In June of 2006, Response Audio
was hit with what we were told would be a once in 500 year flood
that filled out lower floor with over 6 feet of water. The losses
were substantial for a smaller company but we managed to rebuild and
keep going. Well, here we are only 5 years later and we have been
devastated by first a flash flood that brought us 6 inches a minute
in our facility and then the major river flood that ended up being
about 7 feet higher than the 2006 flood in our area.
Sept. 9th - AM Update
The worse flood in the history of Broome County. In West
Corners, the location of Response Audio and manufacturing facility
for Purity Audio Design, the water level was nearly 7 feet higher
than the devastating flood of 2006. The pictures below don't come
close to capturing the true devastation, damages and losses
throughout our county and many others as we have been cut off from
the rest of the world due to washed out or flooded roads. We cannot
even get out of West Corners to check on family members. In total,
15 counties in this area are going to be (I hope) declared under
Federal Disaster.
The clean up process will begin as
soon as the water recedes. I expect tomorrow or Saturday. At this
time, we have no time frame on how long this process will take. We
will be relocating as this is the second time we have experienced
severe flooding and I am not looking forward to the upcoming work
involved nor do we want to go through this a third time. Flood
cleanup is a miserable and dirty process. The water is contaminated
with fuel oil, diesel fuel, kerosene, bacteria and who knows what
else.
While we already know we have
experienced an enormous financial loss, the final tally will not be
known for some time. There simply was not enough warning to take the
necessary measures to rescue all the contents of the building. Some
preparations were made inside during the little time we had but in
many cases, the severity of this flood and damage inside diminished
all our efforts.
If you have product with us or
expecting a delivery of product, please bare with us as we determine
the full extent of the damages and losses. Communications will be
spotty as we dig into the cleanup process and prefer emails for the
next next two weeks.
EMAIL US
On the bright side, we will not
let Mother Nature stop us. We will relocate and be back up and
running as soon as humanly possible.
For all retail product sales,
please visit our associated partner, Joe Jurzec of Jam'n Audio.
jjurzec@jamnaudio.com
I think this is the best place to
provide updates as we move forward so if you have a need or interest
in updates, please check back here often as I will update this page
on our progress as often as possible.
Sept. 9th - PM Update
We were able to get into the
facility for about 20 minutes this morning before being kicked out
again. The damage and losses are greater than expected. We will
follow up as soon as we can get in to get an accurate assessment. We
cannot enter the building again until engineers go through and check
the integrity of all buildings effected by flooding. They are
telling us it could now be days before an inspection teams makes
their way into the area as we are still cut off from all surrounding
areas.
Water supplies are being shut down
in all of Endicott this evening and telling us it could be a week to
10 days before we see water again.
To my knowledge, there is only one
possible casualty in Broome county. A truck driver is missing that
got caught by a flash flood in the beginning of this event.
Susquehanna River still in Major
Flood Stage in all counties. Expected to drop into Moderate Flood
Stage starting sometime tomorrow into Sunday.
It is now official. President
Obama has declared 15 counties in this area as Federal Disaster
areas.
Sept. 10th - PM Update
Due to the severity of this flood
and aftermath of what has happened in this community, we are now
being told it could be days before we can enter the area. The whole
area behind our facility may be condemned and be a total loss as the
water reach approximately 15 feet. This means the destruction of
every home in this particular area. I do not know the number of
homes lost but do know it is a few thousand for only the
neighborhood directly behind my store.
It is still very difficult to
process everything that has happened in the past couple days. We
will continue to provide updates as they come in as well as when we
are able to get into the facility is accurately assess the overall
scope of the damages and losses.
We are still not answering calls
or emails as we are spending our days in the community working with
law enforcement, the fire chief, National Guard, Red Cross, building
inspectors and EOC.
Sept. 11th - PM Update
After some talking with the fire
chief, arrangements were made for the business owners on Carl Street
to get into their buildings and start assessing the damage. The
picture is not pretty as the losses are climbing as we dig through.
We are now climbing well into 6 digit losses.
The cleanup is going to take some
time as they have not shut off all utilities and are enforcing a
curfew. Estimated time frame for electricity alone is about 2 months
but we will be up and running in a new facility long before that.
We are still trying to wrap our
heads around everything as well as looking for a new facility. We
want (need) to be back up and running as soon as possible.
RMAF 2011
Despite everything that has
happened, Purity Audio Design, including myself, will be in full
force at RMAF. My reservations and travel arrangements were made
some time back. I have family in the Denver area and it will be good
to see them again this year as well.
Recovery Effort
I am now hearing of a few
individuals who have offered to provide products to be auctioned off
to help aid in the recovery of myself and my family as well as
helping both Purity and Response get going smoothly again. I
personally want to thank everyone who has made these 'donations' as
well as the best wishes that have been coming in from around the
globe.
Family Update:
Not only have I lost my business
and any income for some time to come but my parents and several
other relatives have lost their jobs due to the companies they work
for being destroyed. One family member has lost his home.
Sept. 21st Update
We are still in cleanup mode and
should have all salvageable product out by the end of this week. A
new facility has been found and we are moving things in on a daily
basis. A new test system has already been set up and running which
can be seen at the bottom of this page.
Immediately after RMAF, we will
have many new speakers coming in including a new pair of Salk
HT2-TL's, Audio Acoustics and a pair of Daedalus
Ulysses. As time allows and we get caught up, a new pair of cabinets
will be built for the Response Audio Model 5 loudspeakers that were
also lost in the flood.
We are starting to receive donation
products to be sold to help the recovery of both Response Audio and
our family. Please visit our Specials Page
for full details.
October
23rd Update
We have almost everything transferred
to the new location. We have almost completed setting up the benches
in our new workshop. We had hoped to be 100% complete with
everything by now but the further we dug into the mess, the more
work we discovered was needed.
For those awaiting modification work
or custom built products, we will be resuming work 100% beginning
the end of this week or early next week. We are working hard to get
all the benches set up to resume work in a efficient manner.
November
10th Update
Our work benches are up and running
and we are now starting to get caught up on work. The work shop has
not yet been started as we have just received our replacement larger
power tools. The new showrooms are up and running with many new and
impressive products now available for audition including the
Daedalus Audio Ulysses loudspeakers, Melody Audio M845 mono bloc
tube amplifiers and LS-9 loudspeakers available from Angel City
Audio.
We still have a lot of work to do to
get the work show up and running and our available time to spend on
the phone is a bit limited but we welcome your calls as always.
