Karen Sharp stood in the wreckage of what was once her living room, telling stories about the valuables and heirlooms the flood waters had damaged or destroyed.

“I’ve had this piano since I was 14,” says Sharp, president of Proforma Impact Promotions (asi/490136), while she touched her fingers gently to the keys, as if careful not to cause further damage. “I had hoped it could be saved, but it’s ruined.” She pressed her knuckles to her lips for a silent moment, then turned and pointed at a rocking chair. “It’s an antique – 100 years old,” she says, her eyes brightening. “I managed to save it. It’s going to be OK.”

The same could not be said for the rest of the place Sharp had called home in Cypress, TX, a suburb just outside the city limits of Houston.

>>Don't miss: The Human Impact of the Hurricanes Irma | Harvey

When Harvey, the hurricane-turned-tropical storm, deluged the area with about a year’s worth of rain over several late August days, the nearby Cypress Creek jumped its bank and surged into Sharp’s neighborhood. Sharp had seen the creek, about four blocks from her front door, rise into the neighborhood during past floods, but never before had the invading waters penetrated her home.

Harvey, however, was different.

The relentless storm spurred the creek on until it turned her interiors into a lapping pond, decimating drywall, floors and possessions that couldn’t be lifted. Outside was a lake. When we visited her on a hot sunny day little more than a week after the water had receded, Sharp’s sensitive lungs weakened in the rented home’s unhealthy atmosphere – the black mold beginning to fester. “I have to move,” says Sharp. “There’s no way I can stay here.”

And yet, despite everything, Sharp began smiling.

Photos from the Hurricanes

Meyerland section of Houston – post-Harvey.

 A sidewalk piled high with a home’s Harvey-ruined contents in Houston.

The Brays Bayou in Houston on the rise amid Harvey.

A rocking chair Proforma’s Karen Sharp saved from Harvey’s flooding.

Harvey damaged the piano Karen Sharp had since she was a teenager.

Supplies collected during a Hirsch Gift-led relief drive in Houston.

Counselor’s Christopher Ruvo with Proforma’s Karen Sharp at Sharp’s Harvey-wrecked former home.

Remains of flood debris outside Karen Sharp’s former home in Cypress, TX.

Flood-ravaged contents of a Harvey-struck Houston home.

Clearing downed trees in promo pro Phil Fry’s Central Florida neighborhood.

Maitland, FL, an Orlando suburb, post Irma.

The 1967 Unimog distributor Phil Fry drove during volunteer clean-up work in Florida.

Certainly, no one could blame her if she had slipped into despair. After all, Harvey’s timing was especially poor for the promo industry veteran, who was battling breast cancer when the rains came, presenting her with multiple new dilemmas: Keep business going amid Harvey’s aftermath and find a new place to live. Still, as Sharp led us on a tour through the hollowed rooms of the place that was no longer her home, she again spoke of joy, of gratitude. “I choose joy,” she says. “You can either choose to be miserable or you can choose joy. I just keep saying let’s choose joy. You got one day to live.”

Sharp’s remarkable spirit of resilience exemplified the optimism and gritty persistence of many promo professionals impacted by Harvey and Hurricane Irma, the massive early September storm that roared into Florida as the most intense Atlantic hurricane to strike the U.S. since Katrina in 2005.

Despite a host of challenges, from lost business and lost homes, to dealing with evacuations, water rescues, power outages, shipping fiascos and impassable roads, the dozens of affected industry pros Counselor interviewed in Texas and Florida radiated resolve and positivity. They were buoyed by – and contributed to – the selfless coming together of their communities’ recovery efforts. They were heartened by the nationwide outreach from promo companies and organizations that contributed robustly with aid that ranged from cash donations to much-needed supplies. And, while acknowledging challenges lay ahead, they were working tirelessly to get back to normal, believing better days were on the way for their businesses and communities.

“We can’t control what Mother Nature does, but we can control how we react,” says Rick Davis, president of Key West Printing (asi/242188). Davis’ business space survived the storm, but his home – a boat – was destroyed. Still, Davis was back at work within days of Irma’s passing, filling orders for local clients that, like him, weren’t letting the storm stop them. “We’ll continue to be here for our clients, who are working just as hard as us,” says Davis. “The people of Key West are strong, and we support each other.”

>>Don't miss: Hearts Bigger Than the Storms

In this Counselor exclusive, we measure the impact of the hurricanes on promotional product companies, exploring everything from the economic fallout to sharing personal stories from industry storm victims. In the end, there comes a clear picture of hard times and hard work, resolve and recovery – a story whose theme Sharp summed up with a statement that became popular in Houston amid the historic flooding: “There is more hope here than water.”

The Economics of the Storms
Harvey and Irma struck in areas where an abundance of promo firms operate. ASI estimates that Irma affected as many as 1,870 listed distributors and 210 listed suppliers, with the areas hit hardest representing $1.2 billion in promo product sales for 2016. Meanwhile, ASI data shows that more than 900 companies in Texas and Louisiana felt the effects of Harvey, a storm whose timing forced the cancellation of the Houston Promotional Products Association’s Hot Stuff Expo.

Not surprisingly, the storms disrupted business for many industry firms in affected zones. It was commonplace for both suppliers and distributors to close shop, some for a day or two, others for a week or more. Operational challenges remained even after the sun returned and the wind settled. Among the promo companies dealing with significant issues were distributors like Cowgirl Promotions, which experienced office flooding that prompted the Houston-based outfit to gather employees at a home for a time in order to keep serving customers. Meanwhile, Bullet’s (asi/42424) Miami facility endured a prolonged power outage that lasted for more than a week. Even after power was restored, Bullet had to play catch-up, a situation that extended lead times for imprint orders and sample orders, while prompting the suspension of the company’s SureShip service through September’s end.

