Repairing the Gulf Coast

One year after Hurricane Katrina, distributors from New Orleans to Biloxi are still mired in the rebuilding process

By Victoria Fraza Kickham, Managing Editor -- Industrial Distribution, 9/1/2006

Companies in Louisiana and Mississippi are still rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast a year ago. The recovery is going faster in Mississippi, where the hurricane struck and moved on, leaving residents with the clear task of rebuilding. But progress is slower in New Orleans; neighborhoods there were flooded with up to 10 feet of water that sat for weeks before it could be pumped out. Faced with uncertainty over whether or not they could rebuild, many residents have been stuck in neutral, only now getting a clearer picture of where things are headed.

Road re-construction is happening all over New Orleans, the Superdome is set to re-open at the end of the month, and many of the downtown hotels and restaurants are slowly re-opening. Last Spring, the Federal Emergency Management Assn. released its flood plans for the area, telling homeowners how high off the ground they should re-build their homes. And in early summer, the federal government announced the availability of funds to help homeowners rebuild. The hope is that these actions will speed the recovery process.

On the other hand, as of mid-summer, the Army Corps of Engineers had repaired damage to the city's levee system, but had yet to reveal a master plan to raise the level of protection the system provides, which officials and residents say is vital. The city also awaited action on federal legislation that would give Louisiana a share of the royalties from offshore drilling in the Gulf; the money would be used to rebuild coastal wetlands that help protect New Orleans from storms. And, of course, the possibility of another storm weighed heavily on residents' minds.

Louisiana is the largest producer of natural gas in the country and a major oil-producing region as well. The port of New Orleans is the country's largest single port, serving as a gateway to global commerce. For these and other reasons, New Orleans must make a comeback, say economists and local business owners—though no one can say how long it will take, or what New Orleans will look like five years from now.

“As an economist, the real thing I would look at is where investors are placing their bets,” says Peter Richiutti, associate dean of the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University. “They're bullish on local energy companies, and bank stocks for the region have done very well.”

The energy sector is expected to see a longer-than-usual growth cycle, Richiutti says, pointing to the strength of the oilfield and natural gas companies he follows. As for banks, cash from insurance settlements and government money for rebuilding indicate an influx of low-interest deposits in the short term, and high loan demand in the long term—all good news to investors.

Local distributors are watching all of this carefully. Below, a handful of distributors from New Orleans to Biloxi talk about the challenges they've faced in the last year. A labor shortage, rising cost of doing business, and sheer emotional exhaustion are at the top of that list. They also talk with some reluctance about the New Orleans of tomorrow—a place no one seems able to envision today.

One step at a time

Hurricane rebuilding efforts are fueling a strong economy along the Gulf Coast, but hard-hit New Orleans is still struggling to come back

You can tell that Lakewood South was a beautiful place to live.  Protected by the now infamous 17th Street Canal, this New Orleans neighborhood was home to many of the city's upper middle-class residents, their houses boasting price tags upwards of $500,000.  But that was before Hurricane Katrina hit, filling those homes with water, her winds ripping the roofs from their supports. 

It is one year later, and few of those homes have been rebuilt. Uncertainties over building conditions and worries about future storm damage have caused many to relocate elsewhere, their homes sitting vacant. The story is worse in other parts of New Orleans, where whole neighborhoods lie flattened, not a house to be seen for blocks. Though a full year has passed since the devastating hurricane, roughly 60 percent of New Orleans' housing stock remains destroyed, doctors are in short supply, and just over half of the local businesses are fully operational.

But this is very much a tale of two cities. Places like the French Quarter, the Garden District and Uptown—situated on higher ground, near the Mississippi River—have recovered, with hardly a trace of the wind damage that Katrina caused there. This dichotomy is a stark reality for local business owners like Lee Eagan, who lives Uptown, but whose sister lived in Lakewood South and has not returned to her home. They go to work each day amid the physical and emotional scars of Katrina, trying to rebuild what they've lost and give their employees—as well as themselves—a sense of normalcy.

“I think time has really stood still for most of us,” says Eagan. “We still have a hard time recognizing what we've gone through.”

