Milling & Baking News - September 12, 2006 - 15

B U S I N E S S

A year after Katrina: Sandy Whann
reflects on tough lessons learned
Continued from Page 1
two. Obviously with Katrina, we were
preparing for the same thing. It would
be another test run."
While Leidenheimer viewed seriously the news of Katrina's approach and
grasped that the risk was greater than
in the past, the false alarms of earlier
years perhaps made the company push
production a little longer than prudence
would have dictated, Mr. Whann said.
"On Saturday, we knew the risk was
maybe a littler greater than in the past, but
we decided to run some extra production
early Sunday morning, which helped us
get back up and running in the past," he
said. "We were running, and as the news
kept getting worse, I realized that was a

up, shook hands and said we hoped we
see each other in a couple days. I drove
off in my car for the 1 hour and 15 minute drive to Baton Rouge and arrived
there seven hours later.
"When we left, there was something a
little different from the earlier experiences,
but when I woke up Monday, following the
storm, I thought we had dodged a bullet.
"Then the reports started coming in
of a breach in levees. It is difficult to describe range of emotions - fear, shock,
helplessness, with a competing desire to
get back to New Orleans as soon as possible to 'fix the problem.'"
Among the competing emotions Mr.
Whann described were "good feelings" about what he and the company's

Leidenheimer Baking Co. has worked with the Department of Homeland Security in developing
guidelines to advise small businesses about emergency preparedness. During an Aug. 28 visit by
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to New Orleans, marking the anniversary of the
storm, Robert J. (Sandy) Whann IV, right, spoke with the secretary.
bad decision because we had product in
the system and we had to shut it down."
The final decision to stop production
was mandated at mid-morning, Sunday,
Aug. 28.
"We're facing the storm most of us
feared," Mayor Ray Nagin said in a 10
a.m. news conference, declaring a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans.
Leidenheimer halted production, disposed of the dough in the system and sent
everyone home except group managers.
"We went through shutdowns, shutting off natural gas, secured everything
on the roof and on the property, and we
had phones forwarded," Mr. Whann recalled. "My chief engineer and I were the
last ones out Sunday evening. We locked
16 / Milling & Baking News, September 12, 2006

managers had done about securing the
plant and had taken from the office.
"We had been through this before,"
he said. "The time to be making copies of your 150-page insurance policy is
not when you're trying to evacuate. The
boxes need to be ready to go."
Mr. Whann was able to return to New Orleans and the baking plant six days after the
evacuation, though it was nearly six weeks
before the plant was operating again.
He approached the plant after finding
that his family home was intact. The baking plant is located within sight of the Louisiana Superdome, the location of some of
the more horrendous images printed and
broadcast after the hurricane.
As he reached the property, Mr. Whann

was unable to enter through the electric
front gate. There was no power in the city.
"Wind from the storm had blown down
a connecting wooden fence, and as I was
working my way back into the property,
I heard a rumbling sound and looked up
to see a group of armored National Guard
personnel carriers," he said. "They came
to a halt in front of the plant.
"On one hand I was happy to see them.
They were focused on protecting property. They quickly surmised I was not
a looter, but that did not stop a gunner
from pointing a large, vehicle-mounted
machine gun in my direction. I was very
happy when it was lowered.
"They offered me an escort into the
plant, and they were not casual about
how they entered. They turned the safety off the machine guns, and there would
have been no hesitation to use their
weapons if they were confronted.
"At one point I went over to the fellow
in charge and told him that I wanted to
check out a few of the rooms. He said that
was fine but added, 'I would announce
myself very clearly before you enter each
room.' I told him I could wait."
While the National Guard found no
evidence of forced entry, they did find
melted compressed yeast everywhere. It
had flooded the floor.
"The smell was sickening," Mr. Whann
said. "We knew right away we had a big
cleanup job on our hands."
The initial visit gave Mr. Whann a
chance to assess the extent of damage at
the baking plant and document the damage with photographs.
"I left after a couple hours, but I had no
idea that dealing with insurance would
take up the next year of my life," he said.
Returning to Baton Rouge, Mr. Whann
established Leidenheimer's satellite office,
working to set up computers with files removed from the New Orleans plant.
"We busied ourselves on a number of
different fronts, coordinating with managers how to get back into the plant and
begin cleaning up," he said. "We did the
work with generators, portable lighting
and pressure washers."
The greatest challenge was securing
passage for employees into the city, particularly while a nighttime curfew was
enforced, he said. Employees had to get
through checkpoints in place at various
entrances to the city.
"I had credentials to get in, but depending on which soldiers were at the
checkpoints, you either got in or you
didn't," Mr. Whann said.
Within three weeks of Katrina,
Leidenheimer 's restoration work was
"as far along as it could be" with only
generator power, Mr. Whann said.
"Then Hurricane Rita came, and
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Milling & Baking News - September 12, 2006

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