Prep Work Pays Off for Irma Recovery AWS
News September 18, 2017 NATURAL DISASTERS
Prep Work Pays Off for Irma Recovery
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n army of 50,000 restoration workers from across the U.S. and Canada were working on Florida’s power grid at ENR press time on Sept. 12, according to an Edison Electric Institute estimate. Nearly 65% of the state’s electric customers had lost power at the peak of Hurricane Irma’s slam into the southeastern U.S., including 72% of Florida Power & Light customers and 73% of Duke Energy’s. FPL said it had little damage to generation plants, but it is assessing damage after reports of multiple tornados, said Eric Silagy, FPL’s CEO. The 1,250MW Riviera Beach gas-fired plant, near Palm Beach, had to be shut due to a huge influx of debris being removed from intakes. FPL says it expects far less structural damage to the system after spending $3 billion, since 2006, to harden the grid against storms. Upgrades included putting 450 transmission lines underground, replacing poles—many made of concrete—to meet strength requirements and shortening conductor spans. “We would be replacing tens of thousands of poles without the upgrades,” Silagy says. Helicopters and drones inspecting power lines found no structural damage. Still, the power grid in the southwest8
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ern portion of Florida will require a “complete rebuild,” and it likely will be Sept. 22 before all its customers have electricity in the severely damaged area, FPL officials said on Sept. 12. The company, Florida’s largest electric utility, had more than 5 million total outages. Hurricane Irma had a broad impact zone throughout the Southeast and the Caribbean, with coastal flooding from the Florida Keys to Jacksonville, where flooding along the St. Johns River shattered 150-year-old records, all the way to Charleston, S.C.
Island Devastation Before hitting the continental U.S., Irma devastated the U.S. Virgin Islands and Cuba. Some areas, especially St. Thomas and St. John, were so severely impacted that FEMA could not give a clear picture of the full extent of damages, said Don Caetano, external affairs director, FEMA, Region II. Irma next struck the Florida Keys, where initial damage estimates show 25% of houses were destroyed and 65% have major damage, reported the agency. While not the direct hit that Miami officials dreaded, Irma lashed the city with rains and high winds. Two cranes in the Miami area and a third in Fort
Lauderdale suffered partial collapses. No injuries were reported, and damage to other structures was minimal, according to local officials. The two Miami cranes came down at a time when there are about 24 tower cranes working in the city. City officials contacted the general contractors, seeking “the best way to secure the tower-crane arms from collapsing further and get structural engineering reports on the affected buildings,” said Maurice Pons, deputy director of the city’s buildings department. “It’s way too early to determine exactly what happened.” The three partial crane collapses raised issues related to a long-simmering dispute over crane standards in Miami-Dade County, an area which has one of the country’s densest concentrations of highrise buildings on coastal properties exposed to hurricane-force winds. “This has been a big source of anxiety
PHOTO (TOP) JOE CAVARETTA/SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL VIA AP; (LOWER PHOTO) AP PHOTO/WILFREDO LEE
With damage from the powerful hurricane still being assessed, crews rapidly are restoring power and services
CRANE DOWN Three tower cranes partially col-
(TOP RIGHT) AP PHOTO/JOHN RAOUX
lapsed, including one in Fort Lauderdale (left, top). The Marlins Park roof membrane was damaged (left, bottom), and utility workers preparations for Irma’s impact helped to restore power after the storm.
