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Oklahoma Steel and Wire: rebuilding was an industry story On Wednesday, April 22, 2021, the skies began to darken on what had been a sunny Oklahoma day. A tornado had landed some three miles away from Oklahoma Steel and Wire: at about 5 pm, the sirens went off and in a matter of minutes it roared through the plant in Madill. Nobody inside was badly hurt, but there was extensive damage. Below, Vice President Lou Richards explains what happened. WJI: What happened the day the tornado appeared? Richards: In southern Oklahoma, tornados are not rare. The sunny skies darkened, and a tornado that touched down about three miles away came our way. Employees said that it sounded like a freight train when it hit. It ran right through us, and after it was done and gone, the sky was blue again. Our wire plant suffered extensive damage to most of our buildings. A lot of steel beams were twisted, and most every building had roof damage, some totally. Inside, we didn’t lose much in the way of equipment, but it was a mess. We removed 750 tons of scrap metal. There was no power and gas had to be cut off. The good news was that our designated safe rooms prevented any serious employee injuries, and our Mid American Steel & Wire plant, just to the east, had only minor structural damage, although there were many overturned trucks and trailers. WJI: What happened next? Richards: We spent the next day figuring out what to do. Everywhere we looked we saw damage. In several areas, entire buildings had to be cleared down to the concrete foundation. We decided this was a good time to also correct some long-standing problems. We acquired the original building in 1979, and over the years we’ve torn down buildings and erected buildings wherever we had space and a need. We had wire drawers on one end of the facility, welders in a second one and galvanizing in a third. It just didn’t flow right. This was as good a time as any to make much needed improvements.
WJI: While emergency plans were being finalized, how were existing orders handled? Richards: Believe it or not, our shipping department was able to function. We cleared areas so trucks could come in, so by Monday morning, on a limited basis, we resumed shipping prodLou Richards ucts from existing inventory. We maintain a large inventory of most products, so we were able to continue shipping for several months before running out of inventory. During that time frame, we were able to operate some machines on a limited basis. WJI: We heard that you got other help as well. Richards: The steel and wire industry will pull together in times of emergencies, which might surprise some people. There’s been numerous times when companies needed help, such as Mid-South, when they were flooded several years back. Competitors helped them supply wire to their customers to keep them going. Several did the same for us as well. That’s not unusual in our industry. At a time like this, the fiercest competitor will step in to help. It shows the fortitude and depth of the wire industry. They’ll all give back. I also wasn’t surprised that some customers offered assistance. Not only were they patient with our delayed deliveries, some customers even rented or sent food trucks in to feed our employees here on the job. We also got help from the community. I think everyone here felt good seeing that kind of support. WJI: How did the actual work go?
Company President Craig Moore, with sons (l-r) Ty, Trey and Ethan assess cleanup efforts at their Madill plant.
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Richards: Company President Craig Moore knew what he wanted to do, but it wasn’t easy getting everything lined up quickly. When roofs are being put back on and the crew is working up high, safety concerns were on his mind. Renting large cranes was problematic, so he purchased a couple to help speed up the re-building process. We did most of the construction work with our own employees and a couple local contractors. Craig did hire crane operators to run the cranes, and they were able to certify several of our maintenance crew guys to operate them too. We ran for many months with no roof over the drawing machines. If there was bad weather, we’d put tarps over the machines. We were able to get one welder back into production rather quickly in order to resume manufacturing
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so that they weren’t just hopscotched together. We moved our wire drawers so they were in line for the incoming material flow. We also raised our ceilings and improved the work area lighting. Those changes all made for better working conditions. We also leveled up the concrete so our forklifts weren’t bumping around the cracks and the holes in the concrete. The results are like night and day, especially for the galvanizing area. The flow is better because everything is centrally located. WJI: How do you see yourself in terms of being ready for a further such incident? Richards: The new building is more structurally sound. Who knows if it could sustain another F4 or F5 tornado, but we are better prepared. We’re more cognitive of what could happen. And we have added an additional two fortified safe rooms to those we previously had. We positioned four more at different locations here in our wire mill, rod mill and melt shop. We see the value of it, and we believe that they can and do save lives, so we added them, including some able to hold as many as 25 people.
An overhead view of the Madill plant. It took months to replace all the destroyed roofs. welded cattle panels. Three of our competitors provided us galvanized wire as our galvanizing kettles were down. Without a roof over the kettles and the gas still cut off, we could not make galvanized wire for many months. During this re-build process, we made many improvements to both galvanizing lines. We didn’t start back in full capacity, every department, until the end of 2020. The first week of January saw all operations back on, a roof over the new building, and water/air, gas lines all rerouted. WJI: Can you describe the employee role in all this? Richards: They were the key to us getting back as quickly to where we are now. They came to work, we paid them like they were making wire, and they took it in stride when they became part of a crew pulling in electric wires. If we would have had to find and hire outside crews, it would’ve taken us many more months to get going. Our guys knew the place, and they wanted to get back to work too. They did tedious but essential work, and they did it well. There was also another factor: Covid-19. There were times when a person was either exposed to or tested positive on a crew, then the whole crew had to isolate, and back then, it was for 14 days. That made scheduling difficult.
WJI: So overall, how is your new plant doing? Richards: In terms of the plant, we’re good and back to full operations. We are hopeful to get back to normal inventory levels as quickly as possible, but the need for talent to run machines is our most immediate problem now. We have machines idled because we don’t have enough people to run them. That’s a real challenge for the whole industry, but considering what happened last year, and how bad it could have been, I feel that Oklahoma Steel and Wire has been blessed.
WJI: What did you address in terms of plant changes? Richards: There were multiple areas. We had a lot of overhead clutter, like air lines, so when we went back in, we cut the concrete and buried a lot of them. We tried to eliminate anything overhead when we repositioned equipment. The main galvanizing lines stayed where they were, and we made a lot of improvements to the payoff and take-up frames. They were moved to more logical positions
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Oklahoma Steel and Wire employees pulling (not drawing) wire.
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