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The Woodlands storms ahead to beat economic strife
  
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By T.L. HAMILTON and JAKE MUONIO
Many local businesses received damage from Hurricane Ike in various forms ranging from battered buildings, water-logged ceilings or tossed produce to lost revenue.
One of the hardest hit of the county’s small businesses was Turk Eppes, owner of both First Woodlands Realty and its office building that housed five other tenants at 29811 Interstate 45 S. in Shenandoah.
Hurricane-force winds and rain destroyed the entire building, causing about $750,000 in damage to the building, Eppes said.
“It looks like a tornado just lifted our roof off and totally destroyed everything,” he said.
Eppes estimated that each business lost $50,000 to $75,000 in equipment and furnishings as well.
A loss of customers for even a short amount of time can also cause problems for small businesses. Becky Tully, owner of The Laurel Tree in Montgomery, said the shop, specializing in gifts, home décor, fine art and custom florals, has yet to regain strong customer foot traffic after the storm.
“They’re not worried about art right now,” she said. “They’re worried about getting that tree out of their living room.”
The store, located at 15320 Texas 105 W., sustained little physical damage, “but it took a long time to restock everything,” Tully said.
For the meantime, she’s hoping she’ll get some business replacing customers’ art and décor that was damaged by the storm.
Losing inventory is also an expensive and painful reminder of Ike, as Shanon Scott, manager of Amerigo’s Restaurant in The Woodlands, learned.
“We were without power for 13 days, so we had to throw out all our produce, meat and fish,” he said. “We lost everything. A complete loss. It was probably about $10,000 worth of food, although the loss of customers during that week will also cost us $70,000.”
The restaurant, located at 25250 Grogan’s Park Drive, has been in business since 1994. Last week was the first time it had been without power for an extended period of time, Scott said.
The restaurant regained power and opened for business on Tuesday and business has been steadily increasing since then, Scott said.
David Hodge, who along with wife Tracy owns Hodge’s Food Basket in South County, could sympathize with Scott. He also had to toss thousands of dollars worth of fresh groceries.
However, unlike Amerigo’s, the cost is about $100,000, and Food Basket was still without full power on Friday.
The store, located at 26824 Interstate 45 N. in Oak Ridge North has a household current level of power, enough to power its lights and a few registers, Hodge said.
“We have a couple fans up and we were able to open and sell dry groceries,” he said. “I have a few refrigerated spots for eggs and milk too.”
Despite this hardship, Food Basket opened at 8 a.m. Sept. 15, making it one of first county grocery stores to open after the storm.
For hurricane-stricken businesses, aid is available in the form of low-interest loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Loans can be awarded for both physical disaster and economic injury, the loss of customers.
Applicants who have no ability to pay for their recovery will have a 4.0 percent interest rate on loans.
To learn more, visit www.sba.gov or call (800) ASK-USBA.
During Ike, many businesses showed their adaptibility, too.
One example was the The Market Street H-E-B store
The store, along with all of the HEB stores in The Woodlands, were some of the first businesses to open in the area following the storm.
All of the locations opened the day after Ike went through, Sept. 14, operating solely on generator power, said Lacey Dalcour, a public affairs specialist with HEB. Power was restored Sept. 18.
“We’re very happy to have been open as quickly as we could following the hurricane,” Dalcour said.
All HEB stores have internal generators that are set up to operate safety lights and the cash registers in the event of a short-term power outage.
Dalcour said the outage, affected all of the Market Street HEB’s frozen section. Because of an extended lack of power to the section, the store’s quality assurance standards required it to throw away all of the food.
HEB weathered the initial run on essential items and has been able to get those items back on the store shelves.
The stores in the Houston area were staffed, in large part, by HEB employees from the region.
“We have a team of over 800 people that have traveled in from different regions of the company, San Antonio, the Rio Grande Valley, Austin,” Dalcour said.
The outside assistance helped provide enough staff to assist customers who were coming to the stores, but also assisted the local workers who were also effected by the hurricane be allowing them to take care of their families and property.
Some other retail outlets are expecting storm damage to possibly increase business.
“Of course the storm affected us, we were closed for a week,” said Nina McLendon of Carol’s Lighting on I-45, adding the store received a lot of returns due to new homes being ruined by the storm.
But McLendon expects sales to prosper in coming days.
