When the dozen members of Wyndham Worldwide's treasury department met by phone on Tuesday morning, Oct. 30, in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, they spent a few minutes taking it all in.

Most of the team had no power, living as they do near company headquarters in Parsippany, N.J. Some landline coverage was iffy, and cell service was spotty at best, causing interruptions from time to time in the team's call. The flooding of lower Manhattan was something no one had imagined, and it called into question how the company's banks would fare.

"Who would have guessed that so many things could go wrong at the same time?" says Tom Edwards, treasurer at the $4.3 billion hotel, timeshare and vacation rental company, pictured at right.