Summing It Up
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The Tar River overflowed its banks and flooded Bradford Creek Golf Course (north of Greenville, N.C.) following Hurricane Irene in 1999.
A year ago this month, Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi, leaving a horrific path of human suffering and property destruction in its wake. Less than 30 days later, Hurricane Rita leveled parts of the Bayou State and portions of Texas. Then, in late October, Hurricane Wilma battered Florida’s west coast.
Virtually no socioeconomic class or commercial entity escaped the fury of these storms—including clubs and resorts and their golf courses. Even course superintendents who were all too familiar with the capriciousness of Mother Nature, through their daily battles with the weather gods, faced challenges of unprecedented magnitude. A year later, many are still working to undo the damage that last year’s storms left behind—but at the same time, they are already applying lessons learned from the experience to be better prepared for the next ones.
By the Book
Steven McDonald, Superintendent at Diamondhead Country Club in Diamondhead, Miss., says he used a storm preparation book to ready his course for Katrina—and is now ready to add a few new chapters.
“At 36 hours (ahead of the storm), we start boarding up buildings, get extra fuel in, try to get the golf course prepared,” he says, describing the plan. “At 24 hours, we’ll start taking things off the golf course—flagsticks, tee markers, ball washers—so we don’t contribute to any flying debris.”
More than 7,000 trees were lost or damaged during the storm on Diamondhead’s two 18-hole courses (The Pine and The Cardinal), and six of eight outbuildings were damaged by fallen trees.
The Pine reopened seven weeks after Hurricane Katrina made landfall. The Cardinal reopened nine holes at the first of the year, and the last nine holes reopened in February. Yet the cleanup continues.
“We still have a lot of damaged trees to take down, stumps to grind and holes to fill in from uprooted trees,” McDonald adds.
Fortunately, none of his equipment was damaged. He cites the value of topping off his gas tanks before the storm, to have ample fuel for the cleanup efforts.
Ditto for Al Osteen, Superintendent at Annandale Country Club in Madison, Miss., and President of the Louisiana-Mississippi Golf Course Superintendents Association. He advises superintendents to stock up not only on fuel, but also batteries and chainsaw blades, before a storm hits, so they won’t have to scramble for supplies afterward. Filling up all of his fuel tanks, utility vehicles and chain saws before Katrina certainly helped Osteen at Annandale, which went without power for 10 days, had more than 250 trees uprooted or damaged, and lost some of its bentgrass greens.
Osteen acknowledges, though, that smaller operations cannot always make extensive storm preparations.
“A lot of courses are going to gamble, because they just don’t have the budget,” he says.
And even superintendents with large budgets must decide whether to spend “tens of thousands of dollars” on equipment they may or may not need, depending on where a Katrina-like hurricane lands.
A common attitude, he notes, is that “If we have a hurricane of that magnitude, nobody’s going to be coming to play golf anyway.”
But that often ignores how dedicated golfers can be—and how helpful the game can be to restoring a sense of normalcy after all the trauma. Osteen relates that he had a group visit his venue two months after Katrina. And a PGA Tour event, the Southern Farm Bureau Classic, that was originally scheduled at Annandale for the last weekend in September was held the first weekend in November.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Diamondhead Country Club suffered serious damage to its clubhouse (above) and its two 18-hole courses, including the Cardinal Golf Course (below). Full operation of the facility resumed in February.
Saturation Point
Superintendent Walker Sory vividly recalls the sight that greeted him when he returned to Audubon Park Golf Course in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina swept ashore.
“Water, water, water.”
Sory, who followed his own advice, offers a storm preparation tip to his fellow superintendents.
“I’d try to get my lake levels as low as I can, to counteract the flooding,” he recommends.
Ironically, once the floods subsided, a lack of water was a common lament among the region’s superintendents, who were plagued by drought conditions before and after the storms.
And a lack of power left their irrigation systems useless.
“You don’t have any way to water greens,” recalls Scott Ledet, the Superintendent at Gray Plantation, a Lake Charles, La., course that was closed for several weeks after Hurricane Rita swept ashore.
“Our biggest problem was we had tidal water on our golf course,” he says.
Half of the course and half of the greens were covered by brackish water, Ledet recalls. In addition, the salt water seeped into the pond that supplies the irrigation system.
“There was so much debris, all the drains were clogged,” he recalls.
Gray Plantation will be better prepared this season, Ledet says. The club plans to install large meters to store city water, but they will remain turned off unless the course needs an emergency water supply.
“The biggest lesson was to have a back-up water source, even if it is just to hand-water greens,” Ledet says.
Bryan Jackson, co owner and Superintendent at The Palms at Pleasure Island in Port Arthur, Texas, says that after the eye of Hurricane Rita passed over his 18-hole, daily-fee municipal course, the soil samples he took after the storm revealed that the tees and greens were “saturated with salt.”
So his father, a retired electrician, connected the irrigation box to the main power supply, so the greens could be flushed.
“Our main priority was to get the irrigation up and running first,” Jackson recalls.
The bunkers, which suffered salt damage as well, are now undergoing major renovations.
