When hurricanes and tropical storms hit the North Carolina coast, it can give pause to residents and also to those considering moving close to the ocean.
But does it do the same thing to businesses?
Coastal geography “is always a consideration for any site,” said Mike Mullis, who owns the J.M. Mullis site selection business based in Memphis.
Verizon Wireless was no exception when it eyed bringing a call center to Wilmington.
“This was a point we took into consideration when making our selection of the Wilmington area, which led us to ensure we have back-ups and redundancies,” said Tony Garcia, associate director of business service center operations in Wilmington. “We do this for all our buildings whether in hurricane, earthquake, snowstorm and other areas.
“We reviewed historical data on occurrences, impact, cost, etc., that ultimately brought balance to the other factors for choosing this area,” he said.
Being on a storm-vulnerable coast is almost never the lone deciding factor when businesses consider locating an operation, Mullis said.
“At the same time, there are many reasons projects are on the coast, to be next to port access,” he said.
Wilmington has its share of business heavyweights _ GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, PPD Inc. and Verizon, for example _ that have not only located here but have expanded and plan further expansion.
Such firms have elaborate emergency plans to keep their businesses and facilities operating through a hurricane. GE has operated here for more than 40 years and shows that complicated business operations can rebound from a hurricane.
GEH “has a preparation procedure that evaluates storm conditions with respect to strength and direction, and we then implement accordingly,” said Lori Butler, general manager of environment, health and safety at GEH. “This procedure includes preparing personnel and the site based on storm conditions,” she said
When locating on the coast, Mullis said, “You simply design your facilities (for storm resistance) and put in precautionary measures.”
“We have projects going on in Miami,” he continued. “We take double protections one facility within another.”
That kind of built-in protection is needed, for instance, for a food service center, Mullis said. “You hope that the food will be clean and fresh.”
Extra protections also are needed for a customer support center, he said, citing Verizon’s call center at Independence and Shipyard boulevards.
Verizon’s Garcia said its building on Shipyard Boulevard is heavily fortified.
In addition, he said, “We have a stand-alone generator capable of supplying full power to our building. We have routing capabilities and redundancy built in, and our customers would be serviced by our network of call centers located throughout the country.”
Sometimes it’s not the reality of tropical storms but the perception of them that influences a company’s decision to locate in Southeastern North Carolina or other coastal areas.
“With companies moving here, it’s the fear and perception that it could completely cripple your business,” said Jonathan Rowe, director of the Entrepreneurship Center at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. “That perception is one of the top issues.
“The threat to data is a concern on the coast,” he said, “but many companies store their data at servers away from the coast.
“Nowadays, with the fact that you can keep a lot of data off site, hurricanes become less relevant, more of a perception thing than reality-based,” Rowe said.
Even though one negative of residing along the coast is the rising cost of homeowners insurance, the insurance cost to businesses “doesn’t come up as much as you’d think,” Rowe said.
Whether a company actually has inventory on site is a factor in coastal locations, Rowe said.
Companies with inventory on site feel the most insurance pain. If inventory is destroyed, especially for small businesses like shops, “it can ruin the business.
“In most cases the insurance is going to be higher. For those businesses, that can be a big consideration in coming here.”
Topics Catastrophe North Carolina Hurricane
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