Global Fastener News

Super storm Sandy struck New Jersey fastener businesses and at least temporarily closed them.

“Tuesday we were basically ‘out of business’,” Ed Werner described the situation at EZ Sockets of Springfield, NJ. “No power, no heat, no phones, no internet, no computers.”

By Wednesday Werner had two generators in operation to get back the use of phones, computers, Internet, lights and office operations.
By Friday Steve Cellary reported “Ford Fasteners is up and running as of this morning.”
Wednesday he emailed that the Hackensack, NJ-based fastener manufacturer had no power.

Werner said he got 30% of the warehouse powered up, which would allow shipping, receiving and packaging.

“We were almost back to some semblance of normalcy but with wires all over the floors coming from the generators outside,” Werner said.
“Most employees don’t have power on their streets and some have trees down on their streets preventing them from driving to work,” Werner reported.

Werner feels personally lucky. “No damage to our building or my houses. Many, many, many others were not so lucky.”

There have been no UPS pickups or deliveries to master distributor EZ Sockets since Monday “and they won’t get to us until Thursday or Friday,” Werner said.

“There is no estimate when we will get power back in Springfield. Cell service is horrible all over New Jersey.”

Werner’s son was given an evacuation order from his home in lower Manhattan when the East River breached the sea wall and made it West past Water Street and all the way to Pearl St. “He lives on Wall street between Peal and Williams,” Werner pointed out. 
Getting gasoline for the generators or cars is a chore,” Werner told FIN.

“Fortunately I filled up the car tanks the weekend before the storm. Every day I must refuel the generators. I’m not looking forward to tomorrow morning for that reason.”

Ironically, EZ Sockets opened in 1978 after worst winter the Northeast had seen in 20 years.

“We are all ‘OK’ and will look back on this disaster as a learning experience for disaster planning,” Werner reflected.

“This certainly seems to be the beginning of a new era of weather.

Overall, Werner termed the situation as “brutal but manageable.”  ©2012 GlobalFastenerNews.com