Greetings,

By now all of you know that we had an extremely freak, high wind storm sweep through Memphis early Tuesday morning. The front was 20 to 30 miles wide, and in some areas, winds were estimated at 113mph. Duration was probably 10-15 minutes. The result: priceless. Priceless because current estimated costs for just restoring electricity exceeds $39 Million. As of today, over 250,000 homes, not counting businesses like ours are without power. Thousands of homes are damaged, and many parts of this city and its suburbs resemble what you see after a tornado or a hurricane.

Currently we are on a back up generator that gives us enough power to run some lights, the phone system, the computer system and e-mail. You noticed some disruption yesterday, but the generator has now been working continually for over five hours without cut off, so we hope it has been repaired and will continue to operate. The weather, right now, for Memphis is in the mid-80's, but is climbing. We are on the top floor of our building, my office is reading 87F, and it is not going to get cooler.

On the other hand, no one was injured, no ones home or apartment was destroyed, though we did have some whose vehicles were damaged. For those of you acquainted with Bradford Pear trees, if is safe to say that Memphis now has around 50% less than on Monday. Beautiful tree, but has no strength, mine are all cut up and setting by the curb for pick up.

These will be taxing times for our people at Memphis. I understand why the South has a reputation for mooooving and speaking slooowly. I want to thank all of our people here for doing their jobs in an uncomfortable situation. I want to thank both Charles Corpier and Collin Hoag for working very late Tuesday installing temporary generators so that we would at least have phones and faxes Wednesday morning. Those two come to mind because I know about them. My thanks to all of you who went beyond the call of duty to help. Then again, that is what I normally see on an ongoing basis so it does not surprise me.

Memphis Ops, on Tuesday, got creative an billed out a large amount of trailers by making repeat trips to a Kinkos that had power; nice job you all.

That is the situation here at Memphis. Hopefully, because we are in a major business sector power will get restored soon, but no one really knows. The big ice storm we had in 94 took out power to about 200,000 homes and the last area to get restored took 17 days. This is a lot worse and covers a much bigger area so we'll take your prayers, crossed fingers and best wishes that we do not have to go that long.

Once again, I want to thank all of you for adapting, pitching in and doing your jobs. It's a pleasure being associated with a group of people like all of you.

Rick Rodell
President/CEO
Cornerstone Systems
Memphis, Tn.
901.842.1017