Eagan is chairman and CEO of Oliver H. Van Horn Co., a general-line distributor that opened its doors in downtown New Orleans in 1903 and serves industry throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and Southern Alabama. While his company's sales outside of New Orleans are strong, the 30 percent that came from the city itself was virtually lost to Katrina.

This is reality for industrial distributors in New Orleans: Many say they'd be out of business if they had to rely solely on their New Orleans-based accounts today. Unless they're serving the city's busy construction industry, distributors are doing the bulk of their business throughout the rest of the state and region. At the same time, they're working under the pressure of higher costs, for everything from employees to insurance; the uncertainty of what their city will look like 10 years down the road; and perhaps most importantly, the still fragile state of mind that permeates the city.

“We're very tired people. We've worked 24/7 in the last year,” says Richard Cahn, president of Dixie Mill, another industrial distributor headquartered in New Orleans. If people aren't at work, they're repairing their homes, or helping friends and family who've lost theirs, he says.

“It affects everyone a lot, and some people more than a lot,” he continues. “And unfortunately, we'll be talking about Katrina for the rest of our lives here. It's a difficult situation because we've had one conversation in this city for a year, and it's Katrina.”

New Orleans-based distributors Don Duggan, of Dixie Mill; Lee Eagan, of Oliver H. Van Horn Co.; and Dimitry Morvant, Jr., of General Mill Supplies, have witnessed incredible changes to their hometown in the last 12 months—and they expect even more to come as the city continues to recover from Hurricane Katrina. Over the summer, the three businessmen talked to ID for our special report on repairing the Gulf Coast, which will be published in September.

Picking up the pieces

Oliver Van Horn has seven locations throughout Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and the health of the regional economy is keeping the company going. Machine and job shops that support the booming energy sector, for example, are a source of steady business throughout the region. Despite the loss of business in its hometown, the company's overall sales are up slightly compared to this time last year. The company is getting help from suppliers like 3M, who have been supportive throughout the ordeal, replacing lost inventory and extending payment terms in the months immediately following the storm. Today, 3M and Van Horn are working together to find new market segments in New Orleans, capture more business outside of the region, and add new product lines where it makes sense.

But Eagan worries about the many small accounts his company has lost. In some New Orleans zip codes, Oliver Van Horn lost all of its customers. Estimates vary, but Eagan and others in the business community say just 15 percent of New Orleans' small businesses have resumed operations since the storm.

“In a year, if that's still the case, it's not going to help us,” Eagan says.

Many of Oliver Van Horn's bigger customers that were displaced by the storm have moved to larger markets, like Houston, which is about six hours away. The company is continuing to service those accounts, but purchasing manager Martin Thomas wonders how long that will last. Loyalty only goes so far, he says.

Thomas lost his house to Katrina, and worked out of the company's Houma, La., branch before returning to New Orleans last fall. He's back working at the company's temporary headquarters now, housed just a few hundred yards from its previous home. Oliver Van Horn's home office was completely destroyed by Katrina, causing $3 million in property damage and lost inventory. This is the company's second temporary location in a year, and Eagan says they will probably be there for another 18 months.

To make matters worse, Eagan says he's still fighting with his insurance company over claims, another headache common to the area's business owners. He says he's only recouped 60 percent of the $3 million loss so far. And he's dealing with increased costs, as well. Oliver Van Horn Co. had $6 million worth of property insurance prior to Katrina. When the policy came up for renewal this summer, his insurance company said they wanted to reduce the coverage to $2.5 million—but for more than eight times the price he was paying pre-Katrina.

Thanks to an order by Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, insurance companies must cover businesses for the same amount stated in their existing policies until the end of this year. But they still have to pay the increase.

“No one wants to write insurance policies here,” Eagan explains. “And that could be the straw that breaks the camel's back come January 1st.”

An emotional ordeal

The emotional toll on employees since Katrina has been high, to say the least. Oliver Van Horn has lost 10 people in the last year. One committed suicide two weeks after the storm, another suffered a nervous breakdown this summer and has not returned, and a third who was presumed dead recently turned up living in Texas. The other seven survived, but did not return to work. In addition, half of the firm's 22 current New Orleans employees are still living in temporary housing. These are things that change your entire outlook, Eagan says.

