With an unprecedented storm hurtling towards the East Coast, Jon Phillips was getting ready by making sure his hardware stores across the Capital District were well stocked with supplies.
The Bethlehem resident began pulling inventory from the company warehouse days in advance of Tropical Storm Sandy’s landfall. With seven stores, Phillips Hardware had access to seven times the allotted amount of products from suppliers.
“We were getting trucks nonstop, and Monday night we got the last load,” he said. “Because there was such a high demand for supplies, some stores that placed orders late got locked out.”
Phillips said as soon as he realized the Sandy would mostly bypass the region and saw the devastation Downstate, he felt guilty for stocking up. So he loaded up a truck with generators and supplies and started making calls.
Many hardware stores by that time werewithout power. Phillips said no one was answering the phone until he reached a Do-It-Yourself store in Denville, N.J.
“The owner said the phone rang 400 times and this was the one call he picked up because he recognized the 518 number,” said Phillips.
Howie Levine answered the phone, and Phillips recognized the voice. Levine and Phillips knew each other from meeting at a trade show years ago. Phillips said he was glad to be able to work with someone he knew and Levine was happy for the help because he needed a generator himself to open his store.
Phillips packed a truck with 33 generators and extra supplies, and made the journey Downstate with his 74-year-old father, Abbott.
“We have drivers, but I didn’t know what they would be driving into and I wanted to make sure they were safe, so I drove the truck myself,” Phillips said
Before he left, Phillips made arrangements to visit a religious school that had lost power and needed five generators. About an hour outside of Albany, Phillips said most communities were without electricity.
“Going farther Downstate, it was a lot like that new television show ‘Revolution’ about the post-apocalyptic world,” he said. “That’s the best I can compare it to.”
Phillips said about 40 people were waiting outside the store when they arrived in Denville. The generators were given out on a first-come, first-serve basis. The store had no power when they got there, so Phillips and his father waited and helped customers.
Levine had never sold generators, so he needed help explain to customers what to do. Each generator sold for $1,000, a price decided on by Levine. Phillips took a small cut to pay for gas.
By the next morning, all of the supplies had been sold.
When Phillips returned, he began asking residents locally who had purchased generators to put them on sale on Craig’s List, because they were desperately needed Downstate. Residents who felt they needed a generator for future storms could always buy one after recovery efforts had subsided.
“With the snow storm we got in 2010, this is three years in a row we’ve been hit now, “ Phillips said. “We need to be prepared. I was a bit of a skeptic before, but the climate is changing. You don’t wait until the last minute.”
To be prepared for storms, Phillips said each household should have a kit prepared with flashlights, batteries, a kerosene lamp, a radio and homes should have a hard-wired generator. Phillips said a list of emergency items would soon be posted to the company’s website.
“I don’t see the storms as a fluke anymore,” he said. “It’s best to use common sense.”
Donations are now being accepted at all Phillips Hardware locations.