Businesses prepare for storms

HARLINGEN - Patricia Esquivel is ready for hurricane season all year round.

In a storage room at Lack's Furniture, she keeps plywood sheets cut to fit every window of the store on Dixieland Road.

"We take this very seriously," said Esquivel, the store's manager.

From stores to construction sites, the Rio Grande Valley is bracing for a hurricane season more than 40 years after Beulah, the last hurricane to make a direct hit here.

Just in case, the furniture store's ready, Esquivel said.

"We already have the cut-outs for the windows to keep the glass from breaking," she said.

From June through November, the store monitors the tropics for hurricane activity, Esquivel said.

When a hurricane threatens the area, she follows the steps in the company's plan, she said.

At its main office in Victoria, the company stocks up on sandbags, Esquivel said.

The store's employees put plywood on windows and place sandbags under doors, she said.

"It takes pretty much all day to do it properly," she said. "We move furniture away from the windows and any doors in case there's breakage."

In San Benito, Nydia Garcia knows a hurricane can wipe out her construction sites.

"We take it seriously and start preparing in advance," she said. "We monitor from May to November."

When a hurricane threatens the area, crews at Garco Construction haul brick, wood and other material into storage, said Garcia, whose family owns the company.

"We bring any kind of loose material from the project site to our warehouse," she said. "If it's under construction, we put plywood on any openings to make sure water doesn't get in and windows don't get broken."

At construction sites, looting is another concern, she said.

"There's a lot of people who'll brave the winds and rain to vandalize," she said. "You want to bring everything that can walk off or fly off the project site."