Ollie Swoboda, Joe DePascale, Brandon Etto, Cyndi Marshall, Coady Barrie, Drew McQuillen, Jason Zielinski, Tony Dominic, Debbie Jadrych, Taylor Zielinski, Jackie Ritter, Dan Hawk (Olympic Steel – Bedf

Staying calm, taking action and working as a team can keep a real-life emergency from becoming a true disaster.

Water might be a priceless natural resource, but on January 24, 2019, the Bedford Heights, OH office had too much of a good thing. The boiler began leaking and the floor drain was clogged – which meant water flowed out into the hallway, through the second floor and into the UPS (which provides 480 V of electricity to the Corporate Data Center) and adjacent Electrical Room on the first floor. The team immediately went to work, searching for a safe solution that wouldn’t lead to a system outage.

As soon as Jason identified the issue, Jackie immediately called Comfort Control for service. Coady quickly placed some wax coated paper over the UPS system to keep additional water out. Jason and Taylor used a wet/dry vacuum. Ollie contacted Schneider electric to get a service technician to evaluate any possible damage to the UPS System. Dan Hawk sent an email to VPs and GMs to let them know about the situation. And Debbie and Cyndi followed up with details.

Ollie, Joe and Brandon stayed late and worked with the UPS Service Tech. They decided to run the Corporate Data Center using on-site generator power overnight and over the weekend to let the UPS dry out. Throughout the process, Joe, Brandon, Jason, Jackie and Drew reviewed the status of the Disaster Recovery site and prepared for the “what ifs” that could occur. And maybe most important, Tony ensured that everyone was safe throughout the entire process.

Lesson Learned: Staying calm, taking action and working as a team can keep a real-life emergency from becoming a true disaster.