for people downtown,” said Ken Russell, Miami city commissioner for District 2, which includes the sites of the crane collapses. “We were fortunate [the cranes] came down on the buildings that were being constructed and did not strike any of the surrounding buildings, and no one was hurt. But for sure, we as a city are going to look into legislation, regulations and practices in the future about how these cranes are handled during a storm.” One of the fallen cranes was at the GranParaiso high-rise condominium development. In a statement, lead contractor Plaza Construction said the engineers and supplier took measures to secure the crane. Nevertheless, the boom was damaged due to high winds. In Miami, the other damaged crane was located at a residential tower site, and the Fort Lauderdale crane was working on a beach spa and residence. Irma’s storm surge also impacted downtown Miami. Russell reported at a press conference that “all along the waterfront was completely submerged” after Irma’s arrival, as was the Brickell financial district and parts of downtown. “Fortunately, we don’t have a Houston situation here because we have a porous oolite limestone, and we have very good drainage systems,” Russell added. “Storm
drains were all prepped before the storm so that things could flow as soon as the first low tide came about.” As a result, flooding had fully receded by Sept. 11. Duke Energy on Sept. 7 suspended work at the $1.5-billion, 1,640-MW Citrus County, Fla., gas-fired plant in preparation for Hurricane Irma but on Sept. 12 returned the site to Fluor, the EPC contractor. Fluor will decide when construction will start again, says Heather Danenhower, a Duke spokeswoman. The project has water on site but did not sustain significant damage. Meanwhile, Miami Beach—notorious for its flooding problems—escaped much of the storm surge. Where new permanent pump stations had been installed, “they worked well,” says Bruce Mowry, city engineer. For example, the recently raised and largely rebuilt area of Sunset Harbour did not experience significant flooding, he adds. But parts of Miami Beach did have flooding of about 6 in. higher than the city’s king tides last year, he notes. Still, he says, “We had more impacts than expected, even with Irma moving west,” with downed trees and power lines and knocked-out traffic-signal lights making up much of the primary longerterm impacts. Most city construction sites, including the city’s $400-million convention-center project, avoided significant damage due to storm preparation made possible by Irma’s relatively slow forward movement. But the $25-million Indian Creek Drive/SR A1A Storm Mitigation project became “fully flooded” because perimeter walls and pump stations were not completely installed along the river, says Mowry. Marlins’ Membrane Miami Marlins President David Samson in a statement acknowledged that the Marlins Park’s 17-acre retractable roof, engineered to resist 146-mph winds, did sustain damage to a membrane that serves to weatherproof the roof structure. “A section of the rubber-and-plastic membrane on the west vertical face of the center panel of the roof will need to be replaced
immediately following the conclusion of the 2017 season. This represents approximately 6% of the entire roof membrane,” Samson stated. “Based on our initial assessment today, the building performed extremely well, considering the intensity of the hurricane.” Matthew Alvarez—a project director for CH2M, which is contracted to operate the North Miami Beach water-treatment plant and other plants—said all are reported operational, including those in heavily damaged Key West. “Our team had a focus on backup power generation, knowing the facilities would likely lose power during the hurricane,” Alvarez says. “We started generators ahead of the storm to ensure that critical pumping systems remained in service continuously so there was no loss of pressure due to unexpected power surges.” Irma’s shift to the west didn’t spare coastal areas of Georgia and South Carolina, where high winds and surf eroded beaches and flooded roads on several barrier islands. Preliminary reports indicate that the coastal damage, though widespread, was less severe than that inflicted by Hurricane Matthew in 2016. In Charleston, Irma’s rains and storm surge coincided with an above-normal high tide on Sept. 11, creating a 9.9-ft flood tide, the third highest in the lowlying city’s history. The Concord Street pump station, one of the first components of an ongoing, citywide drainage improvement program begun in 1999, remained in operation through the event. The city of Jacksonville was dealing with what local officials dubbed “epic river flooding” along the St. Johns River and tributaries, caused by storm surge and flooding from the hurricane. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, port survey personnel, and power, debrisremoval and roofing teams are in Florida and Georgia, the Dept. of Defense reports. Work includes efforts to reopen ports in Port Everglades and Tampa. By Scott Judy in Orlando, with Jeff Rubenstone, Mary Powers, Debra Rubin, Scott Blair and Jim Parsons enr.com September 18, 2017
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News DISASTER RECOVERY
CLEANUP STARTS A worker passes a pile of debris from flood cleanup in Spring, Texas, on Sept. 5. Before other projects, contractors of all stripes are prioritizing getting people back in their homes.
