Aliso Viejo-based Fluor Corp. said Thursday it received an initial contract valued at up to $100 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to build temporary housing and provide communications gear in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
It’s likely to be the first of a wave of contracts to be awarded to engineering and construction companies to rebuild the Gulf of Mexico region.
Fluor said it will headquarter its operations with those of FEMA in Baton Rouge, La.
On Aug. 29, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico shoreline in four states, including Louisiana,the hardest hit.
Other states, including Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, have been declared as federal disasters and are eligible for federal aid, now estimated to total at least $60 billion.
Fluor said it will build temporary housing units that will include electricity, potable water and sanitary sewage facilities for those who lost homes in the storm.
The company also is providing vehicles, satellite phones, laptop computers and global-positioning satellite devices to help locate people, and provide directions for drivers.
“The ramp-up to suport FEMA represents an extraordinarily rapid and comprehensive effort,” said Alan Boeckmann, Fluor’s chairman and chief executive, in a statement. “We are already mobilizing a vast array of resources and are prepared to mount whatever further resources FEMA may require of us.”
Fluor plans to have about 400 employees working on the housing construction project. Since 1997, Fluor has provided FEMA with technical disaster-recovery services for all types of disasters, including earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and wildfires.
