Entergy Corp., the New Or-leans-based utility hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina, restored some power to the stricken city Sept. 4–nearly a week after the storm passed. Other coastal power providers also were coming back from their darkest hours, but rural systems still are facing hard times ahead. Work crews entered the city under National Guard escort and energized one substation, serving parts of the central business district and the French Quarter. The devastation along the coast was so complete that the utilities in the area will have to build new systems, not just repair the old ones. Entergy and Mississippi
Katrina will be known as a rainstorm that emptied an American urban icon, transforming its residents to motley refugees in a mismanaged exodus reminiscent of a Yellow Fever panic during the early 19th Century. She will be known for producing a storm surge that pushed the Gulf of Mexico farther into Mississippi than anyone can remember, despite what experts claim were largely unremarkable windspeeds. At ENR presstime on Sept. 6, the army of federal, military and private forces marshalled to beat back New Orleans’ lethal floodwaters could take heart that at least one levee was plugged (see related story). But
A little more than a week after Hurricane Katrina passed to the east of New Orleans and her counterclockwise winds whipped Lake Pontchartrain with enough force to breach the city’s levee system in several places, the Army Corps of Engineers finally had good news. The Corps and its contractors plugged the worst leak and started a large pump station that was pushing water through the 17th St. Canal back into the lake. The Corps also reported progress on other major breaches at the London Canal and the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal. Gaining Ground. Map in Corps of Engineers command center
State engineers in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi began assessing damages and preparing emergency repair bids last week and plans for long-term rebuilding just began to emerge. Some facilities survived better than engineers’ worst fears but two Mississippi bridges washed away. Crush. Ports await emergency generators. Two of four lanes of Alabama’s Cochrane-Africatown U.S.A. Bridge over Mobile Bay remained closed last week as engineers assessed damage to suspension cables. They were hit by a 13,000-ton oil platform cut loose from its moorings (ENR 9/5 p. 13). The impact knocked the center span 4 in. to the north and into a main
Perhaps the only surprise sprung by Hurricane Katrina on flood control and emergency planning officials was its tremendously wide path of destruction, stretching from New Orleans eastward to Mobile, Ala., and even into the Florida Panhandle. But the storm’s destruction–particularly in New Orleans and Louisiana–had been predicted many times over, especially within the past few years. Experts warned that New Orleans’ flood defenses, designed in the 1960s but funded to handle only a Category 3 hurricane, would be seriously breached in a stronger event. The strongest call came in 2000, when Louisiana, with the Army Corps of Engineers and other
The Army Corps of Engineers is working quickly to get contractors moving to dewater the greater New Orleans area. By Sept. 6, Shaw Industries and KBR were awarded broad-range contracts, says Corps spokesman Chuck Camillo. "Contracts are being let out of our Memphis district office." The Corps estimates it will take 36 to 80 days to dewater each of the four delineated impoundment areas, once the city’s drainage pumps are operational. Inundated. Pumping stations need help to begin work. (Photo by Michael Goodman for ENR) The areas and the estimated volume of stored water at the crest are: Orleans East
Hurricane Katrina’s devastating blow to one of the nation’s largest energy hubs on Aug. 29 nearly shut down crude-oil and natural-gas production in the Gulf of Mexico. It also significantly reduced refining capacity, resulting in a 50% hike in gas prices in some parts of the country. Nearly 75% of the Gulf’s production platforms and 96 of its 137 drilling rigs were evacuated ahead of Katrina, the U.S. Minerals Management Service reports. The storm’s impact created gas lines reminiscent of the 1973-74 energy crisis caused by the Arab oil embargo. Crash Landing. Platform took a direct hit on topside. (Photo
At the dawn of a marketing blitz for tenants to join him in the first office tower to rise from Ground Zero, Seven World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein is all gab about the souped-up-for-more-safety features of the 52-story replacement for the tower that collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001, after sustaining collateral damage from attacks on the WTC’s twin towers. But to the builders of the new 1.7-million-sq-ft high-rise, the job stands out for a completely different reason. By building the tower’s steel frame ahead of its structural concrete core, the team managed to beat its own predictions for a
Improving economics, greater revenue and higher profits have done wonders for construction industry firms in the last couple of years. Now, a new villain threatens to take it all away–the climbing cost of employee health care. Covering workers’ medical needs without breaking the bottom line has become almost as tough for engineers, contractors and union leaders as the construction projects they design, build and manage. National surveys trumpet huge cost increases in drugs and hospital visits, in premiums and co-pays for workers and in overall costs that employers now subsidize to fulfill a traditional obligation to their inhouse work forces
Coping with expensive, complex health care programs is probably toughest for engineering firms, some experts say. "Design firms are filled with very analytical people who need to understand every decision," says Abe Gutfreund, senior vice president of Singer Nelson Charlmers, a Teaneck, N.J., insurance broker, whose client base is three-quarters small and medium-size engineering firms. "Health care is very frustrating for them because they can’t fix it." Recent studies reflect how the cost crisis is becoming a key boardroom issue for design firm managers. EFCG Inc., a New York City-based financial consultant to mostly engineering firms, says that 80 CFOs
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