NWR: Brisbane Floods

[rens]

I got the call. A bit later than I would have liked, but I got it. I've been allocated a 9am spot tomorrow. The fellow on the other end of the phone was very nice and he answered a few questions that I had. He is not sure of the temperature in the cellar, however kennards did get A/C in there to keep it somewhat cool (perhaps they should have included that in their emails and it would save a lot of worry). The same unit will be running tomorrow so I'll report back about the temperature. I hope it is not to long for the others on this thread.

[Freaky Stylee]

If they had got air conditioning in there theyd know precisely what temperature it is.

The last two days have been stinking hot in Milton.

Are there any lawyers with wine in storage at Kennards Milton?

[tim1210]

ahhhh what a debacle.
i'm so keen on getting the hell out of kennards.
could anyone else see the check list they attached to the email about what to do with the wine? it comes out as a very unhelpful blur on my comp.
rens, an update on conditions in there would be awesome.... oh and give them a piece of our collective disgruntlement
tim

[rens]

If they had got air conditioning in there theyd know precisely what temperature it is.

The last two days have been stinking hot in Milton.

Are there any lawyers with wine in storage at Kennards Milton?

The fellow that rang me was in Sydney so could not tell me what temp it was because he had not been there, perhaps he could have been trying to appease me...
I hope that tomorrow I can report back some good news on the temps. sigh...

[gorm]

Rens: >>Their website trumpets the fact temperature is important in storing wine. They use it as the cornerstone of their marketing<<
Kennards web-site also states the importance of suitable humidity:

Suitable Humidity
If wine is stored in conditions that are too dry, the cork will shrink and cause leakage. Too moist, and mould and contamination may occur. Kennards Wine Storage maintains moderate humidity levels (55%-75%) to avoid these problems and assist in the optimum wine development conditions.

Guess what, according to Kennards staff the Milton facility does not have any humidity control equipment installed.
In my storage unit, I have a temperature and humidity reader. (Doesn’t everyone?)
I am here to tell you that the temperature and humidity readings are all over the place depending on the time of the year.
I spoke with Sam Kennard about this issue at the most recent wine tasting event last year and was told that it would be fixed –
BS! Absolute no change as of earlier this month.

From Sam Kennard’s e-mail.
“We appreciate your understanding and patience in this complex situation and apologise for any inconvenience”
Yours faithfully, Sam Kennard, Managing Director

“any inconvenience” !
Understatement of the century from a person who cannot even be bothered to come to Brisbane to inspect the flooded facility in person.
Tuesday evening, six days after the event, still no Sam in Brisbane.
In the meantime, our wine continues cooking without our being able to retrieve it in a timely manner.
FYI - Wednesday's Brisbane temp @ 10:25am – 31.2C
Clearly, as a minimum, Sam Kennard should have invited all stakeholders to an on-site information meeting days ago in the parking area in Milton (or elsewhere).
Guess he just does not have the guts to face customers under these circumstances.

Here is a dead serious suggestion to Sam Kennard.
Contact Salvation Army and ask if they will accept you as a ‘work experience’ learner in a future crisis.
That way Sam Kennard may just learn basic crisis management and how to communicate in an understanding and compassionate manner, without this kind of sledgehammer wording: “customers arriving onsite without our notification, will be turned away”
It is my bloody wine investment, who is Sam Kennard to dictate who should be first and last to be granted retrival access?

For those not local to Brisbane – once again, The Salvos did an outstanding job during this most recent crisis event in Brisbane.
Sam Kennard could learn a lot about crisis management and perhaps even become a competent business manager in the process.

[tim1210]

has anyone forwarded kennards a link to this forum?

[miltonsufferer]

Also interesting to note that there was no mention of power or aircon by Kennards until it was discussed on this and other fora. Until then they were saying they were waiting for generators to arrive from Victoria and then all of a sudden they say they have had one on site since Tuesday?

I still don't understand why they can offer 6 months free storage on twitter to flood victims but nothing to existing customers that are now flood victims in their facility (perhaps the word victim is a bit strong there but you get the idea ...).

I stopped by last night and spoke to a fellow who was moving his stuff out and he certainly didn't think the conditions inside were promising so would be good to get a report from Rens today.

[debbris]

I'm wondering if Kennards have seen this forum, as they have now provided more info on their website, including details of power and aircon, and a photo!

Still no call (but at least we're now getting the emails), going to call again today. Have storage on standby elsewhere, waiting to see how much we are salvaging.

