Da-Lite Screen Co. Inc. employees are forging ahead with business, just days after a tornado ripped the front off the company's Ind. 15 facility and left behind millions of dollars in damage.

Rich Lundin, chairman, president and CEO of Da-Lite, said they expect to be back in production on Monday and all employees have been told to return to work.

In fact, Lundin said, the company has a no-layoff policy and nobody will be furloughed as a result of the storm damage. Roughly 400 people are employed in the two shifts at Da-Lite.

The newest portion of the facility, located at the south end of the building, was destroyed, and the company has moved a portion of its warehouse (finished goods inventory and shipping) to the former Sofamor Danek building in Winona Lake. About 25 employees will be based there until the reconstruction process is completed at Da-Lite.

Structural and content damage to the business is estimated at $10 million, according to Lundin, who said there was some product loss, but the company is trying to minimize customer loss and actually shipped product on Friday. The loss estimate also includes business interruption, for which the company was insured.

"Frankly, we were lucky," Lundin said. Using generators to power up the company's computers before the power was restored, officials there learned that all of the files and memory were intact. The company did lose about 50 personal computers but no significant files.

Workers continue to clear away debris and Lundin said he expects the damaged roof to be fully closed in by tonight. He said temporary walls have been erected inside the damaged portions of the building to protect the contents from the weather until the front of the building can be reskinned.

"We are able to produce product," he said.

While cleanup and repair work continue, Lundin said he is grateful to the community for the response they've experienced.

Several companies have offered services, including janitorial staff, and building space.

"There has been such an outpouring of support ... there has been unbelievable support from the community of Warsaw," Lundin said. "We are very grateful for the community ... we're proud of where we're located."

Lundin is also glad there were no human losses.

Several people were injured, including at least one woman who was seriously hurt when she was struck by flying debris, but nobody was killed during the passing of the tornado.

Shortly after the storm struck, all of the employees were accounted for. Lundin said the company regularly practices tornado drills "and it paid off ... even during all the chaos, people knew where to go and what to do. They all went to designated reporting areas and went department by department and ticked off everybody's name."

Lundin said the outside support services, including emergency response personnel, were "very valuable." [[In-content Ad]]