EmPower: Growing Stronger Since Sandy

One year ago Superstorm Sandy hit and our area experienced the worst storm of our lifetimes. The wrath of Sandy was more than anyone expected, leaving many displaced from their homes and businesses, commuters without transportation, and everyone without basic modern-day conveniences such as potable water, telecommunications, operable bathrooms, fuel supplies, etc. It swiftly and dramatically demonstrated the vulnerabilities inherent to our infrastructure.

EmPower Solar, like many, was impacted severely. When Sandy hit, our COO, Greg Sachs, was protecting the EmPower offices in Island Park as a deluge of water began pouring in and the power went down; our facility, fleet, and inventory was decimated. Many of our employees, clients, friends and family were also reeling.

CEO David Schieren and Greg responded to the crisis with clarity of purpose and tireless energy, leading the team towards recovery as quickly as possible. The entire team performed admirably; office workers partnered up with installers to get EmPower back up. Everyone pitched in to complete the seemingly endless tasks to restore our operations; inspecting, cleaning, sorting supplies and equipment, cataloging losses, setting up multiple off-site operations centers, etc.

We’re particularly proud of how we provided service to over 120 clients that were impacted within a few days of the storm. Technicians used personal vehicles to get the job done, coordinating with our project managers who operated at homes and businesses of friends north of Sunrise Highway. Everyone did their part to put our customers first.

EmPower has grown stronger as a team and as a company and we know that’s because we work with amazing colleagues, clients, and partners in Long Island and New York City. We are more dedicated than ever to helping build a cleaner, smarter, more resilient electric infrastructure. EmPower knows first-hand that there is a far superior way. For example, David was staying at his family home that was powered by a solar and battery back-up system, and was driving his electric car while most had to wait for fuel.

On the one year anniversary of Sandy, we wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you to our clients, partners, colleagues, friends, and family for sticking together and demonstrating inspirational human good will.

We also want to acknowledge that there are still many people and businesses struggling to rebuild and fully recover. If you are out there and you need help, feel free to contact us and we will do what we can.

Newsday chronicled the EmPower recovery. Click here to read the article.

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About the Author

EmPower Solar develops, engineers, installs, and services solar and battery systems for residential and commercial clients. Since 2003, EmPower Solar has empowered thousands of New York homeowners and businesses with 47 megawatts of distributed solar. Its vision is to create a new energy paradigm powered by clean, renewable energy for a more prosperous, healthy, and civil world. The company culture is defined by the EmPowering Way, which results in consistent 5-star customer service reviews. For more information visit empower-solar.com.