Sep 15, 2008 7:52 PM

“I am deeply grateful to the employees that work here who managed to find a way to come here in such a difficult time,” he said. “And I do feel very lucky that the facility wasn’t damaged and we have power. We were kind of an island of electricity in a sea of darkness Monday morning. We’re good and the McDonald’s at the corner is good, and everything else is no good.

“Our problem right now is finding our employees and them finding their way back to work. We had one guy who had the sewer back up in his house and we sent him home because we felt it was more important for him to fix that than to make products. We’re going to be slow to get back on our feet because of the difficulty with our employees getting back. A lot of them were surprised we were open so soon. But a lot came here.

“We’re going to run as much overtime as the employees are willing to put in, but we’re not going to force anyone to work in a time when their home is destroyed.”

At Choice Trailers, which manufactures custom-built heavy-duty lowboys for the construction, oil-field and mining industries, the damage was minor—some vents on the roof were ripped up.

Fred Litsch, a clerk, said it was nothing that will impact the manufacturing operation.

Choice was closed on Monday, and full power was restored later that afternoon.

Texan Trailer Sales did not have power in the office Monday and was closed for business, but will assess the situation today.

The phone was not answered at Batterson Truck Equipment LLC, Pickup Equipment Co, Texas Truck and Body Co, Husky Trailer Mfg, and Mate Trailers.

The phone line was busy at H&E Equipment Services, Liftmoore, and Sam and Sons Truck Equipment.

• Return to Houston
• Ike leaves refineries relatively unscathed

Hurricane IKE Relief sites:

• http://www.redcross.org
• http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn_2.nsf
• http://www.fema.gov
• http://www.nvoad.org
• http://www.convoyofhope.org
• http://www.souls4soles.org

• http://www.austinfoodbank.org
• http://www.centex.redcross.org
• http://www.austinhumanesociety.org
• http://www.handsoncentraltexas.org

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