Posted on: Saturday, September 4, 2004

Workers on job despite hurricane

By Brendan Farrington
Associated Press

PALM BAY, Fla. — Brian Tetterton wanted to be driving across the Florida peninsula yesterday to get away from Hurricane Frances. Instead, he was behind the counter of a Days Inn, worrying about his wife and son at home.

"The boss won't close voluntarily," Tetterton said. "If I stay here, they'll stay in the house. I don't want to leave my wife and 19-month-old son sitting at home by themselves."

Emergency responders are expected to work through hurricane preparations and the storm itself, but many others like Tetterton were also on the job at gas stations, drugstores, hardware stores and supermarkets while their neighbors packed up and left.

The storm's core was expected to hit somewhere on the Florida coast this afternoon or evening. It would be the state's second pummeling by a major hurricane in three weeks, and an estimated 2.5 million people were told to evacuate.

In nearby West Melbourne, Scott Duncan was patiently telling people driving up to a Lowe's warehouse store that hurricane supplies had sold out and the place was closed.

"We're going to ... get out of here," he said. "We left our own families to come here and help people."

A T.G.I. Friday's was one of a handful of restaurants open. It had planned to stay closed yesterday, but residents kept calling looking for a place to eat, said Ray Schollmeyer, the restaurant's vice president of operations.

"We know people are hungry," he said. "We tell them on the phone, 'Don't expect good service, but we'll get you fed."'

Customers were encouraged to grab menus and seat themselves as Schollmeyer and two other managers ran the place on their own, serving about 60 people with a limited menu. Many of their employees were in shelters, Schollmeyer said.

The three-person crew got some unexpected help from a couple who had finished their meals and volunteered to serve food and bus tables.

Most employers realize they have to balance the need to do business before the hurricane with letting their employees prepare for the storm.

"There is no quicker way to lose your job as a manager if you don't take care of employees," said Don Harrison, a Home Depot spokesman in Atlanta.

"If an associate comes to you and says, 'I have to leave. I have family concerns,' you let that individual go."

In the east-central Florida community of Indialantic, Linda Mertz, a housekeeper at the Casablanca Inn, was just wrapping up work at 3 p.m. For the first time, she and her husband, Lowell, turned their attention to where they were going to stay during the hurricane.

"Oh, my God, I don't think we could go home," she said. "We've got $52 and two cats. We're just going to drive north."