I received this letter from Fred Meyers, CEO of our online store. Our prayers go out to all the people that have been affected by this massive storm as they try and rebuild and recover.

Dear Greg,

I am delighted to be writing to you today from the other side of Hurricane Florence.

We took a direct hit from a pretty massive storm, but, miraculously, wind speed slowed from category 3 to a category 1 just before landfall, so we feel very lucky not to have sustained more damage than we did.

We had no power for 7 days, and a pretty big section of the roof over our embroidery floor blew off. This caused quite a bit of flooding. Last Wednesday afternoon our power finally came back on and by Thursday we finished cleaning up and brought our systems back up. Thankfully, other than a few computers, none of our equipment was damaged! By Monday of this week, about 80% of our team was able to make it into the office, and we have heard that the rest will be back soon.

Many evacuated. A few stayed put. Our individual experiences ranged from those who were completely untouched by the storm and had power and internet throughout, to those whose houses were totally destroyed. All are safe though, and of course we are grateful for that.

This week we are assessing the damage to our delivery schedule! We have had a few understandable time sensitive order cancellations, but so far most of you have been extremely understanding and patient.

As we rebuild our schedule and come back to full strength, for now, email or the contact us link on Queensboro.com continues to be the best way to communicate with us. We are currently using the phones primarily to work through our most pressing order deadlines.

Meeting order deadlines for this week is going to be tough. We feel that by next week, however, we will have a much better ability to start making and keeping delivery promises. As always, the more advance notice we have, the better! If you have a time sensitive order deadline on an order placed before the storm, please let us know!

We don't like asking for help, but there are two ways you can help us now if you are so inclined.

The first way you can help is by being patient about your delivery if you have a non-time sensitive open order in the system. Right now it looks like we are about a week behind and we hope to close that gap in the next couple of weeks.

The second way you can help is by continuing to place orders, knowing that our turnaround is going to be about a week longer than usual in the short term. While we were closed for the week, our bills and expenses kept coming in so any help you can give us making up for that lost business will be greatly appreciated!

Our big lesson from the storm was that all the work we have been doing to strengthen our teams - primarily through more thoughtful and thorough communication and leadership - has been effective. Our team came together and performed as never before. Florence was a terrible experience, but it tested us in many unanticipated ways and has definitely made us a much better organization.

This past week we took a big step toward our goal of becoming a great company. I am sure you will see that in the weeks to come. We are back, and I know we are better and stronger than ever.

Once again, I thank you for your help, patience and support. We have the best customers in the world. We will continue to do everything in our power to continue to earn your trust.

Please feel free to reach out with any comments, questions or concerns. It is our pleasure to serve you!

Sincerely,

Fred Meyers, President and Founder