The $100 million contract recently awarded to Aliso Viejo-based Fluor Corp. could be the start of billions of dollars in work the company eventually sees related to Hurricane Katrina, an executive said.
“It’s possible,” said Lisa Glatch, a newly appointed president in charge of Fluor’s government group. “If you look at what happened in Iraq, we ended up seeing a couple billion dollars worth of work there. The total scope (in the Gulf), whether it’s all of Fluor’s or others, it’s going to cost in the billions.”
Some estimates have put the cost to rebuild New Orleans and other Gulf of Mexico coastal areas at more than $200 billion. The White House and Congress already have rushed $62.3 billion in emergency funds to the region.
The work awarded to Fluor earlier this month likely is the first in a wave of contracts to be awarded to a handful of engineering and construction companies asked to help rebuild the Gulf Coast region.
Fluor stands to compete with familiar faces: Bechtel Group Inc., Jacobs Engineering Group Inc., Washington Group International Inc. and Foster Wheeler Ltd., among others.
In the days after the hurricane last month, Fluor’s shares shot up on speculation it stood to land work rebuilding parts of the Gulf.
The company, which does engineering, construction and project management, counted a market value of $5.3 billion last week.
Even as Fluor eyes work from the Gulf, Glatch made an effort to put the unexpected business in perspective.
“It gives me a lot of satisfaction to know that we are doing everything we can,” she said. “We can’t fix everything overnight. Unfortunately, nature dealt this blow, but it makes me feel good we are in a position to make it better.”
Glatch, who helped the federal government take over airport screening after the 2001 terrorist attacks and worked to mobilize workers for Fluor in Iraq, called the situation in the Gulf unprecedented.
Within hours after the hurricane blew ashore on Aug. 29, Fluor deployed hundreds of workers to the area, she said.
Fluor received an initial $100 million contract from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide temporary housing and communications gear to some of the more than 200,000 households displaced by the disaster.
Glatch was named recently to head Fluor’s $2.3 billion yearly government business along with John L. Hopkins.
Glatch is overseeing work with the Department of Defense, Homeland Security (including FEMA) and other federal agencies.
Hopkins is responsible for environmental and nuclear waste remediation work for the federal government.
Fluor said it plans to provide temporary housing units that will include hookups for electricity, water and sewage for those who lost homes in the hurricane.
The company also is providing vehicles, satellite phones, laptop computers and satellite tracking devices to help locate people and provide directions for drivers.
1,000 Workers
Fluor’s workforce assigned to the Gulf effort has more than doubled since the contract was announced a few weeks ago. It has gone from 400 in the days after the hurricane to nearly 1,000 drawn from all business units across the company, according to Glatch.
The slowing of reconstruction work in Iraq also has freed up a small cadre of executives from Fluor who have been reassigned to the Gulf region.
Bob Spaulding, who was a vice president in charge of construction in Iraq, recently returned to lead up Fluor’s work in the Gulf. About a dozen Fluor workers are switching from Iraq to the Gulf, Glatch said.
“What we’ve been able to do is redeploy some of our key and very experienced management to New Orleans,” she said. “In Iraq, just like we will in New Orleans, we hired many, many local Iraqis because they wanted to get the work done. But we also want to create jobs for local people and give them skills for life, and rebuild their communities. We want to do the same thing in New Orleans.”
Iraq is “pale in comparison” to the Gulf, Glatch said.
“I hate to belittle Iraq, because that was no easy feat to try to rebuild Iraq with people shooting people,” she said.
Fluor has been awarded at least $1.6 billion to help restore Iraqi electrical power and rebuild the sewage treatment and water distribution system.
In the Gulf, Fluor plans to work with FEMA to set up job-training centers where an estimated 10,000 unemployed people from the region can be trained, Glatch said.
Fluor also is working to provide estimates to FEMA on the cost to repair and rebuild public facilities throughout the region. The company expects extra work repairing oil refineries, chemical plants and for the Army Corps of Engineering. Fluor also could work at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss., Glatch said.
