Gulfport,Ms. Disaster Continues Well After Winds Die Down.

TommyZ

This is a little long, so get comfy, and have a beverage on hand.

To all those headed to Gulfport,Ms. to haul debris...stay home where you'll be near family, friends, refrigerator, etc.

It took me 5-6 weeks of preparation to leave from New England and arrive in Gulfport,Ms. to work in the debris cleanup project.

Contract IN HAND, I walk up to the primary contractor's R.V. and introduce myself. He interrupts my introduction and says in a southern drawl, "there ain't no work for you around heah, boah..." I said, "but I've got a contract..."but he didn't care. Not what I expected to hear after 21 hours non stop on the road to get there as quickly as possible.

After walking around trying to make sense of it all, I came across a couple of guys that have been there for 2 weeks, and were disalusioned with everything happening.One of the guys heard my story, and suggested I get connected up with a guy named Bubba, (go figure...) who has taken over a lot of the abondoned work zones that were left behind by crews and contractors who arrived 3-4 weeks earlier just to sit still without work and be lied to every day about when the work would resume.Some went bankrupt from this risky venture, some fled to Florida to work hurricane Wilma's wrath for a quick buck.(Please note that in the 2-3 weeks since I've arrived in Gulfport, the debris has been totally removed from Florida's affected areas...)

So, I submit to Bubba's authority. I've been in the construction, demolition, hazmat remediation, transportation and am a certified field tech, sitting down here with probably one of the nicest, shiniest pieces of equipment in this region, qualified for anything that can be thrown my way, and now I'm working for...Bubba. The only way to describe my emotions about this is, it's the last thing one would do before committing suicide.Working for Bubba. At this point, theres no other option. A lot was put on the line for this at home, and now I need to produce or sink with the rest ...

The problem starts at the primary contractor's level, Phillips & Jordan. Noted for their expertise in disaster response, the Army Corp of Engineers hired them to oversee this project in a broad area of the Gulf Coast. P&J employs a 21 yr. old, severely obese, disgruntled kid to be in charge of certain aspects of the project, and he is responsible for a miltitude of contractors leaving the area due to his disposition.
He's a nasty character, with an appetite for power. He controls certain functions of the operations over the subcontractors, and does not possess any skills himself, yet has the audasity to bark out orders,with an unbelievable amount of Copenhagen all stuffed up into his puss I might add, and gets a kick out of firing quailfied personell. One good reason why this project is taking so long.

I originally was contracted to be a load-and-haul contractor. I never could get a straight answer on the telephone from the contact people I was dealing with about how many machines and other equipment I could bring down, so I decided to "play it safe", and go down personally with a semi-dump trailer unit to anylize the situation. Boy am I glad I did it this way, or I would have been one of the others that would have lost his shirt due to the politics within the city, and the primary contractors, P&J, etc.

I don't have a severe amount invested, but I did however, proceed down there on their word that they needed my services.I still sacrificed a lot and spent quite a lot of hard earned money to go forward with my plans, only to be shanghi'd by the "good 'ol boy network". Bubba has a bunch of equipment staged there, and so he is in control of who will be hauling debris to the landfill sites.That automatically cut my projected revenue by 50% by not being able to load myself. The severe lack of planning on Bubba's part is responsible for even more loss of revenue, as there are no where near the amount of machines needed on site to perform this sizeable task efficiently.

Local stats claim that to date, 1.5 million cubic yards of debris have been removed since Katrina, and there are still 7.5 million left. The 1.5 took 12 weeks to move at their pace, so one can only speculate as to how long the remainder will be in place.

The big fat kid with P&J has the authority to close the job down due to fog, rain, etc., and has several times for lack of something constructive to do that day.

The machines on the job I have been on have ran out of fuel twice in one week at 10 a.m., and fuel didn't arrive until 4 p.m. Fuel is not in short supply at all by the way; it's just the good 'ol boy way of doing things.Meanwhile, 4-6 trucks sit impatiently for 6 hours to get loaded, then the job closes down at 5 p.m. per fat kid's orders.

We worked the first week fairly consistantly, but it turned bad the second week. One load days, show up only to be informed of no work the next, and all sorts of unimaginable things going on within the system. All very unprofessional situations taking place, resulting in the people of Gulfport being unable to return to any sense of normalcy due to the games being played at the primary contractors level.

The public needs to know... that's the loudest voice above and beyond the problem.

If you are considering going down to the Gulf Coast to seek out work, contracts, etc., think again before proceeding. I am living proof that they are milking that project for all it's worth, and it's all FEMA (Federal Employees Missing Again,) money...which comes from guess WHO'S pockets?...

Thanks for listening.

Teetorbilt

I never went governmental during any of our 3 hurricanes but turned down work right and left and accepted much that was totally outside of my line of expertise. The work is there and finding it wasn't much of a problem.

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You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

Albert Einstein

TommyZ

"If you're not the lead dog, the scenery never changes..."

I see there is a major amount of work to be done yet, aside from debris removal alone.
For those in the building trade, roofers, carpenters, laborers,plumbers, electricians, etc. are in high demand along the coastal areas.Everything from the beaches inland for a 1/2 mile was leveled, besides the damage done farther inland.
Many good opportunities are available I think in the private sector, focusing on residential and commercial rebuilding.Just stay away from the political machine...
I just wanted to express my concerns for anyone who was planning to do what I and many other excavation contractors had set out to accomplish; and yet have been miserably misinformed.
The scope of work in Gulfport pertaining to debris removal is in the hands of Phillips & Jordan,Inc. and Bamaco,Inc., both disaster relief specialists...so they say. Between their mismanagement and the local politics stifling production, that poor area will suffer for a long time to come unless someone decides to investigate the entire overseeing management team in charge.
This information is coming from a qualified individual who is on the receiving end of all this madness...I'm sure another version is available from the forementioned companies, and will be furnished upon request...
Thanks for the reply.