s Hurricane Harvey floodwaters linger in portions of Texas, assessments and some rebuilding have begun as residents and officials alike try to figure out how and whether to rebuild. “The cleanup has started, the rebuilding has started,” says Thomas B. Neild Jr., of H.B. Neild & Sons, a Beaumont, Texas-based commercial and industrial construction company. “It’s breathtaking, the amount of damage. There are neighborhoods where families lost literally everything. It’s like the most grotesque garage sale. House after house is lined with all their earthly possessions,” he says. More than two weeks after the storm hit on Aug. 25, Neild’s company and contractors of all stripes are focused on getting homes livable, says Jennifer Gordy, executive director of Associated General Contractors of Southeast Texas. “The scope and magnitude is not realized yet,” she says. The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Sept. 11 said the assessment of damages is ongoing in Texas, but Harris County says at least 136,000 homes were damaged. Analysis
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by real estate information group CoStar shows 27% of Houston’s commercial buildings may have flooded. Even as engineering and construction firms are bringing people to the state to assess and repair the damages, the Harris County Flood Control District, FEMA and the city of Houston are preparing a home buyout program to move people out of floodplains. The district says it will release more information on the program Sept. 18. Some of those buyouts may occur in the neighborhoods inundated by floodwaters after the Army Corps of Engineers began releasing water from the Addicks and Barker reservoirs two days after Harvey passed. The Corps says it is moving ahead with planned studies on how best to manage the water around Houston. Along with getting people back in their homes, firms are working to get critical systems functioning and roads and schools open, says Craig B. Thompson, president of the Texas section of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a municipal engineer. Thompson says he has been consulting with local munici-
Corps Under Fire The Corps is steadily decreasing water releases from the Addicks and Barker reservoirs and expects to hit 4,000 cfs by Sept. 15. “Things are getting better, but we still want to caution everybody: We’re still not out of the woods,” says Randy Cephus, deputy public affairs officer. As it continues to manage water
AP PHOTO/DAVID J. PHILLIP
Texans Begin To Assess ‘Breathtaking’ Damage
palities. He says structural engineers will start assessing homes and buildings in the next tranche of activity. Beaumont, which had its water system knocked out by the flooded Neches River, is back on line, but on Sept. 11 the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said 35 water systems are still shut down, 136 have “boil water” notices, and 35 wastewater treatment plants are inoperable. The Texas Dept. of Transportation notes that, as of Sept. 11, 26 roads remain closed because of floodwaters. The agency continues to take inventory of damages to roads and bridges. High, swift-moving water is blamed for most of the damage found so far, a DOT spokesman said. After a portion of the Sam Houston Tollway was severely damaged after sitting in about 15 ft of water, crews restored it to better-than-new condition, working 24/7 for five days straight. Industrial and commercial assessments have begun, as well; in at least a handful of cases, projects planned in lower-lying areas are on hold “till further notice,” says Neild. But many others are moving ahead, chalking up the flooding to an event that likely won’t occur again. The number of assessments is daunting. The damage is similar to that experienced in Superstorm Sandy, “except Sandy was very compact,” says Bruce Arita, senior vice president of Thornton Tomasetti and head of the Property Loss Consulting Practice, which is completing insurance assessments near Corpus Christi and plans to be in Houston later this month. “Texas is immense. The area is very big, so just getting around is tough,” he said.
ECONOMICS
Labor, Steel, PVC Shortages Could Hinder Swift Recovery in Texas, Florida
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PHOTO BY LUKE ABAFFY
OUTFLOW The Corps says releases from the Addicks and Barker reservoirs were necessary to prevent even worse flooding and possible damage.
