TWO STATIC CONTROL BUILDINGS DESTROYED BY TORNADO
Static Control Components saw two of its buildings destroyed and another severely damaged by the tornado that cut across the south side of Sanford on April 16, but a company spokesman says that no injuries were reported by employees and that none of the company’s manufacturing facilities were affected.
Static Control general counsel Skip London said Wednesday morning that company’s shipping warehouse and sales office building located on Lee Avenue were destroyed and that the company’s technology center had major damage to its roof. The buildings were destroyed by the same tornado that damaged several retailers along Horner Boulevard, including the Lowe’s home improvement, Tractor Supply and Big Lots stores.
Static Control, led by CEO Ed Swartz, is one of the largest private employers in Lee County with about 1,000 employees involved in the manufacturing and sale of printer parts and supplies.The company occupies 16 buildings across the county, London says, and it was able to relocate its shipping operations and employees affected by the storm to another facility that the company had been planning to use for a new manufacturing operation.London was unsure how many people were working in the buildings on Saturday, but at least 100 people work in the shipping warehouse. “If it had happened during the week, there would have been some injuries,” he says.
London says the company was able to salvage much of the equipment inside each of the damaged buildings, but the company has not yet determined a value for all the damage or decided if it will rebuild the destroyed buildings.The company’s technology center, which housed its email servers, was also damaged, but its staff was able to bring its email and product order system back online by 8 a.m. Monday. The company began shipping product again on Tuesday.“We hope to be back to full operation by Monday,” London says.