Outdoor Retailer - Winter 2018 - 18

THE PULSE

UNDERWATER
The city of Houston
lay in ruins after Harvey
on August 31, 2017.
The outdoor industry
soon responded.

THE BIG PICTURE

In It Together
As natural disasters from wildfires to hurricanes swept
across the country over the past year, outdoor retailers
stepped up to protect their communities during tragedy.
by Morgan Tilton
CHRIS BOLAND, OWNER OF NAPLES OUTFITTERS, SAT IN A LIVING ROOM WITH HIS PARENTS,
son, and wife, surrounded by hurricane glass windows-plus two kayaks, multiple dry bags,
and enough safety equipment to survive sans shelter for several weeks. The family was preparing for the worst as Hurricane Irma-a catastrophic Category 5 storm with greater than 157 mph
winds-blasted through Cuba and the Bahamas, and straight toward their home and business in
Collier County, Florida, on September 8. At the eleventh hour, the flood warning skyrocketed to
15 feet. "If we're sitting here in a year and one or more of us had drowned, we'll never forgive ourselves," Boland said to his family.
Boland's employees had fled beyond state lines-as far north as Pennsylvania-the store's
rental fleet of 140 kayaks and SUPs were roped down, and trucks were parked around the shop to
help barricade the windows. Following evacuations the fuel demand in some counties jumped to
five times above average. By the time Boland and family drove toward his brother-in-law's house

18 OUTDOOR RETAILER

/ Winter 2018

AMID THE COUNTRY'S WAKE OF NATURAL
disasters, communities of outdoor retailers
were devastated. However, leadership industry-wide rose to the occasion via emergencyrelief efforts. In the wake of Hurricane Harvey,
the Bass Pro Shops location at the Katy Mills
mall outside Houston became a hub for the
National Guard, State of Texas first responders, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department,
Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA), helicopters, and hundreds of volunteers with personal boats.
"I've never seen anything like the 50 inches
of rain that Harvey dumped on Houston,"
said Bass Pro Shops general manager Steve
Dooley. "Founder Johnny Morris called
me from our corporate headquarters in
Springfield, Missouri, and said, 'This isn't
about loans or sales. Give the government
whatever it needs to help save people's lives.' It
was a humbling experience."
Morris coordinated relief efforts with Jerry
Strickland, executive director of the Texas
Office of State-Federal Relations, and the
company's donations for the rescue effort-
from its retail locations and manufacturing
arm, the White River Marine Group-accumulated to more than 80 Tracker boats
and $80,000 in supplies. Socks, personal

Courtesy South Carolina National Guard (this page); Staff Sgt Tim Pruitt,Texas National Guard (opposite)

in Orlando, most gas stations were depleted.
They barely made it.
Prior to battering Florida, Irma had become one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes ever tracked by the National
Hurricane Center and one of eight consecutive hurricanes in a two-month window-
the highest concentration since 1893. By
mid-September, the 2017 hurricane season
was already one of the most devastating in
U.S. history (reliable records start in 1851).
With 13 named storms-for comparison,
28 storms hit in all of 2005-the season was
the most expensive. Hurricanes Irma and
Harvey alone amounted to a combined $290
billion in damages, estimated AccuWeather.
But the disasters were not limited to the
Southeast: Simultaneously, lightning strikes
and hot, dry conditions led to the greatest number of large, uncontrolled wildfires
across 10 Western states in the last decade.

Outdoor Retailer - Winter 2018

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