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Carla Waldemar

that. as he documents. "We're all family oriented in this company." That's what drew them back. And some even brought along their friends to fill new slots in the expanded company.

fON Cromwell's story should surely al appeal to all tuned-in Americans. It's a reality show, a makeover, and an extreme sport. all rolled into one.

Cromwell is a partner in Riverside Lumber of New Orleans, La., tapped by its three other owners, the Hayden family, to get them through the horror show then playing, called Katrina, and back on their feet. "The reason I joined them is that the owners have deep roots in the community," Cromwell explains. They weren't about to turn and run.

The business came into being in l92O as a small sawmill and planing operation, but it soon made its name as an elite supplier of fine woods and mouldings, serving contractors and remodelers of luxury homes as well as boat builders, who prized its teak and mahogany.

But who needed fancy trimmings like red cedar after the storm pounded most of the city into Pick-Up-Sticks? The first thing Cromwell did was open a new division handling commodity lumber, in demand for framing.

Well, that's not exactly the first thing. But it was the first step in getting back to normal when Riverside reopened 30 days after the storm in which the yard lost everything. Cromwell paints a sorry picture: "The wind took the roofs and the flood took the rest. We were under 7 feet of water for nine days."

Katrina totally destroyed the company's buildings, trucks and inventory-but not morale. There's yet to be a disaster capable of devastating the spirit of its people. Yet-how do you go about rebuilding, well, everything?

The key, says Cromwell, who sells insurance to lumber dealers and has served as Louisiana rep for the Lumber Association of Texas and Louisiana, "Be sure you have full coverage on your buildings and that you understand the coverage you have. Spend time with your agent. Don't underestimate the full value of your buildings and what it would take to replace them. If we hadn't had that," he notes, "we'd be out of business."

Other lessons were learned the hard way. Under emergency evacuation orders, Riverside's dozen employees were scattered from San Francisco to the East Coast, and the company's personnel records proved of little help. How to restore contact? In the future, Riverside will keep records of cell phones and out-of-town emergencycontact numbers in a secure, offsite location. But this time around it was dicey. The Internet was helpful in running down peoples' whereabouts, Cromwell reports.

Even more valuable was the fact

Some of these employees had lost their homes. (Cromwell, who lives 30 miles distant, lost half of his own house.) So when employees started returning to their posts sans families left in better living conditions elsewhere, Riverside not only helped out with trailers for its men, but also granted occasionally extended-weekend leaves for visits. Then it went another extra mile. Since few of these workers had the instant wherewithal, Riverside also supplied plane and bus tickets and even underwrote used vehicles. "We just had to make it work," states Cromwell.

And that required ready cash, another lesson in disaster-preparedness. For when all communication is cut off-no phone service, no electricity-that translates to no ATMs, no credit-card transactions. Even to find a bank branch open for business meant an hour-and-a-half roundtrip trek to another town for Cromwell and his partners. They'd stock up on food for their employees as well as gasoline, another rare commodity "Everybody kept a five-gallon tank in the car."

Help came from unexpected sources, such as a competitor in Baton Rouge who reached him, asking, "Jon, what can I do?" Three days later, the man's truck showed up bearing two 50-gallon tanks of gas, bottled water, and a working cell phone. "And he wouldn't take anything for it," Cromwell notes.

His best advice when a disaster strikes: "Owners need to rely on their managers. The main thing is to share the burden of keeping the company together. Here, one partner handled the building, another the employees, and another the inventory."

Vendors had no trouble getting product to New Orleans and extended credit via their usual systems. ("The problem was finding a bank to make deposits," which required that 90minute trip.) Riverside was able to obtain trucks and forklifts from other parts of the country, "which got us back to the basics. At first, we dealt in cash or with a little trading. We couldn't utilize credit cards for eight or 10 months. And when we realized that, to help people along we used an honor system; they came in and loaded up what they needed. And it was truly amazing: Virtually all our customers repaid us," he reports.

Now, l8 months later, Riverside's volume has doubled the pre-Katrina days, "not only in moulding and millwork but in framing. And it's really just begun, as building is getting started and insurance money starts coming in. Some homes haven't been touched yet; others are torn down, ready for new construction. To fill the need, we've added materials we didn't carry before, like modular parts, different wall panels. Our major contractors who wanted to come back have done so, along with some from other parts of the country where building has slowed down-good additions, for the most part.

"But we're at maximum capacity," he says. "There's just so much material you can push through. Lots of customers walk in to pick up and place orders, plus we have several outside salespeople whose task is to keep in communication with the pros and make sure of the flow of materials. The great thing about New Orleans is that its people are returning to it day by day and will do what it takes to remain here. And if some choose not to, that opens up good deals on formerly unaffordable homes for others to renovate."

In fact, Cromwell's son, fresh out of college, was able to purchase just such a house and is transforming it via sweat equity. Bonus: The young man recently joined the company, too. "I'm thrilled to be working with my son, teaching him," says Cromwell with satisfaction, "and I can see that it's already rewarding for him."

Still, "it will take 10 years before the region bounces back," in

Cromwell's view. "But that's not all bad," he adds, "because we couldn't handle [that business] all at once. Katrina," he reminds us, "was like no other event-the wind, the water. Usually, the eye of a storm is 10 or 12 miles. This time, it was 70 miles-the whole Gulf Coast. Still, every day when I drive in, I see more and more lights back on, more homes and shop- ping centers being rebuilt. Yet I still hear, 'Gosh! You guys are open!"'

Not only open, but helping the good times get rolling again. That's the New Orleans way.

- A Jbrmer award-winning LBM trade magazine editor, Carla Waldemar writes frequently on the industry. Contact her at cwaldemar@mn.rr.com.