TommyZ

FYI: I am leaving again for the Gulf Coast area, after coming home for Thanksgiving.
My intention is to seek out another contractor to sign under, or create my own workload in the private sector.
I will inform you of the results around Christmas, as I am without internet access down at Ground Zero.
Thanks for listening.

6stringmason

Anyone know what the demand for masons is down there? I own a masonry business and I am sure I could get a few guys to go down there.

Bob Kovacs

At the moment, the demand is probably pretty limited- they're still trying to sort out what to do where.

Once they get their act together, there will be plenty of work- the question is, what will it pay? There are already stories about contractors putting out outrageous prices for work because the insurance companies are paying. At the same time, there's still a big labor pool of cheap labor down there, so it's questionable as to what kind of money you can make as an employee. If you go down to work as a contractor, you'll need to get local licenses and insurance.

It's hard to say exactly what will happen in the short term.

Bob

Teetorbilt

I could write a book on the insanity that occurs post disaster. Wilma was #3 for me in the last 15 mos. Much can be blamed on the ins. cos. Some adjusters come in and throw money around like it was water. Some contractors come in like sponges to soak it up.

The bottom line is that most people just want to go back to being normal. The wealthy will pay dearly for it, the middle class will make some tough decisions and the poor fall back on the govt.

__________________
You can't solve you're problems with the same level of thinking that created the problems.

Albert Einstein

TommyZ

You're all pretty much right on the money in terms of post-storm politics.

Currently, Ms. and Al. are S L O W L Y moving forward with some form of reconstruction plans, however, the cleanup process is priority to officials that are part of the rebuilding plan.

New Orleans is a whole different ball game...It's a virtual ghost town in many areas of the town, namely East New Orleans. There's a Cadillac dealership on the south side of I-10 when you're headed west toward New Orleans, that sits idle since the storm. All of the new automobiles on the lot still remain in place since the flood, with a complete covering of mud and scum over every one of them.The nice new building has the same scumline up to a point, and it's abandoned.

The neighborhoods all around it look the same. No sign of human life, cars still in the driveways covered with the Lake Pontchatrain scum over their roofs, and you can see just about every roof of every building in certain neighborhoods has a hole chopped in it from the attic where you know people had to get out of their attics and up onto the roofs to keep from drowning, and be rescued. The word HELP spray painted on many of them as well. I'm talking about a lot of square miles of this scenery that I just described. It's eery.To this day, over 12 weeks later, there's still no power in many places, no street lights, traffic signals, etc.

So you can rest assured, once the political machine does it's damage, there will be work in New Orleans and her surroundings for a LONG time to come.

I had a birds eye view of all of what I just described, and so I tell it as I see it. No second hand information here. In fact, I'll be back down there on Tuesday to solicit some business.

I did visit Bourbon Street and the French Quarter just to say I did, and it wasn't touched. Apparently it's elevation is such that it didn't flood. The mayor is working overtime to assure his people that the Mardi Gras will go on as usual, and is working hard to keep all of the casino-related establishments in working order, but the common folks are at his mercy. Welcome, to the USA Today...

Glasshousebltr

Grab hold of yourselves friends for the end is near!.....Blah blah blah.

I think the bubbas will be out off the race in a few months.

Worked for a remod co ,way back when, with a similar mentality. Family co. Fat know it all but don't know ***** son in charge, In fact, in the single year I was there I didn't meet a single family member that had a construction background, not even distant member. I don't know how the hell they got so big......just money I guess.

Bob

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Bob

FireballBrick

Teetor, I agree with you, if you are local and established the work floods you after a cane.... We get hit with Ivan and Dennis here, and we've stayed busy... It's amazing seeing whole brick walls washed out, but alot of our work has been fireplace damage. During Ivan several homes here had their fireplaces ripped away from the house, so we did alot of complete teardowns and retrofit rebuilds, and these were solid masonry fireplaces...talk about a PITA. I can't imagine what some of the older buildings in NO must look like with the winds they sustained there. We usually hit the Easy or Biloxi up 5-6 times a year, but no more. Even here in Destin we got some damage from Katrina. I think you will agree Teetor, that although you hate seeing one come your way, you can't deny the work it gives us...
Adrienne

DaveH

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Hurricane Katrina fraudsters who billed the US government for fictitious services and filed claims for phantom hotel guests and even Dom Perignon champagne have reportedly cost taxpayers up to two billion dollars.

ADVERTISEMENT

The New York Times said the cost of the fraud in the wake of the deadly storm which hit New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf Coast last August had ballooned to new heights, citing government audits, criminal prosecutions and congressional probes.

A House of Representatives committee heard testimony earlier this month that fraud in the wake of Katrina had cost taxpayers at least one billion dollars.

In one particularly brazen case, prisoners who were jailed when Katrina and a second storm, Hurricane Rita, hit the US southern coast billed the government for rental assistance.

The Times said Katrina had "produced one of the most extraordinary displays of scams, schemes and stupefying bureaucratic bungles in modern history, costing taxpayers up to two billion dollars".

It also cited a hotel owner in Sugar Land, Texas charged with submitting 232,000 dollars in bills for phantom victims, and a woman who tried to collect benefits by claiming she watched her two daughters drown in New Orleans. Prosecutors say the children never existed.

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A buck a foot is not an estimate! It's a crap shoot!