Gasoline at plant helped IPSCO Alabama mill weather Katrina

摘要

IPSCO's steel minimill north of Mobile, Alabama, had little down-time despite enduring Hurricane Katrina, which whipped intense winds through the plant for 14 hours on Aug 29, as contingency plans, including a 50,000-gallon gasoline tanker at the plant, kicked in. An acute shortage of gasoline and diesel fuel followed the hurricane, with lines at gasoline stations in the Mobile area as long as one-quarter mile, said Woody Burke, IPSCO's human resources director at the plant. Given this, the tanker at the plant was critical in a quick ramp-up as the plant's 370 workers and a few hundred contractors were able to drive to and from work. For IPSCO, Katrina was as much a community event as it was a challenge to keep workers safe and the plant running. For one, it provided diesel from the plant to local authorities in the hurricane's aftermath for generators in high demand following a widespread loss of power, said company spokesman Jon Comrie, based at the company's headquarters in Lisle, Illinois. The plant itself had power restored on Aug 30, a day after the storm hit.