Industry Battles Back After Hurricane Sandy

Master-Touch Dental, Valplast Rebuild

Two days after Hurricane Sandy, the first thing Justin Marks found when he opened the door to his laboratory was a box of teeth that had floated there from the opposite side of the building. "I knew then, before I even stepped inside, that things were going to be bad," he explains. "And they were."

Marks, Owner and Lead Technician at three-person Master-Touch Dental Laboratories, rode out the storm at a friend's apartment while his lab in Oceanside, NY—located in a mandatory evacuation zone—battled the elements. The storm surge, combined with high tide and a full moon, brought two-and-a-half feet of water into the lab, and the sandbags Marks had placed in front of the doors were no match for the flood waters. Supplies were wiped off shelves. Benches and suction units on the floor were destroyed. Luckily, most of the equipment had been placed on countertops and was undamaged.

Since the building was damaged and had...