Outer Banks: Good Night Irene

Ok, it’s not Barack, but he’s awful important to the world of Seaside Vacations.

Seaside Vacations’ President, Gordon Jones, shared the below message with his employees today, and I want to share it with you because it helps demonstrate how difficult it is to work through a major hurricane event like Hurricane Irene.

My hat goes off to all Seaside Vacations employees (really all Outer Banks residents as a whole) for staying positive during the tireless work that has engulfed us over the last week. There’s still much to do, but we are getting closer to “normal” everyday.

Here’s the SSV Presidential Address :

Hi Seaside,

All I can say is “Wow”.

Wow because Irene kicked our butt.

Wow because of all of the work we all accomplished together.

Wow because of the dedication and heroic measures exhibited by our team.  You all amaze me!

We had many things go wrong and things certainly could have been better organized, but so many things went right.  And so many of you did such a great job.  I want to thank each of you.

Bob, Bill, Gary, Paul and Mark worked tirelessly on both ends leading teams to get them homes tightened up, and then back opened up.  Mark went out at 7 am the morning after to secure a home whose door had blown open.  Now Mark is knee deep in sand in most of our pools and getting them straight.

Gwyn was phenomenal as a solo air traffic controller for property services while Deborah and Brandon were out in the field- then Deborah came back and did a great job coordinating work orders as the damage reports started coming in.

Sarah and Kristy somehow got all of the homes cleaned with crews working until 9 or 10 Monday night. I’m still not sure how they made that happen.  Fay was a huge help before the storm helping her new best buddy, Bob closing up homes.  Fay then suffered much damage from the storm -as did Karen…

Donna, Josh, Mallory, Holly, Missy, Nancy, Melinda and Barb handled a gargantuan load of calls, voice mails and emails- staying late late on several nights to get it all done… on top of several of them pitching in out in the field in a huge way.

Melinda had the emergency phone through much of the storm and deserves recognition for taking that huge responsibility without complaint!

Bob L. and Missy stayed out till 10PM the night before the storm closing up homes and are now best friends.  In fact, the accounting team stepped up big time out in the field with Bob running work orders- opening and closing homes and JacE out opening homes as well.  Jen was able to recruit some housekeeping crews that were desperately needed on Monday!

Our marketing team jumped all over Facebook, which became the most reliable way for guests to connect with us.  You should really take the time to look at our page and read through some of the conversations- it is truly remarkable what Adam, Brittany and Chelsea were able to accomplish- plus all three worked in the field securing, opening and even cleaning homes.

Greg, Colleen, Gloria and Brennan all worked incredibly hard both in the field and in the office while coordinating their areas of responsibility and skillfully handling all of the many many guest and owner escalations- with Stephanie playing a well needed backup role.

If I missed anyone, I apologize.

Again, you all continue to amaze me and I can’t thank you enough for your hard work, long hours and personal sacrifice to make all of this happen.

Each of us have an Irene story, many of us have suffered damage, seen strange things, lost valuable stuff and even experienced injury.  Regardless of what your own individual situation may be, even those who may have come through relatively unscathed, we have all experienced individual and collective trauma.  Every day brings life a little closer to normal.  In the meantime, take care of yourself- get caught up on sleep- ask for help if you need it.

Thanks again to Our Beautiful Seaside Family!

XXOO

Gordon Jones
President
Coldwell Banker Seaside Realty
Seaside Vacations
www.coldwellbankerobx.com
www.outerbanksvacations.com