Yorkton, SK – On July 1 (Canada Day – Statutory Holiday), a massive storm ripped through Yorkton bringing heavy rains and strong winds. Morris Industries was not spared from the storm. Wind hit the corner of the office building at the Morris Main Plant (located on York Avenue) tearing off the roof and throwing it onto the roof that covers the fabrication portion of production.
Damage was extensive to the office both from the wind and from the water that flowed into the building once the roof was blown off. Fortunately, other than some damage to the Production roof from flying debris, there was no apparent damage to the Production portion of the Main Plant. All other Morris Production Facilities were unaffected by the storm.
Morris continues to assess the damage to the Office Building and work with its Insurer but it appears that the repair or rebuild process may take some time. It has yet to be determined the extent, if any, of the structural damage to the Office Building.
At this time, we do not see any reason that production at the Main Plant will be impacted by the storm damage and our intent is to be back to production after the summer shut-down on July 19 as planned. All employees should plan on reporting to work at the time scheduled prior to the planned plant shutdown. There are some inconveniences, the phones and computer servers were located in the Main Plant office. Currently, there is no phone service to the Yorkton plant and no email service to Yorkton, Minnedosa and field staff. All telephone calls including Parts have be re-routed to Saskatoon, so parts and service is available and technical support staff can be contacted through their cellular service. If anyone has any difficulty in contacting anyone, please call Saskatoon at 306-933-8585.
Morris is in the process of sourcing temporary offices and we hope to have these arrangements in place along with email and telephone service by the end of this week or early next week. We will provide a further update as information becomes available.