“The way I ran the business a year ago and the way I run it today are two different ways,” he says. “You don't grab somebody, mentally, by the shirt and chew 'em out anymore. That's not happening.”

A kinder, more understanding environment is just the tip of the iceberg. Eagan says he never used to take a lunch break, but now, “I get out for an hour, because I need to clear my head,” he says. Especially in the months soon after the storm, work was the only stable thing many people had, so it was important for employers to establish a sense of normalcy amidst the chaos. Though the situation is improving, there's still a sense among many business owners that they have to put on a good face for their employees.

“Even if you're in a [bad] mood, you've got to show and lead your people in a more positive manner,” Eagan says. “They're dealing with an enormous amount of personal tragedy—even if they haven't lost anything—and you've got to make them want to come here. This is an outlet.”

The city of New Orleans has lost more than half of its residents since Katrina. Naturally, businesses must do more with fewer people, and this has changed the office dynamic as well.

“It used to be that your chain of command was real defined. I don't think that happens anymore,” Eagan says. “I clean the bathrooms here on the weekends…If he can't do something or she can't do something, I'm willing to do it. We just have to get it done. There's no, 'Oh, that's your job,' or, 'I'm not going to do that anymore.' It's, 'Oh, you're behind, how can I help you?'”

Adds Thomas, “...your place of employment really does become your extended family when something like this happens.”

The people problem

The labor shortage is the greatest challenge facing local businesses, says economist Peter Richiutti, associate dean of the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University. It's affecting everyone—from the energy companies eager to keep drilling in the Gulf to the restaurants anxious to expand their limited hours of operation.

“The quintessential problem is the labor shortage,” Richiutti explains. “And labor is tied to housing, which is a problem. It's holding everybody back.”

That's certainly true for Dixie Mill, Inc., which is down 15 employees since the hurricane. Founded in 1917, family-owned Dixie Mill does little business in New Orleans itself, using the city as a base to serve its customers throughout Southern Louisiana—customers in the booming oil and natural gas industries. Dixie Mill sells machine tools and related cutting tools to companies that make equipment for oil and gas exploration and completion, and is coming off three consecutive record years. Sales manager Don Duggan expects to continue that trend this year, thanks to ongoing strength in the energy sector. Indeed, Richiutti says companies selling to the oil and natural gas industries haven't seen it so good since the '70s, and that the sector is expected to see a longer-than-usual growth cycle.

But Duggan says he'd feel better if he could fill the two outside and two inside sales positions he has open, along with a handful of warehouse jobs. Employment agencies, newspaper ads and Monster.com are yielding limited results because so many people have left New Orleans, and those that remain are in high demand. Over the summer, Duggan identified 13 “promising people” for the sales positions, but had no luck filling the jobs. When contacted for interviews, seven of the 13 apologized for sending their resumes because they'd decided to move out of New Orleans. He managed to hire two people, but before making it to the first day of work they, too, decided to move.

“Our business is good, but we're short-handed, just like everyone else,” he explains. “We're just trying to do more with less.”

Though all of the company's employees survived the storm, many have moved in the last year. Cahn, Dixie Mill's president, emphasizes the loss of talent the city has suffered, pointing to the number of physicians who have relocated to places like Atlanta and Houston to find work. Some estimates say the city has lost three-quarters of its doctors since Katrina. And with so many businesses not returning, professionals across a range of industries have fled to other cities, as well. Compounding matters, the blue-collar workers that are so needed in industries like distribution have not returned since the storm; many of them lived in the city's most devastated neighborhoods and have nothing to return to.

The situation is costing employers money. Warehouse employees who used to get $7.00 an hour to start at General Mill Supplies, headquartered in nearby Metairie, La., are now starting at $10 an hour, says company president Dimitry Morvant, Jr. The upward pressure on wages began soon after the storm, when fast-food chains such as Burger King were offering $6,000 signing bonuses for new employees.

Over the summer, Morvant lost two employees to the pay issue: One longtime employee was lured back to a previous employer for higher pay; and a new hire never made it to his first day after receiving a counter-offer from his former employer.

“We just can't get help,” says Morvant, whose company is in a similar situation to Dixie Mill, doing the majority of its business outside of New Orleans. Since Katrina, General Mill's New Orleans business is down 80 percent, Morvant says, pointing as an example to a good customer in St. Bernard's Parish who has not returned since the storm. St. Bernard's Parish was one of the areas hit hardest by Katrina.