releases, the Corps’ decision to release the water is being scrutinized. At least three lawsuits have been filed seeking compensation from the flooding. Filed against the Corps, one suit claims the flooding is a “taking” under the Fifth Amendment. Residents of West Houston thought they had dodged a bullet after Hurricane Harvey passed. Their homes were still dry after record rainfall. But three days later, early on Aug. 28 after water levels increased dramatically in the Addicks and Barker reservoirs, the Army Corps of Engineers began to release water from the reservoirs to prevent further flooding and catastrophic failures. “The water rose very quickly—two and a half feet. It was very fast. It went back down for a minute and then suddenly back up,” says Russ Hyde, a mechanical engineer who lives near Buffalo Bayou, the tributary that drains the reservoirs. Had the water not been released, the Corps says, between 30,000 to 40,000 cfs of upstream water would have inundated a wider area. “It was a tough decision what we did, but it was one we had [make to] to ensure the integrity of the project,” says Richard Long, supervisory natural-resource manager for the Corps’ Galveston district. “I’ve lived in this community for 35 years now, and these are my friends and neighbors. I know people upstream and downstream that have been impacted by our operations, so it’s not an easy job.” By Pam Radtke Russell, Louise Poirier and Scott Blair
urricane Harvey’s immediate impact on the construction sector will be a disruption in the supply chain for key materials, along with scheduling problems for projects that were under construction. As the cleanup and eventual rebuilding proceed, increased demand for materials and labor will push costs upward and contractors will be scrambling to secure supplies and workers. “Based on our experience with Katrina and Sandy, we know that rebuilding requires several years to gear up, so we expect Harvey to start to influence construction starts in the region during the 2018-19 time frame after the immediate damage is dealt with,” says Robert Murray, chief economist for Dodge Data & Analytics. Before the storm hit, Texas already had generated $83 billion in new construction starts through July, slightly above last year’s pace, according to Dodge. Houston was a particular hot spot, with Dodge reporting 26 projects valued at over $25 million, starting since last January. Some of these projects are quite large, including a $3-billion liquef i e d - n a t u r a l - g a s e x p o r t f a c i l i t y, a n $850-million tollway, a $390-million refinery and a $385-million polyethylene plant, says Dodge. “Harvey will further tighten an already tight labor market,” says Emily Crowley, labor economist with Global Insight, Washington, D.C. In August, construction unemployment ticked down to 4.7% from 4.9%, with 28,000 workers joining the construction workforce. The number of unemployed, experienced construction workers hit a 17-year low in August, according to Ken Simonson, the chief economist for Associated General Contractors of America. Simonson says the high employment rate means few will want to leave their homes for Texas or Florida. An AGC sur vey conducted before Hurricane Harvey found that 70% of those contacted, including 69% of the 158 contrac-
tors in Texas, already were having trouble filling hourly craft positions, including carpenters, electricians and concrete workers. About 45% of the companies in Texas also were having trouble filling managerial positions. Simonson expects critical and time-sensitive projects will attract enough construction workers. But full recovery will take many years due to long-standing shortages of skilled workers as well as shortages in materials and parts that already are in high demand—elevators, curtain-wall assemblies, large-scale HVAC or water-treatment equipment, for example—complicated by funding issues and regulatory approvals. Wages could take a couple of years to catch up with demand, Crowley says. It took until 2007, two years after Hurricane Katrina hit, before carpenter wages in the area increased 10%. Contractors may have an additional concern: The Port of Houston is the largest importer of steel products into the country and the combination of a disruption of imports, lost inventory and increased demand from rebuilding could check steel prices, which were weakening before the storm, says John Anton, steel analyst for Global Insight. “Steel prices had been sliding, but, after Harvey, we expect prices to flatten out. Any risk to this forecast is now on the upside,” Anton says. Harvey’s hit on the petrochemical industry also will increase costs for diesel fuel, gasoline, PVC feedstock and natural gas, which is a major energy input for materials such as cement. “At least 70% of total U.S. capacity for PVC feedstock is either confirmed off line or has the potential to be impacted as a result of Harvey,” says Ted Semesnyei, a Global Insight economist. That number runs as high as 90% for resins used in other plastic products, he adds. However, natural-gas and gasoline shortages and price increases, initially a big concern, have been negligible. By Tim Grogan enr.com September 18, 2017
