Communication sounds like a theme. What did you learn in that regard?

GRAVES: We now know that text messaging is the number one way to go. And I think we’ll end up getting satellite phones for a few key people. We’re also drafting a card for crew members—a laminated business card that outlines emergency procedures, numbers to call, ways to text-message people, and an 800-number they can call for updates.

MAISANO: The first two weeks, the only way we could communicate was via text messaging. That was crucial—you need to know how to text-message.

FRIEDMAN: We tried to keep as close as possible. Who was open, who was not open, who could get food? We worked a lot of communication with our distributor: who needed food, where to ship it—and to make sure they were keeping their supply levels high, because we were going to use it.

How difficult was distribution?

FRIEDMAN: I was asked by our distributors if they should ship food, and I said, “Yeah, ship it. We’ll take the risk of it going bad.”  I wanted to have food available because I knew people would need it. We made a lot of box lunches, and we really provided a lot of food for the emergency people.

GRAVES: We had to run our own distribution supplements. This is another huge lesson: Don’t have the majority of your distribution out of one center. Sysco New Orleans delivered most of our product, but when this storm hit, they went down, so we had to rent all our own refrigerator trucks.

Our vendors were just wonderful. Tyson delivered to our office, and we delivered to the stores. Sysco Houston and Dallas were inundated with everybody else that went down, but they helped us as much as they could.

MAISANO: The tricky part was not knowing when the electricity was coming on. I had some idea because I’d see the electric crews in the neighborhood, and I’d ask them, and they’d say “If not today, then definitely tomorrow”—and that would turn into a couple more days. Then you’d have to coordinate that with when your supply truck is coming, because you can’t get the supplies if you don’t have electricity.

I bought a generator so I could run my freezers and refrigerator, and we had literally just unloaded the last box when my electricity came on. We opened the next day and were busy as can be—and the next day Hurricane Rita came through and knocked out power again.

On the whole, you simply did what you had to do to get open again?

FRIEDMAN: That was the point. We have a downtown McAlister’s Select, a limited McAlister’s, and we converted that to a box lunch–only facility. We offered three sandwiches because we were getting calls for 600 box lunches. We actually shut the restaurant down and made it a box-lunch commissary to take care of the larger demand by all the agencies. That was no plan. It was just on the spot.

MAISANO: From the corporate office to the other franchisees, we were asking, “What can we do to get you open?” We had an army of people going in, wiping down walls, cleaning product, cleaning out refrigerators, cleaning freezers. Oh, the stench of rotting fruit…

The first day we reopened, I worked from open to close by myself. It was nonstop. People understand that you don’t have help, and you’re doing the best you can. But as soon as you start getting your team members back, it definitely gets a lot easier.

GRAVES: We opened the Baton Rouge stores pretty quickly; it was a power issue with most of those. Then we headed down the interstate to other markets. We opened Slidell under generator power, and we had the only restaurant open for a couple of weeks. We opened our Gulfport store under a boiled water act, and it was the first restaurant open there. We were the first restaurant open on the West Bank of New Orleans. We were feeding the first-responders, and then when the community came back in, we were the only restaurant to go to. We had great success reopening.

We’ve talked about some specific lessons learned. In general, have you approached this season any differently?

GRAVES: We had a good preparedness plan, but now our mantra is “Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.” Katrina was a 150-year storm, but we never thought how bad that could be. We had our preparation for a normal hurricane; we didn’t have the 150-year scenario.

FRIEDMAN: For McAlister’s, there’s not much more we would have done nor are we much more prepared this year than last year. So much of what we do depends on electricity. We can’t change the locations. So much of what we do depends on services. Our communications work well. Cell phones really saved the day, so we depend on cell phones. We haven’t done anything else like thinking about alternative sites.

MAISANO: I think the biggest thing is to make sure you have enough generators and enough power to keep you going for several days, because you never know when the electricity is going to come back on.

I also upped my insurance, and I got flood insurance, which I didn’t have before. We’re not in a flood plain, but just in case. I know franchisees who lost everything. You’ve just got to protect your assets.

Are people more nervous this season?

GRAVES: Absolutely. People saw how bad it could be. People are also nervous about the state of our economy, because what happens if there’s another big one? We’re in the rebuilding stage, and so many things are going right for Louisiana and Mississippi, we just don’t need another hit.

The environment is changing, too. A lot of the crew members will evacuate. It’s going to take people a lot longer to get back into the area. Generally, you’d have most of your crew there because they wouldn’t evacuate.

If it’s coming anywhere close, we’re shutting down.

FRIEDMAN: I used to go to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and we actually stayed at the beach house during a hurricane. I asked the people there what they were going to do, and they said, “Oh, we always stay.” I would not do that again. I realized when it was too late to leave that it was ridiculous to take the risk. The notion of taking it seriously…the evacuation should happen two or three days before.

MAISANO: The reports are that it’s going to be another bad hurricane season. Everybody’s nervous. My wife wants to move, and we really should move, but we’re so rooted in the community that we can’t turn around and sell right now.

People who wouldn’t have evacuated before, after experiencing this, are never going through it again. If we go into evacuation mode, my only concern is that my team members are taking care of their families. But if they can break and come back to work, they know they’re going to be paid overtime. And they offer to help as well.