Hurricane Harvey’s Impact Felt By CPAs Across Texas

 

Houston accounting firms are now in recovery mode, focusing on the well-being of their employees and doing what they can to help those less fortunate, following the historic flooding in southeast Texas from Hurricane Harvey.

The now-tropical depression, which is currently dumping heavy rain on Louisiana and western Kentucky, has impacted about 8,000 of the Texas Society of CPAs’ 28,000 members, according to Executive Director and CEO Jodi Ann Ray.

“Beyond that, many of those not directly in those affected areas are still impacted by family members, colleagues, and satellite offices or headquarters located in damaged and flooded areas,” she told CPA Practice Advisor.

While several employees of MRZ LLP’s Houston office have experienced extensive flooding, damage to their homes, and loss of belongings, all have been accounted for and are safe, according to Managing Partner Wesley Middleton, CPA.

MRZ implored its employees to let the firm know on its Facebook page that they were safe. The firm also set up a text response system in which all employees were asked to text back certain words to show they were OK or needed help, according to Middleton.

“We’ve done all we could to stay engaged and in touch with our people,” he said. “The message we wanted to get across is ‘your family is first.’ Whatever that means to you, you do that, and everything else will take care of itself.”

CPA and advisory firm Doeren Mayhew set up a call tree before Harvey hit the Texas coast to ensure the safety of each employee based in its Houston office. Calls are being made multiple times a day and will continue as necessary, said Christopher Masters, CPA, Houston managing shareholder at Doeren Mayhew.

“The welfare of our employees is of utmost importance to us,” he said.

Doeren Mayhew management decided to close the Houston office at noon on Aug. 25 so employees could prepare themselves and their families for the unprecedented weather the area was about to face.

“Unfortunately, our building and surrounding establishments are currently submerged in water. We don’t have an exact timeframe as to when the building will be accessible again, but we anticipate sometime after the Labor Day holiday,” Masters said.

In the meantime, the firm’s Houston-based employees have been able to work on client matters outside of the office.

“We remain committed to servicing our clients on their immediate matters and beyond,” Masters said. “Leveraging our secured remote access network, our Houston-based team is starting to get back online when electricity and Internet connections allow for it. Additionally, we have CPAs and business advisors from our other offices that stand ready to assist our clients in any way they can when needed.”

With the MRZ Houston office also currently closed due to the massive flooding in the area, the disaster reinforces the value of cloud services, Middleton said.

“Everyone in our firm has a laptop which we instructed them to take,” he said. “Because CCH Axcess is our software, we don’t have to concern ourselves with redundancy and remote access. We have it. Wherever people go to find a safe Internet connection, they can log in and have access to all of the software. The good thing is with today’s technology that we have, we were just set up for it – by default.”

 

After the Labor Day holiday, Middleton expects that 80% of the firm’s Houston workforce will be back to work, at least remotely.

 

“I am confident that when this settles down, our technology will allow us to mobilize immediately. But right now we have a lot of people focused on everybody else. We’re just trying to do whatever we can to help the people around us and to help people who are worse off than we are,” he said.

 

Helping Those in Need

According to Middleton, a team from MRZ’s Austin office delivered a trailer full of supplies on Aug. 30 to approximately 100 people being sheltered at Royalwood Church in Houston. The firm also is in the process of setting up a disaster relief fund to help employees affected by the flooding.

 

“We have people opening their homes to others, driving around in larger vehicles and assisting with rescue, doing all that they can to help others,” he said.

Doeren Mayhew’s headquarters in Troy, MI, set up a donation drive this week to support charitable organizations focused on helping the Houston community rebuild, Masters said. And once the Houston office is back up and running, it intends to support local recovery initiatives through the firm’s Difference community outreach program.

“While we are far from out of the woods, it is time to rebuild and count our blessings,” Masters said.

At the state level, the Texas Society of CPAs is working to be a resource for its members, their clients, and the public as they navigate through the recovery in the weeks and months ahead, Ray said.

“We’ve asked our members to let us know how we can help them, and we’re responding to those requests and concerns,” she said. “We’re developing and promoting disaster recovery tools with the latest details and announcements that impact members, their clients, and their companies. We’re also leveraging our relationships with legislative and regulatory bodies to lobby on behalf of members and the public for relief for those impacted. We’ve been reminding our members that together we are stronger, which is certainly a statement that applies nationwide in times like this.”

 

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Jason Bramwell has nearly 20 years of experience as a writer and editor for a variety of print and online publications. Most recently, he was a staff writer and editor for AccountingWEB.