Cresent Operations Re-Open Quickly After Flood

May 4, 2010  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in Case Goods on May 5, 2010

Case goods and home entertainment furniture vendor Cresent Fine Furniture reopened its Gallatin, Tenn., operations Monday after weekend flooding hit the company's offices and distribution center.

Despite more than a foot of water in the warehouse, just north of Nashville, damage to merchandise was limited, according to a company release on Tuesday.

The highwater mark was well above the 500 year flood line on the company's property surveys, said to Taylor Condra, vice president of operations.

"We received 14.75 inches of rain in a 36 hour period," Condra said. "Our distribution facility's floor height is built above the 500-year flood elevation and we still had 12 to 16 inches of water in warehouse."
 
Cresent owners were on the scene as soon as roads became passable to assess the damage to property and inventory. Jody Condra, vice president of sourcing, returned from Vietnam to oversee the furniture restoration project.

"The first order of business is to isolate any wet merchandise in an offsite warehouse so it is not co-mingled with dry merchandise," Jody Condra said. "Having worked in Asia for almost a decade, we have experience with finished goods exposed to water, especially during the monsoon season."

Cresent re-opened for business on Monday morning and is shipping merchandise as scheduled, despite the natural disaster. Cresent CEO Tommy Tomkins offered

"We were fortunate that all of our team members are safe and did not sustain any dramatic personal losses like many of our neighbors that we have witnessed first-hand," Cresent CEO Tommy Tomkins said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with those whose homes were affected by this epic flood."

The Tennessean reported on Monday that Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen asked President Obama on Monday for federal recovery assistance as the Nashville area began making preparations for a recovery effort from the record flood. Many of downtown Nashville's most prominent buildings such as the Bridgestone Arena, the Schermerhorn Symphony Center and the Pinnacle Building suffered untold flood damages.

U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper guessed damages would reach the "multi-billion-dollar" level.
"This is not just a local, or a state, it's now a national disaster with FEMA€™s participation," Cooper said. "Second, this isn't just a 100-year flood. People are now saying this could be a 500- or 1,000-year flood."

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said federal help was on the way.