From the publisher: Don't waste your hurricane

In late August, Hurricane Harvey ripped into the Texas Gulf Coast, shredding the Corpus Christi/Rockport area with its initial landfall. Then the storm added more injury as it unceremoniously parked itself over Houston, Beaumont and Port Arthur for the better part of a week and dropped over 40, and in some areas over 50, inches of rain. I heard one weatherman discussing that in one 36-hour period, over 9 trillion gallons of rainwater fell on the Houston area. To put that in perspective, if you took that amount of water -- 9 trillion gallons that fell on one metropolitan area -- and spread it equally over the 48 contiguous states, it would equal .17 inches of rain covering the country.

Certainly you've seen pictures of the devastation on your television and social media. Our industry was not immune to the effects. Most offshore production and rigs were shut down before the storm got close. Many inland oil and gas fields were also shut in. But we've had an oversupply of production; the effect of the storm on the upstream side was contained to the companies, workers and families affected directly.

With a widespread effect, more than a dozen refineries were forced to shut down in Texas: four Valero facilities, two ExxonMobil, and refineries run by Motiva, Total, Shell, Petrobras, LyondellBasell, Marathon, CITGO and Flint Hills. Some were shut down directly from the effects of the hurricane, some by the disruption of the supply chain. Colonial Pipeline, Magellan Midstream Partners and other midstream transportation firms suspended their inbound and outbound refined products and crude pipeline transportation services in the Houston area, which in turn affected the entire country. Crude prices fell as pipelines and flooded refineries were forced to shut down. The price of gasoline surged to the highest in two years.

The petrochemical industry was hit hard as well. According to IHS Markit, about half of the U.S. ethylene supply went off line and almost all of the polyethylene supply. The former represents the most common building block for plastics in general, and the latter the most common building block for many common plastics, including food packaging. These outages caused a major disruption of chemical markets around the world.

As I write this, many of these chemical plants and refineries are already back up or in start-up mode. Some have elected to stay shut down to perform some planned or previously delayed maintenance. Most of our contractor and supplier members of BIC Alliance are performing clean-up, repairs, and maintenance and reconstruction, as we did after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I salute all of you in industry playing a vital role in restarting and keeping this lifeblood of American manufacturing healthy.

While the effects of Harvey on the industry are expensive, they pale in comparison to its effects on the lives of the citizens of the affected area. My friends, colleagues, and staff in Louisiana were distraught with a unique empathetic pain, knowing perhaps better than the current victims of Harvey how long and difficult the emotional and economic recovery will be. There are many emotions surrounding this event. Grief and fear are part of what we are feeling. But at the same time, something quite beautiful happened in the storm and in its response, relief, and recovery.

Like a fighter who gets punched in the nose, many felt hurt and disoriented; maybe our vision was even impaired temporarily. But Harvey also acted like a smelling salt, jolting our collective consciousness and then providing an amazing clarity of focus on what is most important: relationships with God and our fellow man. Harvey provided an amazing perspective for those in our region. Everyone felt a spirit of selflessness and began to engage in real community with one another. There was no black or white people and no Republicans or Democrats -- just people giving huge gifts of selflessness to assist their fellow man. People donated time, money, materials and other resources generously to alleviate suffering and pain. Each needed donation was received as a cherished gift by the recipients, but it undoubtedly made each giver feel better also. Some spiritual givers might say they were blessed by the giving. Each act of selflessness was mutually beneficial. I've seen it with our company and every employee in it, and with everyone -- without exception -- I have visited with since the storm.

As a Christian, I believe one of our purposes of existence is to share real community with one another. I shared this thought with a flood victim and atheist. He had to smile and agree that the mutual good created by selfless service is a "universal law."

We all spend our lives in pursuit of something. It's kind of like a ladder we put against a wall and are always climbing and striving for more and higher. It could be a wall of wealth, a wall of security, a wall of prestige, a wall of comfort, etc. -- not that those things are not important, but sometimes the priority changes. Sometimes we move the ladder against a different wall. In the midst of this challenge, there comes a great opportunity. This storm caused most of us to put our ladder against a wall that perhaps it had not been leaning against in a while: a wall of love and concern for our fellow man.

This recovery and rebuild will be a marathon and not a sprint. Let's not waste our hurricane by moving our primary ladder away from the most important wall. For more about setting your ladder on the right wall, check out Scott Whitelaw's article on page 122.

I hope you will share this article with your friends and colleagues. Please continue to join us in thoughts and prayers for those recovering from the effects of Hurricane Harvey.

Thomas Brinsko, [email protected]

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