Hurricane Sandy Update 3
Press release - PC Components Experiences Direct Hit from Hurricane Sandy - Update 3 (Day 18)
For immediate release Friday, November 16, 2012
Seaside Park, New Jersey - On Sunday, October 28, 2012, PC Components Company was mandated by governor order to evacuate its corporate facility in Seaside Park, New Jersey, due to the expected landfall of hurricane Sandy.
On Monday, October 29, 2012 Hurricane Sandy, downgraded to superstorm Sandy, made landfall very close to Atlantic City, New Jersey, just 40 miles south of PC Components office in what the media has called the most devastating storm that ever touched New Jersey.
"I never thought I would see what I saw today. The devastation from Belmar to Seaside Heights is just unthinkable", explained Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey."
"We are very fortunate as the corporate office of PC Components Company was in the bull's eye of destruction. While the Jersey Shore may have experienced the most devastating destruction from a storm in its history, most of the storm destruction was north of us, between Belmar and Seaside Heights, or south of us, from Long Beach Island and to Atlantic City" said P. Steve Calabria, founder and president of PC Components.
"Prior to purchasing our building in the early 2000's we researched how Seaside Park did when other storms, named and unnamed, passed through the area. Working so close to the ocean, we always wondered what would happen if the worst storm in history were ever to reach our headquarters. I always believed we were much better situated than neighboring communities, including Seaside Heights, Ortley Beach, and Mantalokin, New Jersey", said Joseph Calabria, Director of Administration for PC Components. The main reason is that we are situated on the higher elevation south end of the barrier island, where the sand dunes maintained by the municipality, between our office and the ocean, must be at least twelve feet high, with no pathways for beach access on our street. The sand dunes really did protect us." continued Joseph Calabria. Furthermore, our building is a concrete block structure that was well prepared for the storm. This storm ends all the speculation and PC Components Company did great. We experienced minimal storm damage. With this said, there are lessons learned and I will add numerous improvements to our hurricane preparation work instruction to insure the lessons learned will not be forgotten" summarized Joseph Calabria.
"On Monday, November 12, 2012 the authorities granted PC Components unrestricted access to our facility from 9AM to 3PM, and PC Components Company progressed to phase two of our business continuity and continuation plan. During this phase we have are operating with a skeleton crew from a temporary office in Toms River, that it will used as our home base until such time that we can return to our facility in Seaside Park. During this phase, an IDEA-ICE-3000 certified inspectors will pull and inspect purchased material from our Seaside Park facility as always, although each package will then be transported to our Toms River facility where it can be picked up by UPS or the freight carrier of our customer's choice. We will operate in this phase until the utilities on the island are restored, and authorities once again allow unrestricted access to the island" stated P. Steve Calabria, Founder and President of PC Components. In the current phase, we are only supporting critical business functions," Calabria continued.
"PC Components is once again quoting and shipping product stored in both its Toms River and Seaside Park facilities. For the most part, orders received before 2PM are shipping the same day." We've temporarily pushed back our 5PM shipping cutt-off to 2PM for material stored in our Seaside Park facility, until the township lifts the 3PM curfew that is currently in effect," stated James Bozarth, Director of Operations at PC Components Company. Our biggest problem at this point is that the disruption of our telephone service has forced us to operate exclusively using cell phones. If you call for a stock check, or to place an order, and are directed to voice mail, please leave a detailed message; or email us (rfq@pccomponents.com). You can rest assured that if you provide us with adequate information to quote we will get back to you, usually within 30-minutes during normal business hours." We are also making every attempt to return calls to customers who only leave a name and phone number, put please understand that we are still operating with a skeleton staff and we may not be able to return every call if you do not leave a detailed message." continued Bozarth.
"At this time, despite the fact that our Seaside facility is essentially undamaged, the authorities still will not give us any idea when we will be permitted to return full time to our facility. The fresh water system is contaminated and the sewage system needs to be pumped out and tested, but that can't happen until the power is restored. Once the power is restored, new natural gas lines need to be run from the mainland before the heat can be restored. Rumors on the grapevine speculate that it will be as little as 30-days or as long as nine months. The good news is that we can operate in our current phase of our continuity and continuation plan indefinitely, and that the storm now gives PC Components the opportunity to review all of its processes without the limitations imposed by existing policies, procedures and physical limitations. We are a 30-year old company, and like most established companies in our industry, we have kept up with changing requirements of the industry by integrated new quality objectives into our operations. We have been active members of the IDEA (Independent Distributors of Electronics Association http://www.idofea.org) and the ERAI (Electronic Resellers Association International http://www.erai.com) which has allowed us to stay in tune with industry changes needed to stay on top of our game, and we have played a very active role as a pioneer of industry changes mandated by counterfeit part mitigation requirements. I intend to use the time that we spend during phase two of our Continuity and Continuation plan to review and reengineer each one of our quality processes from the ground up. When you know the quality objectives from the start, you can build a better process flow with more efficient processes. I will use this opportunity to think outside of the box, and when PC Components Company progresses to phase three, we will have as efficient and high quality of an operation as found anywhere in the industry", promised Calabria.
About PC Components :
PC Components Company, LLC, also known as PCC, is a family owned and operated small business, which is recognized as one of the industry's leading stocking distributors of electronic and electro-mechanical board-level components. With nearly 30 years of industry experience and a billion parts on its shelves, PC Components has shipped 115 million parts to a customer base of 2600+ companies in 65 countries.
PCC specializes in selling factory-new electronic components on a shared revenue basis with its clients who are mostly end users of ICs and other electronic components who have overstock. Buyers purchase from Independent Distributors when traditional sources of supply cannot meet delivery requirements or when cost savings are needed. To learn more about PC Components or to learn about programs that will allow PC Components to sell your excess inventory visit www.pccomponents.com/menusellexcess.asp
PC Components clients and customers include Original Component Manufacturers (OCMs), Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Contract Manufacturers (CMs), and EMS Providers (Electronic Manufacturing Service Providers).
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Contact Info:
PC Components Company, LLC
media@PCComponents.com
732-793-6030