Businesses to make up for lost time today

Many businesses will be playing catch-up Thursday after closing or sharply curtailing hours Wednesday due to the dangers associated with an extreme winter storm.

The massive list of business closings included the nation's largest cereal mill, Quaker Oats, and the Corridor's biggest private employer, Rockwell Collins.

Weather closing are rare at most of the businesses, which expect employees to know how to cope with Iowa's extreme weather.

“I cannot remember a weather-related closing in the five years that I've been here,” said Rockwell Collins spokeswoman Pam Tvrdy.

ACT in Iowa City, with about 1,500 employees, was shut down for all shifts.

“There's not much you can do when the weather gets like this,” spokesman Scott Gomer said. He said employees will be catching up when the operations return to normal, the same as they would after a holiday.

The list of business and industry closings was unusual even by disaster standards. They included AEGON Insurance Services and PMX Industries in Cedar Rapids, Frontier Natural Products in Norway, and Kinze Manufacturing in Williamsburg.

“A little lonely,” was how U.S. Bank President Nancy Kasparek described the shortened day of operation at the bank's 14 Corridor branches. She said employees used the slow time to work on end-of-year regulatory compliance tasks, and to proactively call customers.