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Prep Work Pays Off for Irma Recovery
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n army of 50,000 restoration workers from across the U.S. and Canada were working on Florida’s power grid at ENR press time on Sept. 12, according to an Edison Electric Institute estimate. Nearly 65% of the state’s electric customers had lost power at the peak of Hurricane Irma’s slam into the southeastern U.S., including 72% of Florida Power & Light customers and 73% of Duke Energy’s. FPL said it had little damage to generation plants, but it is assessing damage after reports of multiple tornados, said Eric Silagy, FPL’s CEO. The 1,250MW Riviera Beach gas-fired plant, near Palm Beach, had to be shut due to a huge influx of debris being removed from intakes. FPL says it expects far less structural damage to the system after spending $3 billion, since 2006, to harden the grid against storms. Upgrades included putting 450 transmission lines underground, replacing poles—many made of concrete—to meet strength requirements and shortening conductor spans. “We would be replacing tens of thousands of poles without the upgrades,” Silagy says. Helicopters and drones inspecting power lines found no structural damage. Still, the power grid in the southwest8
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ern portion of Florida will require a “complete rebuild,” and it likely will be Sept. 22 before all its customers have electricity in the severely damaged area, FPL officials said on Sept. 12. The company, Florida’s largest electric utility, had more than 5 million total outages. Hurricane Irma had a broad impact zone throughout the Southeast and the Caribbean, with coastal flooding from the Florida Keys to Jacksonville, where flooding along the St. Johns River shattered 150-year-old records, all the way to Charleston, S.C.
Island Devastation Before hitting the continental U.S., Irma devastated the U.S. Virgin Islands and Cuba. Some areas, especially St. Thomas and St. John, were so severely impacted that FEMA could not give a clear picture of the full extent of damages, said Don Caetano, external affairs director, FEMA, Region II. Irma next struck the Florida Keys, where initial damage estimates show 25% of houses were destroyed and 65% have major damage, reported the agency. While not the direct hit that Miami officials dreaded, Irma lashed the city with rains and high winds. Two cranes in the Miami area and a third in Fort
Lauderdale suffered partial collapses. No injuries were reported, and damage to other structures was minimal, according to local officials. The two Miami cranes came down at a time when there are about 24 tower cranes working in the city. City officials contacted the general contractors, seeking “the best way to secure the tower-crane arms from collapsing further and get structural engineering reports on the affected buildings,” said Maurice Pons, deputy director of the city’s buildings department. “It’s way too early to determine exactly what happened.” The three partial crane collapses raised issues related to a long-simmering dispute over crane standards in Miami-Dade County, an area which has one of the country’s densest concentrations of highrise buildings on coastal properties exposed to hurricane-force winds. “This has been a big source of anxiety
PHOTO (TOP) JOE CAVARETTA/SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL VIA AP; (LOWER PHOTO) AP PHOTO/WILFREDO LEE
With damage from the powerful hurricane still being assessed, crews rapidly are restoring power and services
CRANE DOWN Three tower cranes partially col-
(TOP RIGHT) AP PHOTO/JOHN RAOUX
lapsed, including one in Fort Lauderdale (left, top). The Marlins Park roof membrane was damaged (left, bottom), and utility workers preparations for Irma’s impact helped to restore power after the storm.
