Hurricane Plans: Workers key in Degussa preps

22 August 2006 22:11  [Source: ICIS news]

MOBILE, Alabama (ICIS news)--Hurricane Katrina did little structural damage to Degussa's Mobile, Alabama plant when it struck on 29 August, 2005, but it did highlight the need to get employees back to work quickly for restart, a company executive said on Tuesday.

Maintaining a sufficient fuel supply and keeping track of evacuated employees is critical to resuming production in a timely manner, said Tom Bates, the company's vice president and Mobile site manager.

Katrina disrupted much of the refining capacity and pipelines on the Gulf Coast resulting in major gasoline shortages. After the storm, Degussa gave gasoline to its employees to enable them to commute to work.

"We started out giving five gallons to each employee every day so they wouldn't have to spend all day waiting in long lines at the gas station," said Tom Bates, who said the company has increased its onsite gasoline reserves to 6,000 gallons.

Bates said the company has also made efforts to better communicate with employees who evacuate ahead of the storm.

"We're going to keep better records of cell phones and contact information because [after Katrina] there were some employees we couldn't find," he said.

Bates said that the company managed to overcome those issues and power supply problems to fully restart the plant about two weeks after it was shut down in anticipation of the storm.

The plant, which is the company's largest in North America, produces a variety of specialty chemicals including hydrogen peroxide, feed additives, coatings and polyesters.

By: Joseph Lohan
+1 713 525 2653

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