Despite the loss, General Mill's overall business is up compared to this time last year. The company sells industrial pipe, valves and fittings to a range of customers that are tied to the oil industry.

Better days to come

Though fewer than half the residents have returned to New Orleans, and many businesses remain closed, those that are up and running are generating solid orders for distributors—especially if those distributors are serving the construction industry. That's true of W.W. Grainger, which operates two branches in New Orleans and counts the city's contractors, manufacturers and institutions among its diverse customer base. Grainger's downtown New Orleans branch, located just blocks from the Superdome, was completely destroyed by Katrina and didn't re-open until the end of April.

Though closed for eight months, the branch's year-to-date sales are tracking ahead of the previous year's numbers, says company spokesman Michael McGrew. This is due largely to the rebuilding activity in the city, adds downtown branch manager Jay Duhe, a 13-year Grainger veteran who was evacuated to Houston before the storm and returned to New Orleans in early September to help rebuild his branch. Re-opening the downtown branch was crucial to Grainger's local business because it is physically closest to the most damaged areas of the city, Duhe explains.

Grainger's network of 600 branches and 18 distribution centers nationwide helped replenish the vast amount of inventory the branch lost to the storm. Grainger wouldn't say how much was lost at the branch, but quantified the overall impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in its third-quarter earnings statement last year, noting that hurricane-related sales were down $4 million compared to the previous year. Grainger had total sales of $5.5 billion in 2005.

Grainger had to completely rebuild the downtown branch, and took the opportunity to make some major renovations. The branch's showroom is 15 percent larger than it was pre-Katrina, at 1,500 square feet; the branch is stocking 33 percent more inventory than it was before the storm; and it has added employees, bringing the branch's total headcount to 11—all to handle the increased volume since re-opening in April.

“We are obviously seeing heavy traffic, and I think that's a result of getting that branch back open,” says Shaun Holliday, Grainger's district manager for the Alabama–Louisiana region.

At the same time, Holliday says it's difficult to predict how long the current conditions will last. With so many customers in different phases of recovery, and a lingering uncertainty over what the city will look like five or 10 years from now, no one wants to guess what the future holds.

“It's interesting, because everyone's in a different phase,” says Duhe. “We have some customers who've come back really quick; they've already recovered and rebuilt, so now we're partnering with them to help maintain their facilities and grow their business. Then we have customers who are still in the recovery phase…and we have other customers who are rebuilding.”

Adds Holliday, “We're not sure how long it's going to take, and we don't know what the future looks like. But we're proud of our position in New Orleans.”

Looking ahead

Pride is a common feeling among all of these businesses. Despite New Orleans' slow recovery, distributors and their employees display an undeniable sense of pride in the work they're doing and in the heritage and culture of New Orleans itself.

“Everyone was impacted by this storm in one way or another,” says Duhe, recalling the early days after the storm, when employees who'd lost everything worked alongside others whose homes and families were spared, all of them feeling a sense of loss and a need to put things back in order. “Even a year later, there's still a sense that, 'I'm helping to rebuild. I'm helping this community.' And that's important.”

For Eagan at Oliver Van Horn, pride is giving way to determination. His company's new motto, prominently displayed on its Web site and in promotional materials, is, “The fat lady has not sung.” It's not over for Oliver H. Van Horn Co. It's not over for New Orleans. But there is a long road ahead. The city still needs a coordinated re-building effort. More people need to return home. More businesses need to get back on their feet.

If these things don't happen, Eagan and others say, New Orleans will be a very different place in the not-too-distant future.

“I think it's a very difficult road ahead,” says Dixie Mill's Cahn. “I don't think it's clear to anyone what New Orleans will look like in five to 10 years.”

Visit the Oliver H. Van Horn Co Website . 

