Hurricane Fran Pounds Southeast

Minor damage and power outages plagued lumber companies in North Carolina in the wake of early September's Hurricane Fran.

Safrit's Building Supply, Beaufort, N.C., suffered $10,000 in damages when it lost the ends of its sheds.

"We had just gone through it with Hurricane Bertha so we were pretty well prepared," said owner Leonard Safrit.

At Square One Lumber, Jacksonville, N.C., an insulation warehouse shed was blown away, estimated at $50.000.

"It appeared that the roof was picked up and set behind the building," said mgr. Danny Rickes. "I am glad I was not here at the time."

E.W. Godwin's Sons Inc.. Wilmington, N.C., escaped with minor damage to a tin warehouse and tin roofing.

Similarly, some shingles, siding and a couple of warehouse doors were damaged at Capitol City Lumber Co., Raleigh, N.C. "The main damage to businesses in the area was being out of power for three to four days," said Capitol City's Edie Nouri. "We remained open by working with available sunlight and flashlights for those four days."

Nearby Mebane Lumber Building Supply, Mebane, N.C., sustained damage to its warehouse when its roofing and trusses were blown off and one wall was pushed in 6 to 8 inches.

Goldston's Building Supply, Wake Forest, N.C., suffered $8,000 in damage when it lost some wall and roofing metal on its boat building.

Spawning tornados and flash flooding that moved through parts of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, Hurricane Fran caused an estimated $1.6 billion in damage, tying it with Hurricane Iniki as the nation's fourth-costliest hurricane.

New Regional Home lmprovement Trade Show

A new regional Hardware, Housewares and Home Improvement Trade Show for the Southeast is set for Feb. 4-5 at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Fl.

Robert Ingraham says his company, Exposition Excellence Corp., is introducing the Southeastern and a sister Western event March 25-26 in Anaheim, Ca., because trade shows draw regionally, and separate hardware, building product and houseware shows are all held in the Midwest.

"It is apparent that trade shows serving this industry are not covering the Western and Southeast markets as

Hardwood Trends

extensively as regions where the existing events take place," he explains. "Retailers, distributors and wholesalers in these regions are engrossed full-time in their quest to remain competitive. Events that are easily accessible enable this group to keep abreast of the hottest trends in the industry. The horizontal nature of the shows, offering products from every category of the do-it-yourself domain, makes it possible for attendees to do their buying at one event rather than a half-dozen specialty shows," he explains.

Show manager for the events is National Hardware Show veteran Diane Waltersdorf.

Wholesale Traders Market

Designed to bring together lumber traders from suppliers as well as their wholesale-distributor customers, North American Wholesale Lumber Association will hold its first Traders Market Nov. 7-9 in Dallas, Tx.

One hundred primary and secondary manufacturers will exhibit. Cascade Empire Corp., Portland, Or., for example, will participate because, according to Ray Haroldson, "currently, no forum exists where salespeople from all the producing regions in North America and wholesale companies gather under one roof."

Additionally, seminars will address "Strategic Inventory Management" and "How Electronic Commerce and the Internet Will Affect Our Industry" by consultant Bruce Merrifield and "Build a Motivated Sales Force" by Caliper Human Services ceo Herbert Greenberg, Ph.D.

Largest Show Comes To U.S.

Batimat-Europe, reportedly the world's largest building products trade show, is adding a U.S. counterpart co-sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders.

The inaugural Batimat-North America International Construction Industry Exposition will be held July 10-12 at New York City's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Thousands of builders, remodelers, contractors, decorators, retailers, distributors, architects and developers are expected to tour about 250 exhibits from Europe, Asia, North America and Latin America.

Batimat-Europe held in France attracts more than 600,000 attendees and 4,000 exhibitors from more than 42 countries (see Jan., p.24-25).

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