“We were fortunate that all of our employees remained safe and our facility sustained no structural damage,” says David Nicholson, president of Polyconcept North America, Bullet’s parent company. “However, we did suffer significant damage to our power supply and phone/data connectivity. Without this infrastructure, our ability to communicate with customers and to process and ship orders was severely hampered.”

This autumn, it was too soon to say if fallout from the storms was widespread enough to have a noticeable impact on regional or total promo industry sales for the year. Nonetheless, anecdotal reports from suppliers and distributors in storm-struck zones indicate that companies certainly experienced sales losses in the short-term. While particulars varied, it was often true that impacted companies suffered a sales slip as they grappled to become operational again and help their communities, and as clients put off purchasing amid recovery efforts – or nixed orders in the wake of things like event cancellations.

“We’re a trickle-down business, and when our clients are impacted, that impacts us and other businesses we use like decorators and the people we buy product from,” says Bernie Ranellone, co-owner of Key West-based distributor Keyboard Advertising Specialties (asi/242348).

Speaking about a week after Irma cleared out of town, distributor Phil Fry said he expected September sales to be down 20% to 40% because of the storm. “Business was off substantially in the three-to-four days before the storm because everyone was preparing,” says Fry, vice president at Orlando-based Carpe Diem Sales & Marketing (asi/158580). In the days after the storm, “it was still very slow because so many people and businesses had been without power.”

Phillip Ambros, creative director of Houston-area Sierra Pacific Apparel (asi/87224), says that promo companies in greater Houston experienced at least a temporary drop in sales because of Harvey. “Locally, no one was ordering shirts or hats or cups,” Ambros says. “Even if they wanted to, companies could not ship out. Some businesses lost two weeks’ worth of sales.”

Video: Karen Sharp Interview

Back in Florida, a supplier reported that quarterly sales were likely to be down from the prior year following the hurricane-compelled cancellation of a major trade show, a significant driver of business for the firm. The supplier also has an abundance of distributor customers throughout the Southeast and Texas that were trying to get back on their feet following Irma and Harvey. “The economy could take a downturn for many,” says Gil Raynor, owner of Houston-based distributor Raynor & Associates (asi/304935).

As Raynor’s comment indicates, some promo professionals were anxious that the storms could detract from sales over a yet undefined longer period of time. Local clients, they feared, could refrain from buying promo products as they rein in spending post-hurricane – a scenario Raynor illustrated with an anecdote about a medical client whose offices were flooded and who couldn’t see patients. “I wouldn’t expect any orders from him for many, many months,” says Raynor.

Similarly, Jacksonville, FL-based Wicked Branding & Graphix (asi/359902) told us that its third quarter would be down as clients focused on overcoming flooding and wind damage rather than buying promotional products. “Several of our best clients are still underwater and don’t even have a date when they’ll have power and dry land,” says Sharon Lynn Unger, director of sales, shortly after the storm passed in September.

While the more harrowing impacts of the storms and their potential effect on business can’t be ignored, it would be misleading to hold them up as wholly representative of the experiences of suppliers and distributors. For one thing, many industry leaders relayed to Counselor that they and their employees were safe, that their businesses’ physical locations were in good condition, and that they didn’t anticipate a long-term sales slump. “I don’t expect any lasting impact after October,” says Fry, adding that new opportunities could arise, especially with construction and landscaping companies. “It’s possible,” says Fry, “that additional business will come from these areas.”

Also optimistic, Norman Stalarow of Buffalo Specialties (asi/149870), a Houston-based distributor, feels the storm could lead to invigorated sales with a range of end-buyers. In addition to contractors, damage restoration companies and landscapers, Stalarow named organizations that included car dealerships and furniture stores, as well as companies and schools in need of new uniforms, and organizations contributing to relief efforts that want to dress their volunteering employees in matching T-shirts and hats. Not long after the waters began to recede, for example, an organization placed an order for 10,000 volunteer-themed T-shirts with Buffalo Specialties. Two days later, the same company ordered another 10,000 shirts. “I don’t want to sound opportunistic,” says Stalarow, whose company was contributing to relief efforts, “but there’s potential for a boom.”

Sean Roark thought along the same lines. “Thousands of companies are going to come back to work with a vital and important message: ‘We’re still here, ready to provide our services and products,” says Roark, owner of Spring, TX-based Promo Pros/Incent Pros (asi/300654). “For those of us who understand our industry, the presence of a message that needs to be converted is great news, because nothing is more effective at communicating a brand or message than promotional products.”

Encouragingly, storm-hit distributorships were also feeling upbeat about their prospects with clients in geographic locations outside the storm zones. “Although we have many clients that are specific to Houston,” says Carolyn Moore, owner of Webster, TX-based Brand IQ (asi/145039), “we’re very fortunate to have many clients that have a worldwide presence, so we’re continuing to see business from them for events outside of the Houston area.”

In the Florida Keys, Lisa Fleck was thankful that her client roster features companies from across the country. “My clients are coast to coast, and I’ve got a lot to work on for them,” says Fleck, CEO of Big Pine Key, FL-based HMS Promo Products (asi/344697).

Even some distributors who were expecting a potential sales drop in the immediate months ahead were positive about their prospects in the future beyond that. “We know we’ll be OK,” says Unger. “Once everything clears, the industry will be great again. Lots of promotional items will need to be replaced. People in Florida are resilient and will rebuild. We at Wicked Branding & Graphix will help in any way we can.”

Email: cruvo@asicentral.com; Twitter: @ChrisR_ASI