When you lose the people, you lose the culture Chee-ah Heurtin evacuated to Houston before Hurricane Katrina hit last year, leaving her Chalmette, La., home to a fate worse than she could have imagined. Chalmette is in St. Bernard's Parish, which was flooded during the storm, and Heurtin's home was lost. Heurtin is the assistant controller at Oliver H. Van Horn Co., a New Orleans-based industrial distributor. Today, she lives in a trailer in Mandeville, La., with her husband, their 15-month-old daughter, and her parents. Mandeville is a suburb north of the city, far from Heurtin's former neighborhood and a much longer commute to Oliver Van Horn's headquarters in New Orleans' warehouse district. But Heurtin is upbeat; she's proud of the work she did to make sure not a payroll was missed in the aftermath of the storm, when Oliver Van Horn's home office was destroyed, the employees scattered to one of six other locations from Louisiana to Alabama. “It was rough, but we got through it, which is good because we have so many other branches,” Heurtin recalls. “It would be rough on [the other employees] to miss a check because of what happened here.” Heurtin describes her personal tragedy with the same sense of realism. “It was depressing, knowing that everything you owned was in your car, and that you didn't have anything left at the house—there was nothing to go back to,” she says. “But I think it just makes you stronger.” There are people like Chee-ah Heurtin all over New Orleans—displaced, eager to find a permanent home, and hopeful that their city will make a full recovery. But there are just as many that haven't returned. The most recent estimates show that New Orleans has lost more than half of its population since Katrina, and that's a big concern to lifelong residents like Richard Cahn. “Our culture is in serious jeopardy,” says Cahn, president of Dixie Mill, another industrial distributor headquartered in New Orleans. “And that's a thing that a lot of people won't understand.” Cahn points to New Orleans' 200-year history of food and music, which makes the city, as he describes it, a gift to the world. That culture came from the people, he says. And with so many of them relocating to other cities in the last year, New Orleans runs the risk of taking on a completely different face in the years ahead. “You lose the people, you lose the uniqueness,” Cahn explains. “You lose the jazz player, you lose the jazz.” Cahn's company alone has lost 10 people since the storm, most of them relocating to other cities. “Our culture came up from the people; it bubbled up from the bottom,” Cahn continues. “And you've lost a lot of them at this point…It's a real tricky situation. For our kids' generation, New Orleans may become a lot like other places.” Insurance: Making sure you're covered A pounding rain during a hurricane rips through town, causing your warehouse to flood, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to your building. You call your insurance company and are shocked to learn that your basic commercial insurance policy doesn't cover any of your losses. Surprised? If you are, you're not alone. Most distributors don't have the time to examine their policies and see the extent of their coverage. Instead, they rely on their insurance carriers to recommend specific amounts and types of coverage. And then a disaster hits. Most standard insurance policies do not cover flood damage, so you may need to buy separate flood coverage from the National Flood Insurance Program. And insurance experts advise business owners that they may need to buy flood insurance for both the structure and contents. Some insurance companies also offer Excess Flood Protection, which provides higher limits of NFIP in the event of catastrophic loss caused by flooding. Insurance experts say that most business owners, particularly smaller ones, assume they're covered in light of a natural disaster. The truth is that, in most cases, they're not. This issue hit home in a recent Mississippi court case. In August, a federal judge ruled that a Jackson, Miss., couple cannot collect damages from storm surge caused by Katrina because their insurance company's policies do not cover wind-driven water damage. The ruling could set a precedent for hundreds of other court challenges to the insurance industry for denying billions of dollars in claims after last year's hurricanes. More than 125,000 small and mid-size businesses were damaged during Katrina, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. And they're urging business owners to sit down with their insurance advisors to determine their levels of coverage before a storm hits. The Insurance Information Institute, a non-profit organization supported by the property/casualty industry, points out that most business owners are complacent about natural disasters until it affects them. It also says that the cost of a disaster often extends beyond the physical damage to the potential loss of income because the premises are unusable. Here is some information you should be aware of under your basic commercial insurance as provided by the III: Building Coverage provides coverage up to the insured value of the building, if it is destroyed or damaged by hail/wind or another covered cause of loss. This policy does not cover damage caused by a storm or flood, unless it is added to the endorsement. Business Personal Property provides coverage for contents and business inventory damaged or destroyed by wind/hail or another cause of loss. Tenants Improvements and Betterments provides coverage for fixtures, alterations, installations or additions made as part of the building that the insured rents but does not own. Business Income provides coverage for lost revenue and normal operating expenses if the place of business becomes uninhabitable after a loss during the time repairs are made. Extra Expense provides coverage for the extra expenses incurred, such as temporary relocation or lease of business equipment, to avoid or minimize the suspension of operations during the time that repairs are being completed.