and Anyone Else Who Drives for a Living
by Kim Letus
We process servers in New York State are accustomed to dealing with certain weather issues that can temporarily make our jobs more difficult and less profitable. Snow and ice come immediately to mind. I don’t know about the rest of you, but a good old fashioned snow storm is looking pretty damn good to me right about now.
In the past two weeks, Mother Nature has served us a variety pack, starting with a slight earthquake, followed closely by a hurricane, torrential unrelenting rains and resultant flooding, and (the icing on the cake) the tornado that hit upstate several days ago, whipping right across the New York State Thruway. It makes the faint at heart want to park their car and stay home.
The Impact of Hurricane Irene in New York
My business is located in the small city of Kingston, New York, but a good deal of our services are in outlying rural areas and small towns in the six counties we cover.
My servers have had their hands full since Irene blew into town. Many of the rural areas are still flooded, and now a whole new batch of rain storms has descended upon us. My newest server got stranded two counties away last night when his vehicle decided it was tired of getting so wet and just shut off. (Luckily for me, this has not seemed to sour this promising newbie on his job.) Some roads are just gone. One of my servers was traveling a rural road to access a service only to find, after gingerly maneuvering around broken tree limbs and debris, that the road was washed out and blocked off several miles in. Another went to a home to serve someone who had been living there as of a few weeks ago to find the home half covered in water and abandoned.
The Challenges of Business with No Road, Missing Towns
In Greene County in particular the flooding has been devastating. Parts of little towns have been literally washed away. I wouldn’t have expected a town on a mountain to flood to the point that it is partially destroyed. Boy, was I wrong. Some towns in the Hunter Mountain area have suffered incomprehensible damage. Many areas are still without power.
Local clients have been understanding about the difficulties we’re encountering in accessing certain locales because they have witnessed the extent of the damage. Several clients not from this area and without first-hand knowledge of the situation here have been incredulous that their papers are not being served as quickly as usual. They simply don’t understand the magnitude of the problem, having not observed it themselves.
Then comes the final challenge that each and every server who works for me has made mention of within the past week: coming face to face with someone who is trying to clean up the mess this unexpected and severe weather has made of their homes and their lives and being in the unenviable position of having to make that poor soul’s day even worse by handing them a summons!
Some days ….. :/