Christian Retailing

Kerusso hampered by ice storm Print Email
Written by Eric Tiansay   
Thursday, 29 January 2009 03:09 PM America/New_York
Berryville, Ark.-based apparel company Kerusso has notified its customers of delays in shipment after a winter storm hit northwest Arkansas earlier this week.

The massive system left a deadly swath of ice and snow from Texas to Maine and pushed into Canada early today, causing at least 17 deaths and cutting power to more than a million homes across the Midwest, according to state emergency management agencies, CNN reported.

"Shipments have been delayed since Tuesday and USPS (U.S. Postal Service), UPS and FedEx are telling us they won't resume normal operations until tomorrow," Chris Rainey, Kerusso vice president of marketing, told Christian Retailing. "We notified our customers earlier today of the situation. Our employees are carpooling and doing what they can, while taking safety into consideration, to make it into the offices so orders can be taken, processed and shipped. We have limited staff in each of our departments to continue to serve our customers."

Rainey said Kerusso did not close completely, but had been operating with a skeleton crew since Tuesday. "The area has been declared a federal disaster area," said Rainey, noting damage was caused by a large amount of ice. "We've already had a number of retailers respond to our e-mail this morning to let us know (that) they are praying for us, and that waiting a couple of extra days for their shipment won't be a problem."