“People will be looking around their homes after the storm and start realizing that now is the time to remodel. And that is good for us,” McLendon said.
Scott Coons contributed to this report.
One of the hardest hit of the county’s small businesses was Turk Eppes, owner of both First Woodlands Realty and its office building that housed five other tenants at 29811 Interstate 45 S. in Shenandoah.
Hurricane-force winds and rain destroyed the entire building, causing about $750,000 in damage to the building, Eppes said.
“It looks like a tornado just lifted our roof off and totally destroyed everything,” he said.
Eppes estimated that each business lost $50,000 to $75,000 in equipment and furnishings as well.
A loss of customers for even a short amount of time can also cause problems for small businesses. Becky Tully, owner of The Laurel Tree in Montgomery, said the shop, specializing in gifts, home décor, fine art and custom florals, has yet to regain strong customer foot traffic after the storm.
“They’re not worried about art right now,” she said. “They’re worried about getting that tree out of their living room.”
The store, located at 15320 Texas 105 W., sustained little physical damage, “but it took a long time to restock everything,” Tully said.
For the meantime, she’s hoping she’ll get some business replacing customers’ art and décor that was damaged by the storm.
Losing inventory is also an expensive and painful reminder of Ike, as Shanon Scott, manager of Amerigo’s Restaurant in The Woodlands, learned.
“We were without power for 13 days, so we had to throw out all our produce, meat and fish,” he said. “We lost everything. A complete loss. It was probably about $10,000 worth of food, although the loss of customers during that week will also cost us $70,000.”
The restaurant, located at 25250 Grogan’s Park Drive, has been in business since 1994. Last week was the first time it had been without power for an extended period of time, Scott said.
The restaurant regained power and opened for business on Tuesday and business has been steadily increasing since then, Scott said.
David Hodge, who along with wife Tracy owns Hodge’s Food Basket in South County, could sympathize with Scott. He also had to toss thousands of dollars worth of fresh groceries.
However, unlike Amerigo’s, the cost is about $100,000, and Food Basket was still without full power on Friday.
The store, located at 26824 Interstate 45 N. in Oak Ridge North has a household current level of power, enough to power its lights and a few registers, Hodge said.
“We have a couple fans up and we were able to open and sell dry groceries,” he said. “I have a few refrigerated spots for eggs and milk too.”
Despite this hardship, Food Basket opened at 8 a.m. Sept. 15, making it one of first county grocery stores to open after the storm.
For hurricane-stricken businesses, aid is available in the form of low-interest loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Loans can be awarded for both physical disaster and economic injury, the loss of customers.
Applicants who have no ability to pay for their recovery will have a 4.0 percent interest rate on loans.
To learn more, visit www.sba.gov or call (800) ASK-USBA.
During Ike, many businesses showed their adaptibility, too.
One example was the The Market Street H-E-B store
The store, along with all of the HEB stores in The Woodlands, were some of the first businesses to open in the area following the storm.
All of the locations opened the day after Ike went through, Sept. 14, operating solely on generator power, said Lacey Dalcour, a public affairs specialist with HEB. Power was restored Sept. 18.
“We’re very happy to have been open as quickly as we could following the hurricane,” Dalcour said.
All HEB stores have internal generators that are set up to operate safety lights and the cash registers in the event of a short-term power outage.
Dalcour said the outage, affected all of the Market Street HEB’s frozen section. Because of an extended lack of power to the section, the store’s quality assurance standards required it to throw away all of the food.
HEB weathered the initial run on essential items and has been able to get those items back on the store shelves.
The stores in the Houston area were staffed, in large part, by HEB employees from the region.
“We have a team of over 800 people that have traveled in from different regions of the company, San Antonio, the Rio Grande Valley, Austin,” Dalcour said.
The outside assistance helped provide enough staff to assist customers who were coming to the stores, but also assisted the local workers who were also effected by the hurricane be allowing them to take care of their families and property.
Some other retail outlets are expecting storm damage to possibly increase business.
“Of course the storm affected us, we were closed for a week,” said Nina McLendon of Carol’s Lighting on I-45, adding the store received a lot of returns due to new homes being ruined by the storm.
But McLendon expects sales to prosper in coming days.
“People will be looking around their homes after the storm and start realizing that now is the time to remodel. And that is good for us,” McLendon said.
Scott Coons contributed to this report.
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