[miltonsufferer]

This might change some minds about salvage?

http://www.clearaboutwine.com.au/wp/ind ... r-a-flood/

[n4sir]

Back to the issue of possible contamination due to floodwater, someone at Gavin's place has posted a link to an article by Tyson Stelzer about health warnings (via the AWRI):

http://www.clearaboutwine.com.au/wp/ind ... r-a-flood/

Cheers,
Ian

[Kenwine]

Information for Kennards Self Storage MILTON wine storage customers:

We acknowledge the concerns raised by the various members of this forum. In our efforts to respond to the crisis, we have been simultaneously cleaning the area; restoring power; obtaining mobile coolrooms and repairing the cooling system. There is enormous pressure for the same resources we are trying to obtain in south east queensland. We are doing everything we can to assist to rectify the situation after the devastating flood.

We were advised that the mud in Milton was contaminated with chemicals and sewage. This has delayed the process unfortunately.

To assist this process we have dedicated the entire dock area to our wine storage customers. They have priority access.
We have also arranged tables, providing free cartons, tapes, pens, labels and so on.

Please note our blog update of last night for more details: http://www.kss.com.au/blog/?p=937

In any event, we acknowledge the concerns raised and will put further effort to accelerate access for our customers

Also to to accelerate attention to their particular circumstances customers on this forum are welcome to reply to me privately.

Thank you for your understanding during this time.
Regards
Darryl Hodgson
Operations Manager
darryl@kss.com.au

[Sam Kennard]

I was alerted to this forum yesterday and immediately registered. The administrator has only now provided me with permission. I hope to be able to clarify some of the perceptions and respond to the issues raised.

It is apparent that there is enormous concern and degree of criticism of our company (and some levelled at me personally) about how we are handling this.

I hope that once people get on site, there will be some appreciation of the extent of the problem in enabling access and also the strong commitment to assisting with resolving it. It appears that we have not been clear and comprehensive enough with our communication. This is not deliberate. We have obviously lost our records and on site data systems, and have not had power. Restoring data from back ups has been a task in hand.

It seems we were remiss in not advising of all our activities, issues and priorities.

I hope that our communications from today will improve in reach and accuracy for you all.

In this instance, I would like to confirm the following:-

-> The residual sludge was advised to be contaminated with chemicals and sewerage. Removing this was obviously an urgent obligation before access could be safely provided.
-> Restoring power to enable the cooling to be restored was high priority of the team;
-> A generator was kindly lent to us by our construction company, who have taken it off a construction project. This meant we have restored power more quickly than originally anticipated.
-> Cooling systems have been rented and installed as soon as we could source them and provide them with power. We have 5 cooling units in the coolroom currently.
-> We have a team of approximately 25 contractors dedicated to assisting our wine storage customers clean and re-organise their wine;
-> Access was decided to be controlled and regulated. The idea of hundreds of people trying to get in at once would have created bedlam on site. Given that the environment was to have the cooling restored we felt this was prudent and would not cause additional problems.
-> We have extended access hours to enable as many people to get access as quickly as possible. Yesterday, we provided 6AM to 7PM access. We will continue to provide as long as we can.
-> Wine storage customers are getting priority access over the other 700 self storage customers in the building. The entire dock area is dedicated to the wine storage customers.

More broadly, I would also offer responses to other issues raised:-

-> The wine storage was installed by the previous owners and original developers of the building - Millers Self Storage. Yes, they also decided to move it to the ground level because it was (as I understand) originally poorly built and needed to be re-built. I am not aware if they knew of flood risks for an event of this kind. (We were also not aware of the risk, but would not have moved the cellar to this area, in any event. It would have remained on an upper level for a bunch of other reasons.)
-> Is there a future for the current Milton Wine Cellar? This is a good question our team canvassed early on Monday. It is doubtful, and better solutions on upper levels at Milton, West End and/or Newstead are being considered.
-> I confirm the KSS team has been working frantically on many issues and responses simultanously. There is no doubt of their intentions and commitment. We regret if any mistakes have been made (including typos) in this process. We are a family business and genuinely care about our customers experience. I hope you sense this when you get on site.

I hope this is not too long (there is more that could be said, in fact). I am overseas and have a limited time window overlap. I am on the phone to the team frequently, though. I am heartened to have been told that the wine being recovered and cleaned up is looking ok.

This has obviously been an extreme event, with many tragic consequences for many Queensland families. Kennards is supporting those with life-changing losses with cash and in-kind support.

I encourage your constructive comments to help assist our understanding and efforts. Feel free to also send a message to me privately, if you prefer. Darryl is also registered to the forum now too, I notice.

Thanks,

Sam Kennard

[debbris]

I'm very pleased to have had a call from Darryl, and currently getting organised to go out to Milton to salvage our wine early this afternoon.

[miltonsufferer]

Thanks to Darryl and Sam for their comments.

