The next VDTA/SDTA Convention & Show will be in
New Orleans, LA
February 27 - 29, 2012
at the Ernest Morial Convention Center

Pro-Line Distributing in Cypress is back in business after Hurricane Ike

Hurricane Ike came on shore at Galveston, TX, as a strong Category 2 storm on Saturday, September 13. The storm did extensive damage to the upper Texas coast and the greater Houston area. Hurricane force winds battered Southeast Texas for over 12 hours, causing 100 percent electrical power loss, downed trees and wide spread flooding.

Pro-Line Distributing is located 25 miles northwest of downtown Houston and about 100 miles from Galveston. A large tree which was located in their parking lot fell on their roof directly above the entrance to the front of their office. It caused extensive damage. The tree created three gaping holes in their roof, which in turn, caused rain to come in.

Glenn Wagner of Pro-Line shared, “We had approximately two inches of water on the floor of our office when I arrived Saturday afternoon. Of course, much of the ceiling fell onto our offices as well.”

He continued, “Fortunately, our warehouse area which is behind our office was not damaged nor was any of our inventory. Since we felt the building was unsafe, our first priority was to remove the tree which we were able to do on the following Tuesday.” 

Wagner also reported that all of the Cypress Pro-Line staff’s homes only sustained minor damage such as downed fences and debris. On Wednesday, they switched their phones to the warehouse in Grand Prairie, TX, and then they began the process of clean up in Cypress.

Wagner said, “The office was completely unworkable so we decided to relocate our desks into the warehouse section. Since we still did not have electricity we were running our computers off of generators. We were able to get our phones up and running on the Friday after the storm but without electricity we still were unable to receive phone calls. We finally got electrical power back on Wednesday, September 24 which was 11 days after the storm hit. We switched our phone service back from Grand Prairie and began receiving calls in our Cypress office on Thursday, September 25.”

The office, according to Wagner, is a complete loss and needs to be rebuilt. This process could last a couple of months. In the mean time, Pro-Line Distributing in Cypress is back in business and shipping orders.

“On behalf of Mike, Debbie, Jan, Jon and Wade, I want to thank everyone for their concerns and we appreciate the offers of help during this difficult period,” said Wagner.

Reprinted from Central Vac Professional, November 2008