Posted in: Comics | Tagged: comic store in your future, Derecho

When A Derecho Hits Your Comic Shop – Comic Store In Your Future

Rod Lamberti of Rodman Comics of Ankeny, Iowa, writes weekly for Bleeding Cool. Find previous columns here. He writes about Derecho-time this week.

The year 2020 keeps up with the weirdness. A derecho hit us here in Iowa. What is a derecho? Google has it as "a line of intense, widespread, and fast-moving windstorms and sometimes thunderstorms that moves across a great distance and is characterized by damaging winds." Before this week, I had never even heard of a derecho. Monday, it caused a lot of damage and people to lose power. Monday night, the drive-thrus of the various fast food places that were still with power here were lined up clear into the street. People could not make food at home, so they went where they could to eat. I drove around looking for a gas station to get gas, and after I gave up was told where one was that still had power and lucky enough, they still had a few pumps with gas left.

A tree broke off here behind the store and, of course, took out the power. Rodman Comics lost power. Lunar, who got us our DC shipment on the Friday before Tuesday the previous week this week, scheduled it to show up on Monday. The strip mall was totally closed down and without power on Monday. Had an employee here at the store Monday when the storm hit and when the tree hit who thankful was unhurt. The storm was so bad my cell phone was useless. The store ended up closing, and we did not get the Lunar shipment. I ended up Tuesday, trying to work from the back of my car in front of the store for some light while waiting for the Lunar and Diamond shipments. I had no idea when the power would be back and wanted to make sure I did not miss the shipments. I was lucky enough to get them. Tuesday, even without power, we made some sales. Wednesday should have been a great sales day. Without power and with many others without power here in town, neither days were great sales day.

I ended up taking the fridge out of the store. The freezer part defrosted and was leaking out water. I also learned how much I take the air for granted—sweating inside, not fun. As if to add insult to injury when the tree on the roof was finally cut up, the pieces were tossed off the roof in front of our building unit and door. I moved the branches out of the way so we could at least get in. It could have been worse. The business next to us got three holes in their roof.

As I write this, we still do not have power—all part of owning a business. At least no one was hurt. Just a few months left in 2020. What craziness awaits next? With everything going on, I typed this up quickly.  Hopefully, next week, we will have power and be focusing on our upcoming Rod Deals. Stay safe, everyone.

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