For me the biggest concern now is this comment:

"We were advised that the mud in Milton was contaminated with chemicals and sewage."

Based on the previous link posted with regards to e-coli and salmonella it would be critical to find someone to do sample testing to guage if this a problem given the above.

[rens]

I'm back, and I am very happy. for the following reasons:
1) I only got about 5 cm of water into my wine. I was in the top locker
2) The Kennards team were excellent on site this morning. They had teams of people lining up to help me move my stuff. What Sam said about their commitment was very obvious to see and a credit to his company.
3) I could see at least 2 large A/C units in there (although not on at the moment) and the temp was about what you would find in any Dan Murphys/wine shop. The humidity was a killer though. I've never sweated that much in my life. I think the wine will be OK from a temperature point of view.
4) My Grange did not get touched by the water (phew).
5) Only one bottle smashed when I dropped it. The rest is fine. The bottle was a $9 pinot.

I was very happy with what the Kennards guys did today. They have restored my faith in their customer service. I may even go back to Kennards once they are up and running again. I feel very sorry for those with the lower storage lockers. There was a fair bit of mud and a few labels missing. Most of the people (kennards customers) I talked to were happy their wine would be OK from a temperature point of view so should drink OK. Selling them on a secondary market could be difficult with the missing labels and mud stains.
All in all I'm in a much happier place and I think (from Daryl and Sam's message) Kennards has learnt a lot about communication and risk /emergency management before and during such an event.

[Sam Kennard]

Glad to hear some positive experiences....

In regard to the health safety testing, there are clearly pro's and con's.

A probable risk of widely imposing this would be that it would grind the process down to a very deep slow down. For complete certainty, it may be advised by the consultants to conduct this on a unit-by-unit, or even bottle-by-bottle, basis. Given the sentiments already expressed on this forum about urgency and those about "let us just get in there", I wonder if this is preferred very widely...?

Some people may want to consider this from a personal choice perspective too.

The assistance programme with the clean-up is very thorough. The team are professionals and properly equipped. Once our customers see the cleaning - concerns about this may be alleviated. If not, please discuss with us.

Based on this query, we are now investigating whether there is official (government) position on the risks from the flood water. Obviously, much of the flood water would have similar risks and affecting many other people. This may be the best basis for a decision.

In the meanwhile, we proceed along with the rest of Brisbane with their clean-up.

[tannin]

The main thing that matters to me is temperature control. The cleanup can take as long as needed, provided the temp of the cellar is maintained below twenty, preferably 15, degrees. My wine was not flood affected, but will be temperature damaged if left in the heat, which would be a shame. I've been told I have to wait longer than others, because I have minimal damage- that is probably the wrong way around in my view.

[tim1210]

While acknowledging the difficulty of this situation I am still quite unhappy with my experience.

I sent an email to Kennard's last night noting my concerns and was called early this morning by the Sydney office who organised for me to come in at 5pm today and told me that they were hoping to have the whole facility up and running by tomorrow. This made me quite content.

I turned up this evening at 5pm as organised and was turned away. I was told I would have to return tomorrow night.
Now, upon reading the forum, I find out that not only was the 'whole facility up and running tomorrow' a load of rubbish, but that it's probable the site will close.

Really, Kennard's???

[debbris]

Tim, that sounds pretty unfortunate. We left around 4 pm and it was quietening down, and I thought they were working quite late tonight.

Apart from the awfulness of the mud and possible toxicity of the water, I have to say the cleaning operation itself is well-organised and well-staffed despite the chaos of so many people and so much water- and mud-logged wine. It took us a while to get to access our wine, but when we did there were tons of people to help wash, dry and pack and no shortage of gloves, clean towels, boxes etc, although the boxes are not wine cartons, unfortunately.

There was a guy at a table near us clearing mud (and unfortunately, labels) off what looked like some very old Grange. Such a shame.

[Kenwine]

Hi Tim,
having seen your post I can only apologise. Having to relay communications to Milton from Sydney without the team there having access to our systems has created several challenges to overcome. As Sam said in his earlier post there will be opportunities for us to improve our handling of an incident like this in future.

I am pleased that you now have a new time confirmed. Our head of Operations, Darren Marshall will be on site tomorrow afternoon to assist customers including yourself personally.
I can confirm we have extended operating hours further for Friday (now 6am-9pm) and Saturday (6am-9pm) at Milton. This will be for wine storage customers. I will confirm any extension of trading for Sunday and Monday tomorrow.

Thank you again for your understanding.
Regards
Darryl

[Kenwine]

New information for Kennards Self Storage Milton - Wine Storage customers,

Hello everyone,
The wine cellar climate control system has been repaired by our technicians and all condenser units are now fully operational.
The wine cellar temperature reports are currently below 16-20 degrees centigrade and dropping with 75-80% humidity.
We will continue to monitor the systems performance as temperature & humidity stabilise.

