Five years ago, we had a real wake-up call at our little company. We’re headquartered in downtown Manhattan, and though most of our team is remote now, back then almost everybody was based right in New York City.

Superstorm Sandy hit us with full force in October of 2012. You probably know the broad details about Sandy, but our particular story was pretty unusual — our data center in downtown Manhattan was cut off from fuel, and keeping our customers running required days of heroics that culminated in a multi-company bucket brigade effort to carry generator fuel up 18 stories. Our team helped keep the lights on, and even took part in a short documentary film that was inspired by the episode.

It’s a striking story, but more important was the fact that much of our team was displaced, and many people had to evacuate—often bringing family, friends or pets along with them. We were reminded of those hardships as members of our team were forced from their homes again by the recent series of hurricanes that have ravaged parts of America. While there were of course far worse victims of these storms, and we’re extremely thankful that none of our colleagues were injured, it’s still incredibly important to us that Glitch be a company that supports its employees when they need us most. Investment in our people is the fundamental founding principle of our company.