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Dear Readers:

Many of you might have heard that those of us living in the East Coast of the United States are preparing for a visit from “Sandy”, a hurricane forecasters are calling “historic” for various reasons.  Though we have not yet seen a drop of rain, winds have picked up, and we have seen the most telling sign of severity:  silence.  The streets of this  always-bustling city are still and empty.  If you have ever been to New York, you know that this virtually never happens, and when it does, we know a storm is coming.

Though I have always made provisions for rain, I have never planned for a hurricane. I believe that when Mother Nature decides to crash an event in this way, we must not try and compromise with her, but yield to her demands and keep ourselves and our clients and guests safe.   It so happens that Sandy has  forced us to cancel an event I had planned for tomorrow.  Even if I were to press on (which I would not) executing the event would prove challenging, if not impossible.    Last night, officials shut down all public transportation –an effective way of locking down the city as over 8 million tri-state residents use the system on a weekly basis–and the elevator in the building that houses the three floors of my company have been shut off.

As a designer, working around Mother Nature is often challenging.  I would like to ask you all how you deal with situations like this one.  With food and flowers all ready to go, do you think it is right to charge a client in full for a last-minite cancellation caused by “an act of God”?  Have you ever had to cancel an event last-minute because of weather?

Please share with all of us.