Additionally, we can confirm extended operating hours Sunday and Monday as 6am - 9pm on both days.

The three mobile coolrooms on the loading dock will remain as customers have been attending to clean and sort their wine.

For more information please contact our customer care centre on 1800 658 855, alternatively do not hesitate to PM or email either Sam or myself on this forum.
Thank you
Darryl Hodgson
Operations Manager
Kennards Self Storage
darryl@kss.com.au

[tannin]

I got in this morning-wow, it was an amazing site-there must have been 60 burly workers all collecting, washing, packing damaged wine. A good, slightly surreal atmosphere. Little room to move.
Huge skips filled with sodden wooden crates that once housed bollinger or Greenock creek. Piles of crumbly wet cardboard with wine icon names, now muddy.
It was organised chaos, and a first rate disaster response site.

Good news is my vinyl lp's are completely untouched-those wridgways boxes, and lots of masking tape worked a treat.
About twenty bottles out of 200 had water damage-most were above the water mark.
The air temp inside ( just as the power was restored) was 24 degrees. The bottles felt cool to touch. Wine inside would have been much cooler than 24. Large mobile air conditioning units were blasting away. No cork protrusion-corks still very deep in the necks.
I have a good feeling we have escaped major heat damage.
I grabbed my stuff and left-found a cool cellar not far away.
Well done Kennards- in the circumstances, I think their response has been excellent.

I took some iphone photos and will attempt to post-once I work out the technology.

[rens]

Good to hear you had a similar experience to me. Looking forward to the photos...

[tannin]

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IMG_0197222.jpg

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[tim1210]

I was pretty damn pleased with what I found this evening when I went to collect my wine. Veeeeeeeeeeeery impressive operation and something that instills great confidence in your business.
I feel like a real schmuck for kicking up a stink and only wish I'd really known what was going on there. It's quite clear that despite some communication difficulties you really did your best for us.
Darren, Darryl, Sam: Thanks. You did a stirling job

[Mike Hawkins]

Although I'm writing this from afar, it seems Kennard have done well given the magnitude of the calamity in Qld. I have always been happy with Kennards - I have a lot of wine stored with them in Australia.

I truly hope everyone's wine (and other possessions) is ok. The labels may be shot, but as long as the juice is good, I think its a good outcome given the situation.

[Sam Kennard]

Thanks for these positive posts. The team were really working hard to make the salvage of our customers goods as effective as possible. The circumstances were fluid (no pun intended!!) and the guys had to adapt and innovate to secure people and resources. This made it difficult to remain predictable.

We regret any failings in our communications that may have built up some concern among people. It seems we need further improvement to our Disaster Recovery Procedure in this regard.

I understand with the extended hours and resources we hope to finish by Wednesday next week.

[Michael McNally]

Hi All

Apologies. I started this post but have been incommunicado since. Thanks for your concern.

Good news is my house didn't go under - the floodwaters stopped about 30 metres from my property. Another 60cm to 1m of flood as was predicted and I would have had water in the newly built ground level. I'll post some pics/video when I get home.

Bad news, I have a middle level locker at Kennards. As I have been away this week I have Monday pm appointment to retrieve what I can of my wine. Thanks for all the info on this post, but I have some questions.

Is there a disinfecting process as part of the cleaning and what is being used?
How long should I allow to get about 400 bottles of wine cleaned/labelled/repacked?
Can I now continue to store my wine there? My home cellar should be finished in a week or so and to have to move it twice would be a real pain in the arse.

Thanks in advance

Michael

[tim1210]

Hi Michael,
It'll probably take you min 2 hours to get it all done. It surprised me how long it took. The process they have running is that you go and grab your wine out (bottle by bottle) with the guys who are helping and take it out to the loading bay. There, they have tables set up where first step in a gentle wash in soapy water (? not disinfectant per se), 2nd a rinse, 3rd a dry and polish, 4th box it up. They had loads of wine boxes there last night.
They recommended taking the foils off the top of corks as fluid can pool in there... good idea, I reckon.
I'm still not clear on what's happening short term with the facility but my impression was that it would be easier to get the wine out of their way until the cleanup is finished in there. Might be able to keep it there though (?).
Glad you didn't go under!
Tim

[rens]

Hi Michael
I did mine a few days ago. 280 bottles. I removed them all myself from the cellar (I'm a bit of a control freak). Then I had mine repacked and a dozen or so washed and dried and into my new storage in 2 hours. If 480 bottles need a clean etc I'd give it 3+ hours.
They have cool rooms there for storage and I understand the main cellar is up and running too.