Answering Service During Hurricane Andrew
Our first experience with a hurricane at our answering service was with Hurricane Andrew back in 1992. Back at that time our service was located in the heart of Little Havana, just a few blocks away from the Orange Bowl Stadium. Until then, we had never experienced anything more than a tropical storm.
Our office had a 3KVA battery backup with enough batteries to keep our service working for around 5 hours without electricity. Being prepared for a hurricane was not a big part of our operations. Prior to Hurricane Andrew, our answering service had experience more power outages from cold winter brownouts than from tropical weather.
I was the technical manager of the service back then. I first noticed Andrew around August 18th and began to get concerned. Our company was a ninety percent medical answering service with a lot of doctors depending on us. As the storm approached it became apparent to me that I would be the only one sticking around for the clients. Other members of the executive staff decided to protect their homes and family. I was young and had neither to worry about. I made it my duty to stay with the service and was determined to have no interruption of service.
On the morning of August 23 I began asking for volunteers among the operators. Six of the forty answering service operators would stay with me. Most of the volunteers felt safer at our office than they did in their homes. We stocked the office with some water, food, flashlight, and a portable TV. By 3pm the streets were empty; stores were closed, gas stations empty, and the sky was getting gray.
The storm was in full force by 9pm and we lost electricity at 9:30pm. Our call volume dropped to almost nothing. There were only a few calls from people that just didn’t know who else to call. We all watched on WTVJ as Brian Norcross and the rest of the news team broadcast from their bunker under the station. Our batteries died at around 2am. The conditions were so brutal that I began wondering if I would survive the storm.
The next morning I awoke to find a city I did not recognize. The only way I can describe it is to say that Miami had turned into what looked like the aftermath of a war in a 3rd world country.
I spent the next 2 days at the answering service restoring our electricity and telephone service. Most of our competitors were also down for at least a couple of days. Our company worked closely with our competitors to obtain generators and help each other any way we could. Our competitors in Fort Lauderdale were operating with no problem and could acquire our clients, and we knew it. That didn’t happen because most of our clients in Miami were far from worrying about their answering service, most lost their homes. Our clients in Fort Lauderdale were angry that our service was down; they had only experienced some wind and rain. Some of our clients in Miami actually came by the answering service to make sure that we were okay.
A lot was learned from Hurricane Andrew. Our company installed a 20KVA propane generator with tanks to last for 10 days. A checklist and procedures manual were also prepared. Business after the Hurricane was the best it’s been in my 20 years in the industry. The effort to rebuild Miami brought us a lot of new clients. While much was lost during Hurricane Andrew, the answering service gained a lot of experience in how to stay operational during a storm.
By owner, A Live Answer
