Even before Hurricane Katrina hit, Home Depot and other companies were in high gear.
On Sunday, the No. 1 home supply store had more than 50 trucks stocked with post-hurricane supplies waiting in Houston and Tallahassee, ready to sweep into the region once the storm passed, reports USA Today.
Five hundred employees from Atlanta, Florida and Texas were waiting out Katrina in hotels outside the storm’s path in Pensacola, Fla., and Lafayette, La. Their mission: staff stores in the storm region if local employees couldn’t.
The retailer also had a “war room” on one floor of its Atlanta headquarters to address hurricane plans. Last year, it had personnel scattered over four floors.
“In this kind of atmosphere, speed is incredibly important,” says Carl Liebert, Home Depot’s executive vice president in charge of hurricane logistics.
As rescue operations continue, the rebuilding campaign is swinging into action, often miles from the devastation. Plywood makers are cranking up production. Contractors and laborers are lining up to enter the area. Retailers are redirecting products from as far as Wisconsin to the gulf region.
Rebuilding won’t be fast or cheap. Emergency officials first have to clear damaged areas, make sure they’re safe to enter and let flood waters recede. “Until the water is pumped out, we won’t even know what the rebuilding will look like,” says Toy Wood, CEO of the Greater Houston Builders Association.
Building supply prices are also likely to rise, in the gulf region and elsewhere, says Wood. Some products were already in short supply, such as roofing shingles, thanks to big rebuilds in Florida after last year’s hurricanes. “There will be a lot of (supply) shortages,” says Steve Cona, president of the Florida Gulf Coast chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors.
Still, companies are preparing to supply the effort:
• Georgia-Pacific, the No. 1 supplier of plywood, last week started making more of the construction-grade plywood that owners of damaged homes and businesses need now and less of the finer-grade products they’ll need months later. The company also expects to truck more products in from factories in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida.
• Michael Paulson, a general contractor in Dallas, is ready to go in as soon as federal officials clear the way. Since Friday, he’s amassed a crew of more than 70 workers from 12 states to put tarps on roofs. He got them with a posting on NationalContractors.com, an online job board. Some workers are coming from as far as California. Good money is the draw: Laborers can make $700 to $1,500 a week, Paulson says, several hundred dollars more than many laborers make elsewhere now. “They’re biting at the bit,” he says.
• Gulf Eagle Supply, a Tampa roofing supply company, plans to push more product into the gulf region. It already has five branch offices there.
• Home supply retailer Lowe’s, like Home Depot, had distribution centers in the region stocked with hurricane supplies long before Katrina landed.
As of late Wednesday, Lowe’s had 150 trucks rolling to and from 45 Lowe’s stores in the gulf region. Five stores were still closed because of damage.
The retailer expects to divert inventory to the region as needed, including freshly built generators, their paint barely dry, from as far as Wisconsin, says Greg Forester, Lowe’s director of event management.
To decide what to send in the first wave of trucks, Home Depot assessed three years of hurricane-related sales data. It settled on generators, water, batteries, flashlights and insect repellent. By midday Wednesday, the retailer had hundreds of trucks moving in and out of the region. The main supplies: tarp for roofs, fasteners to keep them in place and cleaning supplies to deal with the massive flood damage.
“This will be the largest hurricane effort in the history of our company,” Liebert says. “It’s almost like a military exercise.”
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