California Decorator, Inundated by Hurricane, Seeks to Restart

Somu Desai, owner of Desert Promotions: "We are beggars right now and can’t be choosers. Anything we can get our hands on will be one less thing to worry about.”

The mud came in during the night, amid the torrential rains of Hurricane Hilary, which brought flooding to Cathedral City, California. On August 20th, up to four feet deep in places, mud washed across the parking lot of Desert Promotions, a producer of vinyl graphics, wraps, decorated apparel, and other items, and entered the building, breaking doors and windows, buckling walls, and burying everything inside.

According to Somu Desai, owner of Desert Promotions, the company’s equipment, computers, and supplies were, “a total loss. Everything was under mud for eight days.” Since that time, he and a team of volunteers have been working to get business back underway, and there has been much to do. Cleanup, he says, is 90% done, with mold mitigation procedures currently underway. The type of damage experienced was not covered by insurance.

While the building may soon be ready, the company lacks production equipment. Desai is now scrambling to source presses, printers, embroidery systems, dryers, computers, and supplies — all the things he had acquired as the business grew. For now, Desert Promotions is subbing out work to other producers and working with wholesale printers to fulfill some jobs. Other local printers and decorators are also serving to fill the gap. That said, the company needs equipment to truly get back to work.

How the Industry Can Help

Asked what the company needs, Desai says he hopes suppliers or other printers would be able to donate or discount equipment to help get his operations back underway. “We lost all the equipment, all the computers, the inks are gone. Screens, vinyl, banner material – anything to help us start from scratch. We are beggars right now and can’t be choosers. Anything we can get our hands on will be one less thing to worry about.”

A list of what the company is seeking to replace is listed below: "That's just the big stuff," Desai says. In addition to the machines, the company also lost computers, software, and many of the other, smaller tools the company used to produce work.

If you are interested in helping Desert Promotions get back on its feet, contact Somu Desai at 760-449-1569 or somu@desertpromo.com

What Was Lost

Apparel Decoration Equipment
Two Anatol automatic carousel presses
Two BBC garment drying systems
Small Vastex garment drying system
Two single head embroidery units
Four head embroidery unit
Two six head embroidery units
Epson direct-to-garment printer
Insta heat press
Insta hat press
Stahl’s Hotronix heat press
Engraving and Decoration Devices
Roland UV object printer
Universal laser engraving unit
Xenotec engraver
Wide-Format Equipment
Epson dye-sublimation printer
GBC laminator
Graphtec cutter/plotter
Mimaki 64” solvent-based inkjet printer
Epson DTG Printer
Roland plotter/cutter
Roland inkjet printer (stolen from damaged building)