— Jack Keough, Editor 'A different kind of normal' By Joe Nowlan, Associate Editor Residents in Mississippi and Alabama are looking ahead, but watch the sky and weather like never before A year after Hurricane Katrina hit Biloxi, Miss., and other cities and towns throughout the Gulf Coast, residents study the sky and listen to weather reports more intently than before. If you live near the Gulf, waves and high tides take on more urgency than they used to—especially with hurricane season underway (roughly June 1 through December 1). Jim Self is the manager of a Fastenal branch in Biloxi. He and his family survived the storm and have long since moved back into their house. But it was not until this August that he and his staff were finally able to move into their new location, one of more than 1,700 Fastenal branches nationwide. As you can imagine, even a strong thunder storm gets Self and other area residents more nervous than they would have been a year ago. “I'm real paranoid if something even looks like a wave in the Gulf,” he admits. “Fear just constricts you.” The Fastenal branch he oversees was destroyed by the hurricane. In the time since then, Self and his staff have had to make do in a much smaller, makeshift warehouse facility in Biloxi. Pre-Katrina, their location had nearly 8,000 square feet. Following the storm, they found a building that they'd been told had 2,000 square feet. Fastenal was understandably anxious to get re-opened in some sort of location, so the move was begun. However, in due time, Self and his colleagues realized the tight squeeze was going to be even tighter than at first thought. It turned out that the interim building had closer to 1,200 square feet, Self says. Self is proud of his Biloxi staff and the work they've managed to do. The business his Fastenal branch has been doing, he says, “we've been doing with a tenth of the inventory and about one-eighth of the space…operating out of a shed with [only] $40,000 worth of inventory.” However, in the smaller conditions, with far less inventory than usual, corners had to be cut and a state of almost constant re-invention took over. Take inventory, for example. The Fastenal store used a min-max system to keep track of, and re-order, popular items in its inventory. “With the min-max systems that we had in place in the store—if we'd sell out of a particular part, it used to automatically re-order itself and it would come in,” he says. “The computer would generate an order. We wouldn't have to think about it.” In that post-Katrina band box, the min-max had to be scaled back and was eventually eliminated. Self's branch is a “CSP store—Customer Service Project,” he explained. “We used to have the biggest variety of inventory and the most of it on hand…the newest of everything.” For example, the old store's fastener center took up a large section of the store with plenty of blue bins in which they'd keep their inventory of fasteners. That was just one section of their store, along with other separate sections for welding, electrical, safety, lifting and rigging. When they moved into their interim location after the hurricane, Self and his staff knew that fasteners would be at a premium given the region's rebuilding challenges. “We brought in what we had and set it up with a fastener center and that was it,” he says. “Because we knew we'd be here for several months.” A new home, at last Speaking in the days preceding the move into the new Fastenal facility, Self sounded a bit like a kid the week before Christmas, anticipating that new bicycle he'd find under the tree. “This new one has 6,000 square feet of open storeroom,” he said. “It's a warehouse but it will be all opened and cool.” In their new building, Self thinks they can double the business they did in their old location—from what he estimates was $100,000 a month to closer to $200,000. Self's Fastenal store has been busy as the region tries to rebuild as fast and as much as it can. Ironically, the immediate need for materials also brought in more rivals, Self said. “As quickly as our business opened back up,” he says of the weeks after Katrina, “we also had some large competitors move into the area,” referring to companies like White Cap and Threaded Fastener, among others. Business has stayed strong, he said, albeit a bit erratic in '06. “We set a record in April, which was a huge month for us. But in January we struggled. In February we did well but March was a struggle. It's been like that: up and down,” he says. Overall, Self says his Fastenal branch would be doing pretty strong business even without the extensive rebuilding needed after Katrina. “I think we would [be doing strong business], because we