“We’ve dug them all out and put in new drains and liners,” Jackson adds.
Generator Gap
Osteen, who used a generator in his pump house to power his irrigation system, says any course that does not have a source of alternate power should make arrangements to rent it before a storm hits.
An executive with a Miami-based generator distributor also stresses that it’s important to plan ahead.
“After that hurricane comes through, if you don’t already have a contractor in place, you’re probably not going to get one,” he notes.
Any club or resort that is c
onsidering the purchase of a permanent generator should give itself plenty of lead time, he adds. Fixed generators, which must meet code requirements, should be installed by licensed electricians or contractors, he notes—and it can take one to four months to get an installation permit.
This executive also suggests that golf courses can use mobile generators that can be moved from pump station to pump station, because they do not have to meet code standards.
And generators aren’t only effective for clubs and resorts in hurricane country. They can also benefit properties in cold weather climates that are prone to power outages because of ice storms.
Ledet says Gray Plantation used small generators to restart operations after Hurricane Rita, but the club did not have a generator that could power an entire building.
The course might now buy a couple of larger generators, he adds, and he also plans to rewire some buildings to make them generator-accessible.
“Doing a lot of mechanical work without power just takes 10 times as long,” notes Ledet.
Tree Time
Eric Von Hofen, Director of Agronomy at Riviera Country Club in Coral Gables, Fla., went through four “massive” storms in his former post as the Director of Golf Course and Grounds Maintenance at Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami. He was working at Doral when Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma swept across the club’s five courses last year and also when Hurricane Andrew decimated south Florida in the early 1990s.
“The big lesson of the day, I think, is just preventive tree maintenance,” says Von Hofen. “Pruning and canopy reduction is the key.”
Nevertheless, he adds, about 3,400 trees at Doral were affected by last year’s storms.
Because guest safety is paramount at a resort, Von Hofen says he had rental equipment in place to remove trees after the storms. In addition, he enlisted two reputable Atlanta companies to help with the cleanup efforts.
“The aftermath of it shows that you really have to do your due diligence in picking the right contractors,” he advises.
OakWing Golf Club in Alexandria, La., suffered moderate damage from Hurricane Rita. The course got eight inches of rain, and high winds took down about 20 trees, some of which landed on the irrigation box.
In the future, says Ryan McCavitt, the OakWing superintendent, “I would maybe stake some of my younger trees ahead of time.”
All of the superintendents affected by last year’s storm season agree that, primarily because of lost trees, it will take years for their courses to look as they did before the hurricanes unleashed their wrath. They also say that personally, the experience will stay with them just as long.
“I can’t forget,” says Ledet. “I ride out there every day.” C&RB
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Protecting Yourself
The single most important safeguard that a club or resort needs to protect itself from a natural or manmade disaster could be a piece of paper. And make sure you have more than one document—better known as separate insurance policies—to cover wind damage, flood damage and business interruption. “Wind policies can cover damage for as much as you can pay for,” says Kathy Ackerman, a paralegal for Pensacola, Fla. attorney Samuel Bearman, who specializes in hurricane law. Federal regulations limit the amount of available flood coverage, which is underwritten by the National Flood Insurance Program, she says. But a property can take out additional flood insurance with private carriers. “If you get wiped out, it’s worth it,” Ackerman says. She advises clubs and resorts to take the time to regularly update appraisals that will determine the cost of rebuilding destroyed or damaged properties to code standards. “Every time there’s a hurricane, code requirements get more stringent,” she notes. Business interruption insurance helps properties cover operating costs during a post-disaster shutdown. Clubs and resorts also need to identify potential hazards before a crisis strikes, and they should develop and test emergency plans that cover loss of communications and supplies, safety measures and evacuation strategies. Joe McInerney, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, recommends that properties keep a three-to five-day supply of nonperishable foods and other goods on hand. “You really have to have a plan, and you have to prepare in advance,” McInerney says. Staying on the Line Eric Von Hofen, Director of Agronomy at Riviera Country Club in Coral Gables, Fla., says the ability to communicate is critical in the aftermath of a hurricane. He should know. The former Director of Golf Course and Grounds Maintenance at Doral Golf Resort & Spa survived four hurricanes during his six-year tenure at the Miami property. He advises everyone to have a cell phone charger for their cars, to keep mobile lines open after a major storm. The vice president of marketing for a Houstonbased remote satellite communications company also says that keeping in touch is paramount when a natural or manmade disaster strikes. Harrah’s Rincon Casino & Resort in San Diego became one of the international company’s first major clients in 2003, after Southern California wildfires melted the gaming resort’s phone lines and other communications cables. The satellite system restored the property’s telephone and fax lines and Internet access days before regular phone service was up and running again. “Most state laws and federal laws require you to shut down gaming operations if you can’t restore communications within 30 minutes,” the vice president notes. The company’s equipment, housed in selfcontained trailers with satellite antenna systems, can withstand high temperatures, saline and corrosive air environments. The company also launched a line of disaster recovery-specific products last year. “If you have communication, at least you can keep the doors open while recovery is going on,” the executive notes. |
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