SylvanSport’s Dempsey & Co.: Still in the Eye of the Storm – RVBusiness – Breaking RV Industry News
BREVARD, N.C. – SylvanSport CEO Tom Dempsey was making his way home Monday afternoon (9/30) from last week’s Elkhart RV Open House to his home and corporate headquarters in Brevard while the national news media was still covering a “devastating and fluid situation” in western North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina., Virginia, Georgia and Florida.
The region was reeling from the impact of Friday’s historic Hurricane Helene, with up to 1.5 million people without power and widespread communication issues. A vast array of towns were in need of immediate aid and continuing search and rescue operations. In fact, news outlets report as many as 138 lives had been lost by today’s press time.
Although he was able to chat with RVBusiness on his cell phone enroute to Carolina, Dempsey – in what amounted to a microcosm of what the entire region has been experiencing in the aftermath of what’s being described as one of the worst hurricanes in U.S. history — was completely unaware of what he would find in Brevard or whether he could even communicate at all once he got home to his 35-employee towable RV manufacturing firm and wife Linda.
All this historic disarray, curiously, following what had been a rather productive Open House for the manufacturer of mid-size VAST travel trailers, GO All-Terrain (GOAT) popup campers, TRAILOFT Micro Campers and GO EASY lightweight trailers located in a 60,000-square-foot facility in the western North Carolina community of Brevard southwest of Ashville, which has been undergoing a 40,000-square-foot addition.
“Yeah, so we enjoyed a great Open House,” said Dempsey. “I mean, we worked with a number of new dealers and really enjoyed re-establishing with our current dealer base and visiting with a lot of our supplier friends up in Elkhart. So overall a great week there. And it’s ironic because it was a great week and then this storm hit Friday morning and we were getting ready to head back to North Carolina. So, our team’s travel was impacted and getting back into the area has been very, very challenging, but getting word from that area is virtually impossible.”
Quite a disruption for Dempsey and company, he agrees, as it has been for millions of others.
“Well, that’s putting it mildly,” said Dempsey. “The damage to the region and the community is catastrophic. So, the edges of our county where I and the number of my other associates live received over 30 inches of rain on Friday morning and earlier due to Hurricane Helene. We also had wind gusts of over 70 miles an hour up in that area. And so that kind of rain and wind has just not only impacted people’s houses, but all of the infrastructure into the region. So the interstate highway, Interstate 40, leading into western North Carolina is washed away and will be shut down for a very, very long time – similarly with some of the other main roads into the region. And then virtually all the secondary roads are severely damaged like major U.S. highways where landslides have taken out major chunks of the roadways.
“So, from all we can tell, everything’s virtually impassable,” added Dempsey. The region has no power, no water, no cell phone coverage, no internet. And there are a lot of people that are trapped in their homes due to fallen trees, etc., who have no ability to communicate. And so first and foremost, we’re working on trying to verify that all of our team members are accounted for and physically OK, and then we’re trying to assist with getting access to their houses so people can get out and make contact with the outside world. And then it’s going to be a long-term slog. The estimation on power restoration is in the magnitude of weeks, if not longer.”
Yet another unknown, he surmises, is the long-term effect on his company’s business.
“So, it’s going to impact SylvanSport’s business significantly,” he told RVB. “Our business is at a stop for the moment due to the impact on all of our associates’ here. So, I stopped in Ohio. I’m going on about a six-hour rerouted pathway to get down there and I stopped last night in Ohio and I’ve got a truck, so I loaded it with as much water, gasoline, food, pet food, batteries, all the stuff the whole community needs. I know it’s a drop in the bucket, but just trying to get what I could into the space. My wife is still trapped at our house, so I wasn’t able to make contact with her for four days because cell coverage for the entire region is down. There’s no internet, no cell coverage, no nothing.”
The best bet for those wishing to communicate with Dempsey after trying the phone he figures, is probably relying on email at [email protected].
Until things return to something like normal, Dempsey said he appreciated the opportunity to update the industry regarding his company’s current status.
“Thanks for letting me spread the word,” he added. “I appreciate the help of the RV community. That’s really what I just wanted to reach out and ask for the support, prayers from everybody at RVIA and all our good friends up in Elkhart.
