INTRODUCTION

THE LATE SUMMER OF 2004 was a mean hurricane season. Very mean. First, Hurricane Charlie made landfall on the southwest Florida coast on August 13, followed in quick order by three more storms: Hurricane Frances made landfall on the central east coast of Florida on September 5; Ivan landed near Gulf Shores, Alabama on September 16. Finally, Hurricane Jeanne battered the same area, making landfall on September 25. South Florida was especially badly hit, and southern Alabama and the Florida panhandle also received serious blows. As well as flooding and wrecking homes, the hurricanes were busy knocking out southern power supplies and downing trees and utility poles. Tragically, near Pensacola, a section of  highway was washed away, taking human life with it. In New Orleans, there was talk -- serious talk -- of evacuating the populace as the threat of a massive flood washing into the Crescent City was a definite possibility, despite that city's famous levees. Fleeing cars, unable to obtain fuel from gas stations in Florida without electricity for their pumps, began snarling evacuation routes, making escape impossible for thousands. Throughout the area, legions of hungry people sat in the hot, fetid dark. Food was rotting, fresh water was growing scarce, ice was but a memory, and hot and heavy humidity had invaded people's homes. There was no relief.

But help was on the way. Henkels & McCoy dispatched workers and equipment from as far afield as Pennsylvania and New Jersey and the Midwest to help company brothers and sisters located closer to the disaster area to lend a helping hand. Henkels & McCoy has a long and proud history in Emergency Restoration -- stretching back to the Great Hurricane of 1938, when we were first called on to help restore power to large swaths of Connecticut and New England.

Along with local utilities and competing contractors, H&M did what was needed to bring power -- and relief -- to the afflicted areas. Our crews stayed there for weeks, often working more than 16 hours a day, every day. Some crew members' own homes were affected too, which made their efforts especially poignant.

When it was over, and the lights came back on and refrigerators and air conditioners started to hum again, the people in battered communities took stock of their situation and began to pick up the pieces of their lives. Quite a few also picked up pencils and pens and wrote to the company whose home town address appears on the sides of our vehicles.

We are proud to present a representative sampling of letters to our Chairman and to our President from ordinary people who were caught up in the wave of storms and the aftermath.