Weathering the Storm

Accounting Technology,  December, 2005  by Robert W. Scott

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The fact that one employee had to drive around in his car while charging a PDA so that text messages could be sent says something about the difficulties facing Charles Coe's CPA firm and its offices in Baton Rouge and just outside of New Orleans, following the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina in August.

"He would start driving around so he could get a signal and pull down email and return emails and things of that sort," says Coe, owner of Coe Solutions, based in Metairie, La., with an office that was fortunately on the safe side of the Mississippi Levee, whose collapse on the other side contributed to the inundation of the Crescent City.

Devastation was all around. The buildings on either side of Coe's office building were destroyed. There were no lights, water, toilets, cell phone service, or working voice land lines. Many customers were in similar straits. ...