Tornado Tears Into Delaware’s United Electric Supply

After a tornado ripped the roof off of its Wilmington. Del., headquarters on Sept. 28, United Electric Supply Co. is implementing its existing disaster recovery plan and will be operating out of a temporary new location shortly. About 100 employees were in the building when the tornado struck, but all escaped without injury, according to news reports.

A notice posted on the company’s Web site at www.unitedelectric.com, said the company’s other locations will service its Wilmington/New Castle customers until the new temporary location comes on line. The posting also advised employees to not come to work at the corporate headquarters on Thursday, Sept. 30 because the building is still unsafe.

Reports in Wilmington’s The News Journal said data on United Electric’s computer system had been backed up by its business software system vendor, and that the company had signed a lease for a 60,000-square-foot temporary headquarters in Boulden Interchange Park. Tom Cloud, United Electric’s chairman and CEO, could not be reached for comment. The tornado was part of the remnants of Hurricane Jeanne.