It has been quite a week in the Mid-Atlantic region and really throughout the country. I learned a new word “derecho”, which is a widespread straight line windstorm associated with a fast moving band of severe thunderstorms (also called a land hurricane during news reports). More than 5 million people lost power from Chicago to the east coast and 1.5 million in the Washington region alone. Trees were uprooted, we had a golf tournament at Congressional with no spectators and we are in the midst of a heat wave which will continue throughout the weekend.
Among those that lost power were a number of clubs. Those that had power were packed with members that did not have any in their homes. Those that lost power scrambled to get back on line as soon as possible, particularly with July 4th coming up. One of my favorite stories occurred at Springfield Golf and Country Club on Saturday. They had a wedding scheduled for that night and no power. When the manager spoke with the bride that morning he assured her that it could be handled. If the electricity came back on, they had no problem but if it did not, they would go to plan B. When the bride asked what plan B was, the manager said they had not come up with it yet. Well Plan B was needed. The staff pulled it off, the bride (and the bride’s mother) was pleased and the couple has some great stories going forward.
I am sure that many clubs have stories like this. How did your club survive and what did the lost power cost you? What kind of damage did you suffer? We all saw the number of trees down at Congressional and I am sure others in the region were hit just as hard. And more importantly, what type of disaster relief program do you have in place and was it effective? We will look at this issue in particular going forward.
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