Inland businesses can be hurt when coastal storms strike

It took O’Charley’s regional operations director in Hattiesburg, Miss., most of a week to get in touch with the restaurant chain’s Nashville headquarters after Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast two summers ago.

This summer, though, Dan Hunter has a company-issued satellite phone that doesn’t need phone lines or cellular towers to operate.

It’s one of the ways O’Charley’s and other Middle Tennessee companies that do business along the Southeast and Gulf coasts have prepared for what forecasters warn could be a severe hurricane season. Companies such as Cracker Barrel Old Country Store and HCA Inc. have drawn up emergency plans, deployed generators and stockpiled supplies in case any of their communities are struck by a storm.

Last year’s Atlantic hurricane season was unusually mild, with no storms making landfall. But forecasters say this year’s season, which started Friday and ends Nov. 30, could be far different.

Nashville is far from any coast and usually sees nothing more than heavy downpours from hurricanes. But these enormous swirling storms, with sustained winds above 74 miles an hour, can cost Midstate companies millions of dollars a year in damage and lost business.

HCA, for example, has about 50 hospitals in coastal areas, said spokesman Ed Fishbough. The nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain said hurricanes Katrina and Rita resulted in extensive and costly damage at its coastal properties.

O’Charley’s, meanwhile, said 13 of its restaurants were closed for periods from a day to several weeks because of Katrina. One was destroyed and hasn’t been rebuilt. O’Charley’s said that massive hurricane resulted in $600,000 of non-recoverable costs, while $1.5 million in losses were reimbursed by insurance.

“There was a significant cost to us,” said Frank Biller, executive vice president.

“The best way to sum up the Katrina experience is learning to survive from the school of hard knocks,” Hunter said.