A 78-year-old Port Orchard man was cited for drunken driving Monday afternoon when he drove off the road and into a Gorst business, rendering it too dangerous for owners to enter to retrieve their property.

Nobody at Elite Exteriors, Inc. was hurt, said Business Manager Suzi Ramsdell, a lucky break for the business that was severely damaged in the December, 2007 floods.

A former employee recently laid off sat near where the 2009 Honda Element entered the building. Also, another former employee stops by to help out and could have easily been sitting near where the vehicle entered. Plus, Ramsdell said, a meeting was planned for Tuesday at the same time the crash occurred.

“If something like that was going to happen, it happened at a good time,” she said.

The man was driving south on State Highway 3 at about 2 p.m. when the Honda veered to the right and struck the building, according to a Washington State Patrol report.

The crash will delay some projects, and “cause us some grief,” Ramsdell said, but she added there was another fortunate part to the story.

“Thankfully we’re a construction company and have crews who aren’t so busy right now, so i guess we can give them a little work,” she said.