With Hurricane Dorian battering the Carolina coasts, Insider reached out to Diana Stevenson, CEO of Grace Outdoor, out of Columbia South Carolina. Here is what Diana had for an update:
We have lost internet to our Digital in Charleston but I do think we have power currently. This is really quite amazing as this is an 11 year old sign. It is a Watchfire and it has lived through many hurricanes. I am really amazed at the quality and durability of the faces. We did nothing really to prepare. Since this did not seem like a major hurricane making a direct hit to us we elected not to drop vinyls. We do have a scheduled market ride on Friday to assess damage. Everything is fine at the moment as far as we can tell except for the lost communication to one digital in Charleston. Many of our clients have changed their messages due to the storm and we continue to update our messages as requested. I am sure the flooding is a huge concern for Charleston. But winds are always a concern for billboard owners. So far so good. Thanks for asking.
Grey Vick, owner of Grey Outdoor, is based out of Wilmington North Carolina. Here is his update:
Right now we are getting some of the outer bands and a lot of rain and some wind. Feels like we just did this a few months ago and most people had just finished or still recovering from Florence. We had gotten mostly everything back to normal from Florence and last year we took down about 75 vinyls when the storm came. The cost to do that was significant enough to where I was going to just take my chances on this one. I took down 2 vinyls this year on a sign in SC that could blow over. I have attached a photo of that one that we took the vinyls off of it. There were 4 more I wanted to take down but we didn’t get to it in time. I will update you guys to let you know how it works out. The good news is that last year we learned a lot about what signs are at risk and which ones will blow out if we get a strong wind or hurricane and it blew down any ones that needed to be rebuilt and that has been done so I feel like most of them are all solid. In my opinion All states should pass more modernization laws to allow old non-conforming signs to be rebuilt to newer monopole or Ibeam steel structures.
We have a lot of conforming signs since we have been mostly building signs over the past 11 years. Also, I have about 95% windframe signs so the bigger risk is losing the vinyls to the storm. Most of our signs are around 300 sq ft so the cost to replace vinyls is not much more than the cost to take them down and put them back up. As of now I don’t know of any damage or problems with any of the vinyls or digitals but it will get worse later. I will update you guys to let you know how everything looks after the storm as to whether it was better to take all the vinyls down or just take our chances on it. We are definitely still learning the best plan of action to take.
Definitely the storm surge could be a big issue here as the storm is hitting the worst part for us potentially tonight at high tide and we have an abnormal king tide now as well. We will see though. The worst thing for the signs is the wind and the potential for tornadoes. Our hope is that the eye will stay offshore and it will move out to sea quickly by tomorrow morning. Otherwise we are hunkered down Sarah and I and Mason. We have plenty of food water and a generator if the power goes out. I took down all the big trees in my yard that were left after the hurricane last year so hopefully we will be ok and all of our neighbors will be ok also I’ll keep you guys updated.
To all who are being impacted by the hurricane, stay safe. Feel free to reach out to us and let us know how you are doing. You can reach us at billboardinsider@gmail.com.
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