For Immediate Release
September 1, 2005
Contact: Judith Platt
Ph: 202-220-4551
Email: jplatt@publishers.org
Message from New Orleans
Like the rest of the country, we at AAP have watched with horror and sorrow the unfolding events in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Our hearts go out to friends and colleagues and indeed to everyone whose personal and professional lives have been devastated by the storm.
We received the following communication from New Orleans-based Pelican Publishing, a long-time AAP member, and wanted to share it with you.
September 1, 2005: All of us at Pelican would like to thank everyone in the bookselling and publishing community for the words of support that we've received in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Phone calls from customers, fellow publishers, and others have been coming in, and are a great support to us.
Based on the reports we have received, we believe that our community on the West Bank of New Orleans in Gretna may not have experienced the massive flooding affecting central New Orleans on the East Bank due to the levee breaches. We are hopeful that our facility and inventory may not have experienced great damage, but reliable information is hard to come by. We hope to make a full assessment as early as Monday.
With the situation in New Orleans so volatile, we are working closely with our wholesale and retail partners out of the area. Ingram, Baker and Taylor, and other wholesalers have a significant inventory of Pelican titles, so retail customers can contact their usual wholesale supplier for our books. We ask all our customers, retail and wholesale, to hold returns for the moment. As you can imagine, there is simply no way to receive them for the immediate future. We hope the situation in New Orleans stabilizes soon, and we will work actively to resume business operations as soon as possible. Our website is up and running at http://www.epelican.com, where we post additional information and updates. You can also call us at 504-717-4131 or 863-357-9980.
We face many challenges right now. A major problem has been lack of communication. Cell phone service is completely disrupted, so that even those of us who evacuated out of the area (we hope and believe that is most and perhaps all of our staff) cannot get in touch with one another via cell phone. We have been in touch with some staff members via their home email accounts, but not all, and of course we are very concerned about the rest. Everyone we've reached so far has reported that they are safe, sound, and out of the city, but there are many, many staff with whom we are not in contact.
What people may not realize is that this storm did come up on us as a bit of a surprise. It was originally not predicted to affect the area. When the storm track shifted west, it was a Friday night, and many New Orleanians were at the Saints preseason game or otherwise letting the good times roll. This general state of ignorance continued even until Saturday, and when the magnitude of the threat became apparent, there was a mad scramble just to get out of town as soon as possible. Past evacuations from approaching hurricanes had proven extremely long and difficult, some Pelican staff members needed from 12-17 hours to get from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, a distance of about 88 miles. So once the community was aware of the threat, most people focused on one thing and one thing only: getting themselves and their loved ones out as soon as possible.
We are concerned not only about our staff members but also our many authors who live in New Orleans, and indeed across Southeastern Louisiana and the entire Gulf Coast. We're concerned about our retail and wholesale partners in the area; these are not only our business associates but our friends. We hope they, their families, and their loved ones are safe.
We intend to be up and running as quickly as we can. We thank you again for your concerns, for your prayers, and for your support.
Best,
Joseph Billingsley
Sales Manager
Jan Fehrman
National Accounts Manager
Pelican Publishing Company
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