ISRI Checks on Status of Scrap Industry in Hurricane Damaged Area

While still very early in the cleanup process, a preliminary report from the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries is estimating that perhaps 30 member company locations may have been damaged by Hurricane Katrina, as well as the after effect.

Chuck Carr, VP of member services, meetings, marketing and communications for  ISRI, noted that there are 80 scrap facilities in the three states most affected by the hurricane: Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Of these 80 locations, there are a total of 30 facilities that are assumed to have sustained at least some damage. Further, Carr notes, there are six facilities that are in the zip codes where most of the devastation took place.

While ISRI has donated money to the Red Cross, the association is orchestrating a member wide approach for a response.

In a letter sent by Joel Denbo, he sketched out some additional steps that ISRI is organizing, as well as what individual member companies are doing to help with the after affect of the hurricane. In his letter, Denbo noted that ISRI received a message from a member company in Pennsylvania offering to take in the family of an employee at an affected scrap yard, providing temporary employment for the worker allowing that employee to continue earning while his/her employer reorganizes and rebuilds. “That is just one of many ways we can assist each other in getting through this crisis and beginning to rebuild.”

ISRI also will be having a Hurricane Katrina Response website on www.isri.org. This website will be a clearinghouse for offers of assistance to others in the scrap industry affected by the hurricane.

Carr also added that ISRI, at the present time, has made no change in its decision to hold its 2007 National Convention in New Orleans.