HURRICANE HUGO
TEARS THROUGH BI-LO
AREA
To the
employees
of
Ahold USA
NO SIGN LEFT AT ALL
Ahold Supermarkets open again quickly
AHOLD USA SETS UP
ASSISTANCE FUND
Flitsen Landelijk oktober 1989 staff bulletin (er
Staff Bulletin
Koninklijke Ahold nv
October, 1989
46,000 copies
Last month the force and fury of Hurricane Hugo
damaged a large number of BI-LO supermarkets in
the cities of Charleston and Columbia (South Ca
rolina) and Charlotte (North Carolina). Thirty sto
res suffered severe structural damage in the form
of ripped open roofs and shattered store-front
windows. Fifty stores had their power suddenly
cut off and at least 20 other stores had all outdoor
signage completely blown away. The hurricane
wreaked complete havoc in many stores. Shelves
were blown over, ceilings came down and consi
derable water damage was caused by the torrential
rains. In total there are 83 BI-LO stores in the
affected area. Only 20 of these escaped without
physical damage. No employees were injured. The
damage is estimated at 10 million dollars.
CALM
Preceded by a six meter high
storm surge. Hurricane Hugo
roared over the town of
Charleston in South Carolina
during the night of Septem
ber 21st. Subsequently the
hurricane swept northwards
through Columbia and Char
lotte leaving a trail of des
truction. BI-LO District Ma
nager Rusty Streetman was at
the house of his colleague
and fellow District Manager
Rick White during the night
of the storm: „For six hours
the hurricane raged at speeds
of more than 140 miles per
hour. Then when the eye of
the hurricane reached us
around 3 o'clock the wind
suddenly dropped. That las
ted for about 50 minutes and
then it went on again for
hours. All the trees in Rick
White's yard were blown
over and some of them cras
hed down across the roof.
Rick, his wife, their dog, and I
sheltered all that time behind
Rick's piano. It was a terri
fying experience."
His own house on the Isle of
Palms suffered a lot of water
\South Carolina
Li
Charleston
g f,
damage. Because the only ac
cess bridge was blown away,
two weeks after the hurrica
ne the house still could not
be reached by car. In the
meantime, Streetman has
rented an apartment on the
mainland. He is staying there
at the moment with his wife
and children who were eva
cuated at the time of the
storm.
BOMBED
R. Zwartendijk, President
and CEO Ahold USA, flew
from Holland to South Caroli
na on Tuesday, September
26th, to visit the affected area
and to give comfort to the
employees. On Wednesday
he arrived in Charleston. „It
was devastating to see. Trees
right through houses, roofs
blown away, billboards gone.
It was like a town that had
just been bombed. Seventy-
five percent of the trees have
been snapped like match
wood. We drove down the
road in the commercial areas
and there wasn't a single sto
re that had a sign standing.
Demolished roof, store 228, Charleston
Demolished penthouse, store 74, Charleston
Everything was just knocked
down and destroyed. What
struck me most about the sto
res was the fantastic motiva
tion of the employees. Every
body was ready to help al
though they probably had an
awful situation to cope with
at home too. An enormous
amount of work went in to
getting the stores open again.
Thanks to the dedication of
the employees, we were
open much sooner than our
competitors. I myself saw
and heard customers coming
and thanking BI-LO store em
ployees because the stores
opened again so quickly. I'm
absolutely sure that we gai
ned a lot of goodwill this
way."
ENORMOUS
STAMPEDE
Thanks to the preparations
and the efforts of the em
ployees BI-LO stores were
able to open again much mo
re quickly after the disaster
than their competitors. The
majority of stores were open
again within two days. From
near and far people came to
BI-LO stores to get their basic
needs. Because of the enor
mous demand, long lines for
med in front of the stores. In
the week after the hurricane
record sales were achieved.
Tony Schiano, the leader of
the specially formed crisis
team: „Some stores sales vo
lume was twice as much as
normal. That was in spite of a
curfew which meant that we
could only open from nine to
five. In half the hours, we did
twice the business!"
Rusty Streetman: „Headquar
ters and the distribution cen
ter enabled us to open again
quickly. All our store people
did an outstanding job. Many
of them worked day and
night. The team work was
fantastic. I can't praise that
enough. That made BI-LO
stores the first stores where
people could go for fresh
meat, bread and milk. You
could not get that anywhere
else. All the employees were
really proud of that. I think
that we will keep a lot of new
customers after this. It is gon
na pay off in the long run!"
Apart from the one store
which is still shut, the situa
tion can now be described as
normal with months or years
of clean up and restoration
still to come.
You are now holding a
special edition of Flit-
sen, the in-house maga
zine of Ahold in the Ne
therlands. Translated
into English, Flitsen
means something like
'Flashes'. We felt we had
to publish this special
edition in America to
bring you as up to date
as possible on what
Hurricane Hugo did
last month to our BI-LO
stores in North and
South Carolina. This
magazine is also meant
R. Zwartendijk.
to express out thanks
and appreciation to all
our employees for their
fantastic efforts to get
the stores affected ope
rational again as
quickly as possible.
Rob Zwartendijk, Presi
dent and CEO Ahold
USA
Approximately 2,000
BI-LO associates live in
the area affected by
Hurricane Hugo. It is
expected that at least
70% of them have suf
fered personal proper
ty damage. Most indivi
duals were not well in
sured against this sort
of disaster. Ahold USA
has in the meantime
established a fund to
provide financial assis
tance to employees in
difficulty.
However, the advance pre
parations could not pre
vent serious damage oc
curring to some stores. So
me windows were simply
torn from the frames brea
king the glass. The wind
then blew ceiling tiles up
through the air conditio
ning vents. In some sto
res, the roof was torn
open. Skylights too were
simply blown out from
the inside. Heavy driving
rain poured freely into
the holes in the roof, cau
sing much water damage.
Eighty-three (out of a total
180 stores) were without
electricity, and of those,
thirty stores had windows
blown out and roof dama
ge. At least twenty stores
had their outdoor signage
destroyed. Around 20 sto
res escaped with no physi
cal damage. Without ad
vance preparations, the
damage would have been
much greater. Schiano sta
ted: „I would say we
would have lost the roof
totally in at least 20 stores.
In those stores we would
have been out of business
for at least 2 to 3 weeks."
Store 78, Moncks Corner
