morning of Tuesday 9/28/04… only 3 days after the storm. (Hurricane Frances took power out for a week.) We are open for business again and unless we get another storm (at this point, all bets are off!) we don’t expect to experience any more significant delays in orders due to the weather.
Yet again, we had little damage to the facility… we are primarily dealing with letting a few water leaks dry out, and there are a few thousand pieces of bark and leaves plastered to the sides of the building which should come off as they dry out. The planes were evacuated to Plant City and were OK, and our hangar in Melbourne got through OK after we took steps to immobilize the door. The surrounding area sustained more damage than in the preceding storms, though it was countered somewhat by the fact that so many people still had hurricane supplies on hand and knew what to expect, so the general “chaos” level seems to be a bit lower this time, in spite of the greater damage sustained in many areas – particularly as you move south of Melbourne.
All in all, we are very blessed that we got through it as well. Our thoughts and prayers are with the many folks who have damage, but our community is a strong one and we will bounce back. We thank you for your patience and the many messages of support we have received.
Sincerely,
The Steen Aero Lab Team