BUSINESSMEN yesterday began to count the cost of tropical storm Ondoy, with many finding themselves understaffed and dealing with water-damaged factories and offices.

Several companies halted production to clean up flooded plants, while some service firms resorted to diverting work to other sites or doubling efforts in unaffected branches.

The storm dumped a record 41.5 centimeters of rainfall on Saturday, casuing epic flooding in the capital that led to over a hundred dead and nearly half a million displaced. The tallies are expected to rise.

‘The main effect on businesses is on employees who could not report to work due to the impact on their homes and families,’ Makati Business Club Executive Director Alberto A. Lim said in a text message yesterday.

‘Our most serious concern is the employees. Many of them had homes flooded. They cannot come to work and have to attend to their families first. We will have slow down in our operations. There will be some level of absenteeism,’ Business Processing Association of the Philippines chief Oscar R. Sanez said in a telephone interview.

Some manufacturers with plants in Metro Manila had to deal with damaged factories and logistics problems on top of being understaffed.

The offices and factories of consumer goods producer Unilever Philippines, for instance, will need to be cleaned after flood waters entered their buildings, spokespersons said.

‘We have experienced flooding before but this time, it breached our maximum flood elevation,’Chito S. Macapagal, vice-president for corporate affairs, said in a text message.

‘We are doing factory and office cleanup both in Paco and Manggahan. We need to wash away the dirt and mud and sanitize the place and recover what we can salvage from office documents and equipment.’

Unilever employees and factory workers were also given the day off to tend to their homes and families, said Liza G. Vengco, the firm’s external communications manager, in a separate text message.

Another firm, Alaska Milk Corp., had also halted operations to deal with water damage, Trade Secretary Peter B. Favila told reporters at the sidelines of a price briefing yesterday.

Alaska officials could not be immediately reached to confirm this.

Even as most manufacturing activity occurs outside the capital, operations in this sector are likely to be disrupted as damage from the flooding poses logistics problems, Federation of Philippine Industries President Jesus L. Arranza said.

‘My member companies have employees who cannot report for work. And even if some plants were not flooded, it’s the roadways that’s the problem,’ Mr. Arranza said in a telephone interview.

Many service-oriented firms were likewise crippled by the storm’s impact on workers.

Some 2,000 of the 27,000 employees of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. have been directly affected by the floods, an official said.

‘We had employees and senior officials who ended up on their rooftops. We had to conduct rescue operations ourselves,’ spokesman Ramon R. Isberto said in a telephone interview.

On top of this, the telecom giant is busy restoring both its line and mobile network after the rains and power outages crippled facilities in hard-hit areas, Mr. Isberto added.

Bankers Association of the Philippines Executive Director Leonilo G. Coronel, for his part, said in a separate telephone interview: ‘I don’t think anyone was spared. We have problems with people manning the branches. It will take time for things to normalize.’

The transport of cash has been disrupted, for instance, while bogged down telecommunication networks are hurting online banking, Mr. Coronel said.

‘Banks will just have to double up, triple up,’ he said.

Firms in the business process outsourcing sector, meanwhile, are coping by diverting operations located in hard-hit sites in Marikina and Cainta to other offices.

‘There are a few of us with operations [in Marikina and Cainta] but these are mutli-located companies and therefore they can divert operations to other sites,’ Mr. Sañez said.

Telecommuting, or having employees work from home using internet connections, may be viable for small-time operations like animation and transcription services, he added.

‘We’re still assessing the situation. Tonight (Monday) will be the first test of how many of our employees can make it,’ Mr. Sañez said.

The flooding was so extensive that a number of Metro Manila’s malls were also affected.

SM Prime Holdings, Inc. Chief Finance Officer Jeffrey C. Lim said SM Sta. Mesa was particularly hit, while part of SM North Edsa was flooded. Six Savemore branches were forced to close.

‘Most of the goods are covered by the insurance. Right now, we are cleaning up and we will open them as soon as we can,’ Mr. Lim said.

He said mall operations were basically normal and added that damage estimates were still being prepared.

A Robinsons Land Corp. spokesman, meanwhile, said the firm saw its Metro East Pasig mall hit by floods.

In the wake of the flooding, many companies busied themselves with relief operations targeted towards both their employees and local communities in general.

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry will be making available P5 million sourced from its members to fund livelihood and rehabilitation projects, said Edgardo G. Lacson, its president.

Medical missions and the distribution of relief goods are also being undertaken, various business leaders said. — Jessica Anne D. Hermosa with a report from Kristine Jane R. Liu