EGAN Medical to Discontinue Shipping Operations Until Hurricane Isaac Passes

Aug. 27, 2012 - PRLog -- It is with disappointment, regret and much trepidation that EGAN Medical Supply must announce the temporary suspension of the company's daily shipping operation in light of the imminent threat of Hurricane Isaac. Given the similarities between Isaac and the monumentally destructive Hurricane Katrina in late August of 2005, the company has made a decision to protect the best interests of its employees and their families in light of the imminent threat posed by the storm.

EGAN Medical Supply is headquartered in Covington, Louisiana, which took a direct hit from Hurricane Katrina back in August of 2005. Many of the company's staff and executives remember the devastation in the wake of Katrina, much of it the result of poor planning by a population that had grown accustomed to near-misses. Parts of southeast Louisiana did not regain power (electricity) until late November of that year.

Unlike in 2005, EGAN Medical Executive Director Peter Egan Jr. ordered all employees to evacuate immediately following an emergency meeting called to move the firm's inventory from it's Long Beach, MS based warehouse to a location in rural Covington. All staff helped with the movement of the inventory, and effective at noon on Monday, August 27, 2012, all EGAN Medical employees were expected to return to their respective families and resume with their hurricane evacuation efforts. The company has tentative plans to reopen in the immediate days after the storm's passage pending the outcome of the storm and provided that facilities are not damaged beyond the point of serving as a viable workplace in the immediate aftermath of Isaac.

Depending upon which portions of the Gulf Coast sustain the brunt of the damage, EGAN Medical employees have assembled a list of six different locations from which the firm could assemble a skeleton staff and resume critical operations such as customer service, technical work and a limited amount of shipping. Under this plan, core items such as vitamins, supplements and nutritional products (http://www.eganmedical.com/Vitamins-and-Supplements-s/91.htm), and soft orthopedic items such as braces, supports and splints would take precedent over mobility items, bath safety and other large, bulky and/or otherwise cumbersome products.

Included alongside the soft orthopedic goods such as braces and splints would be pregnancy and maternity care items such as the Prenatal Cradle, V2 Supporter and Soft Form Maternity Belt (http://www.eganmedical.com/Maternity-Belts-Pregnancy-Supp...).

If the company's inventory is intact and unharmed following the storm's passage, and provided that a viable facility is left standing from which the firm can use as a base for the resumption of a full-scale shipping operation, employees will report to said facility at the first possible opportunity following the storm and immediately began shipping orders placed while the storm was making its way across the Gulf South as soon as the general population is cleared to return to the area.

In the best case scenario, orders placed Monday-through-Thursday will ship out on Friday and Saturday, unless the storm diverts from its present course and spares SE Louisiana and SW Mississippi. In the worst case scenario, customers will receive a refund for their purchases along with an email notifying them that inventory was destroyed by the storm, along with an estimate of the approximate amount of time expected to pass before orders placed during the week of August 27 will ship.

In any case, no custom who placed an order during the week of August 27 will go more than two weeks without either receiving the order or an option to have the payment refunded to go with an estimate of how long it will be before their orders will ship.

Peter Egan Jr, himself a Katrina survivor who lost his home and all of his earthly possessions when the levees broke in 2005, would like to thank all of EGAN Medical's vendors and especially the company's loyal customers in advance of the storm making landfall for their patience and continued support during this difficult time.

Egan also would like to reassure both vendors and customers alike that the company had a contingency plan in place in the event of the worst case scenario, and that disruptions to the the organization's day-to-day activities should not extent beyond 2-3 work weeks in the worst-case scenario --- essentially a repeat of Katrina or the equivalent in terms of damage across the region. He assured customers that in all likelihood the company would be back at work with at least a skeleton crew before the end of the week this week.

It is possible that some of the firm's staff may be temporarily relocated to outside the region to handle all essential matters if the damage is on par with that of Katrina.

All EGAN Medical employees were issued a 183-piece First Aid Kit (such as this one: http://www.eganmedical.com/183-Piece-First-Aid-Kit-p/msom...) compliments of the company in the event of an emergency to staff or their families incurred while waiting out the storm.

Mr. Egan said that this was merely a precaution, and that he personally hopes that all employees do everything within their capabilities to leave the area prior to the hurricane making landfall.