were already doing well [pre-Katrina],” he explains. Mom-and-Pops gone While the Biloxi region wasn't nearly as devastated as New Orleans, its losses were considerable. The future of the general business community there is still unsettled. While many casinos in Biloxi have been rebuilding (and have even seen other casinos move in), other businesses have not returned, especially the mom-and-pop ones, Self explains. “When you ride down Highway 90 in Biloxi, there just seems to be hundreds of businesses—gift shops, convenience stores—that are gone and don't look like they're doing anything to come back,” he says. “Then you might see a Holiday Inn that looks like it hadn't even been hit. They rebuilt those, and opened back up, as quickly as they could.” Housing is still a concern, in part because those Holiday Inns and other types of motels are still filled with contractors who've come to the area, he says. Commercial fishing felt the storm's impact quite a bit. Biloxi's fishing fleets haven't returned in anything close to their previous numbers yet. “The shrimping industry took the biggest hit,” Self says. “A lot of their fleets got knocked out.” Life goes on in the region, though, and residents are enjoying the lifestyle benefits that living near the ocean can bring. Self is a fisherman on weekends and has a boat he takes out onto the Gulf waters, casting for grouper, red snapper and sometimes sharks. “It seems like the shark schools are thicker than [they were] before the storm,” he says. “The blue crabs, too—just more of them. The fishing's still as good as it's ever been. That's something we did before Katrina and it's something we still do.” Self and his wife and three children moved back into their home in January. When they first saw their house after the storm, the outside looked intact, he said. “You couldn't even tell we got hit from looking at the outside. We only lost three shingles off the roof,” he recalls. Inside was another story. The flood waters had receded but the damage was extensive. “Practically everything the water touched had to be thrown away,” Self says. Self's wife was three months pregnant when Katrina hit. The youngest child (now seven months-old) will get to hear some remarkable stories one day. Looking back, Self occasionally comes close to saying things are “back to normal” in his region before stopping himself. “Well, it's a different kind of normal,” he says. “But things will never be the same again, and they shouldn't. There's no way for them to be the same again.” “What happens if…” Turner Supply, headquartered in Mobile, Ala., had 18 inches of water in its corporate offices before the rains stopped, Bruce Reagan, vice operations of operations, recalls. The office's electrical wiring was under those soggy floors, so that had to be replaced. During that job, asbestos had to be removed as well, making for a dragged out renovation. “We've been in and out of our offices here two or three times since the storm,” he says. As a result of Katrina, Turner Supply has done more extensive disaster planning than they had before, Reagan says. “I hope most businesses and individuals are drawing on that [Katrina] experience,” Reagan says. “Ask yourself, 'What happens if….'” He suggests looking at their office set up. “Just look around your office and ask yourself, if you had 18 inches of water on the floor, how many files would be ruined? How many things are stored 18 inches above the floor or lower, like your bottom two file drawers?” he says. Turner Supply is also working on a better contingency plan to protect its computer system. Computers at Turner's Mobile headquarters had to be shut down for a week after Katrina, Reagan says, impacting all 11 of its branches. Fortunately, the company did not lose any of its customer data. “If we'd been better able to protect those computers, the branches could have been up and running while we were digging out in Mobile,” he says. “Our [main] computers are right here in the corporate headquarters. Our branches had to struggle along on a paper-based system for about a week.” While Mobile suffered nothing like the damage in Biloxi, let alone New Orleans, signs of Katrina's damage are still evident. A stretch of highway between the east and west shores of Mobile Bay was wiped out. Several businesses on that bay have not come back and Reagan is not optimistic that they ever will. Like Jim Self in Biloxi, Mobile residents are attentive to any radio reference to a tropical storm over the Atlantic, rushing to the gas stations and the grocery stores in a heartbeat. In terms of total rainfall, Mobile wasn't hit as hard by Katrina as New Orleans. But, under a worst-case scenario, Mobile could experience a similar fate, Reagan says. “Then, there'd be nothing we could do. So if there's a tropical storm out in the Atlantic or approaching the Gulf, people turn that radio volume up some more,” Reagan says. “But more people now have contingency plans as to what they'd do and what their best route [out of town] would be.” Turner Supply is in its 101st year of operations. Actually, the company had planned on observing its 100th anniversary in October, 2005, but ended up delaying the festivities until March of this year because of the hurricane clean up. “So we actually had our 100th anniversary during our 101st year,” Reagan laughs.

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