It isn’t only the East getting torrential rains. Prescott, Arizona received about 1.5 inches of rain from late Thursday afternoon through Friday morning of this past week. For an area that averages less than 18 inches in a year, that’s a heck of a lot of rain. So much rain in fact that it caused part of the roof of the Ruger factory to collapse.
Sturm Ruger issued a news release via Business Wire Friday stating heavy rainfall caused a portion of the roof to collapse Thursday at its plant near the Prescott Airport. No one was injured.
“The company is in the process of undertaking repairs and expects to be back in production soon,” the news release stated.
Mark Lang, group vice president for Sturm Ruger, was unavailable for comment. However, a person at the scene who wished to remain anonymous left a voicemail message: “It was terrifying. They evacuated the whole building. The ceiling opened up. A flood of water came in. … It went everywhere, all over the machine, all over everybody. The roof caved in.”
The collapse of the roof was significant enough that they had to make an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission as it was “material” which included their press release. The release said:
SOUTHPORT, CONNECTICUT, July 26, 2013 – Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE-RGR) announced today that during a severe thunderstorm on July 25, 2013, heavy precipitation caused a portion of the roof to collapse at our Prescott, Arizona manufacturing facility. No one was injured. The Company is in the process of undertaking repairs and expects to be back in production soon.
This temporary disruption may have a material impact on the Company’s results of operations for the third quarter of 2013, but is not expected to have a material impact on the financial position of the Company.
I guess the new manufacturing plant in Mayodan, North Carolina can’t come soon enough.
My niece works at that plant. I've asked her to smuggle a few lowers to me, but she always pleads how much she likes her job and freedom for some reason.