As Hurricane Irene headed for the east Coast of the United States last month, most states, cities and companies were preparing to shutdown and wait for it to pass.
Bermuda Limousine International was winding down service since all the Metro New York Airports were terminating airline service.
The airlines were moving their planes out of harm’s way.
On Friday afternoon prior to Irene’s arrival (which was set for Saturday evening) the Operations Producer forABC NEWS / GOOD MORNING AMERICA contacted John Knight the account representative; they needed 7 SUVS and 5 VANS starting at 2pm on Saturday and to remain in service until Sunday evening.
ABC NEWS and GOOD MORNING AMERICA have been valued customers of Bermuda for over 25 years.
John contacted Francisco Esperon, the operations manager to start the ball rolling. Francisco and the dispatcher on duty, Jermeen Fluellen made numerous telephone calls to our chauffeurs seeking volunteers to operate the requested vehicles.
They managed to assemble the needed number of chauffeurs. All were concerned that only volunteers could make this happen since many chauffeurs could not leave their families alone with Irene approaching the metro New York Area.
The chauffeurs who responded to operate the vehicles included Marjan Potec, Michael Choing, Rolando Nin, Jardon-Dorsay Smith, Mike Williams, Roberto Amaro, Eric Vinegas, Kenneth Riccardo, Ebert Remaro, Jeff Gould, Lamonte Conner and Kenneth Copeland.
Each chauffeur was given food and water to last the day. Almost all of the food or grocery stores in Manhattan were closed including the large Starbucks across from the ABC studios.
ABC opened their facilities including their cafeteria to take care of the chauffeurs. The caravan of vehicles staged outside of the ABC NEWS studios. They were given various assignments taking crew members from hotels and homes to the studios. They also transported all of the on air talent and guests.
There were very few other vehicles driving the streets of New York City. The chauffeurs did not see any other sedans, vans or limousines from any other companies.
"Our reservation and dispatch center remained staffed and fully operational. We managed to keep the vehicles topped off with fuel after finding one gas station still in operation.The chauffeurs did an amazing job of transporting the cast, crew and reporters throughout the hurricane as it hit New York City.
"The producers of ABC NEWS / GOOD MORNING AMERICA went out of their way to contact Bermuda Limousine to tell us how Professional and Cooperative the chauffeurs were. They did an outstanding job."
In 1941 the Verdi family established BERMUDA MOTOR CAR / BERMUDA LIMOUSINE INTERNATIONAL offering premium limousine service to the most discriminating clients. Decades later BERMUDA remains an established leader.
Presently BERMUDA is celebrating its 70th Anniversary. Three generations of the Verdi family, so far, have operated this luxury service. Dominic, our founder, His son Bob and now Peter, Bob’s son. Each has provided the company with quality leadership enabling BERMUDA to remain an industry model.