for people downtown,” said Ken Russell, Miami city commissioner for District 2, which includes the sites of the crane collapses. “We were fortunate [the cranes] came down on the buildings that were being constructed and did not strike any of the surrounding buildings, and no one was hurt. But for sure, we as a city are going to look into legislation, regulations and practices in the future about how these cranes are handled during a storm.” One of the fallen cranes was at the GranParaiso high-rise condominium development. In a statement, lead contractor Plaza Construction said the engineers and supplier took measures to secure the crane. Nevertheless, the boom was damaged due to high winds. In Miami, the other damaged crane was located at a residential tower site, and the Fort Lauderdale crane was working on a beach spa and residence. Irma’s storm surge also impacted downtown Miami. Russell reported at a press conference that “all along the waterfront was completely submerged” after Irma’s arrival, as was the Brickell financial district and parts of downtown. “Fortunately, we don’t have a Houston situation here because we have a porous oolite limestone, and we have very good drainage systems,” Russell added. “Storm
drains were all prepped before the storm so that things could flow as soon as the first low tide came about.” As a result, flooding had fully receded by Sept. 11. Duke Energy on Sept. 7 suspended work at the $1.5-billion, 1,640-MW Citrus County, Fla., gas-fired plant in preparation for Hurricane Irma but on Sept. 12 returned the site to Fluor, the EPC contractor. Fluor will decide when construction will start again, says Heather Danenhower, a Duke spokeswoman. The project has water on site but did not sustain significant damage. Meanwhile, Miami Beach—notorious for its flooding problems—escaped much of the storm surge. Where new permanent pump stations had been installed, “they worked well,” says Bruce Mowry, city engineer. For example, the recently raised and largely rebuilt area of Sunset Harbour did not experience significant flooding, he adds. But parts of Miami Beach did have flooding of about 6 in. higher than the city’s king tides last year, he notes. Still, he says, “We had more impacts than expected, even with Irma moving west,” with downed trees and power lines and knocked-out traffic-signal lights making up much of the primary longerterm impacts. Most city construction sites, including the city’s $400-million convention-center project, avoided significant damage due to storm preparation made possible by Irma’s relatively slow forward movement. But the $25-million Indian Creek Drive/SR A1A Storm Mitigation project became “fully flooded” because perimeter walls and pump stations were not completely installed along the river, says Mowry. Marlins’ Membrane Miami Marlins President David Samson in a statement acknowledged that the Marlins Park’s 17-acre retractable roof, engineered to resist 146-mph winds, did sustain damage to a membrane that serves to weatherproof the roof structure. “A section of the rubber-and-plastic membrane on the west vertical face of the center panel of the roof will need to be replaced
immediately following the conclusion of the 2017 season. This represents approximately 6% of the entire roof membrane,” Samson stated. “Based on our initial assessment today, the building performed extremely well, considering the intensity of the hurricane.” Matthew Alvarez—a project director for CH2M, which is contracted to operate the North Miami Beach water-treatment plant and other plants—said all are reported operational, including those in heavily damaged Key West. “Our team had a focus on backup power generation, knowing the facilities would likely lose power during the hurricane,” Alvarez says. “We started generators ahead of the storm to ensure that critical pumping systems remained in service continuously so there was no loss of pressure due to unexpected power surges.” Irma’s shift to the west didn’t spare coastal areas of Georgia and South Carolina, where high winds and surf eroded beaches and flooded roads on several barrier islands. Preliminary reports indicate that the coastal damage, though widespread, was less severe than that inflicted by Hurricane Matthew in 2016. In Charleston, Irma’s rains and storm surge coincided with an above-normal high tide on Sept. 11, creating a 9.9-ft flood tide, the third highest in the lowlying city’s history. The Concord Street pump station, one of the first components of an ongoing, citywide drainage improvement program begun in 1999, remained in operation through the event. The city of Jacksonville was dealing with what local officials dubbed “epic river flooding” along the St. Johns River and tributaries, caused by storm surge and flooding from the hurricane. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, port survey personnel, and power, debrisremoval and roofing teams are in Florida and Georgia, the Dept. of Defense reports. Work includes efforts to reopen ports in Port Everglades and Tampa. By Scott Judy in Orlando, with Jeff Rubenstone, Mary Powers, Debra Rubin, Scott Blair and Jim Parsons enr.com September 18, 2017
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News DISASTER RECOVERY
CLEANUP STARTS A worker passes a pile of debris from flood cleanup in Spring, Texas, on Sept. 5. Before other projects, contractors of all stripes are prioritizing getting people back in their homes.
s Hurricane Harvey floodwaters linger in portions of Texas, assessments and some rebuilding have begun as residents and officials alike try to figure out how and whether to rebuild. “The cleanup has started, the rebuilding has started,” says Thomas B. Neild Jr., of H.B. Neild & Sons, a Beaumont, Texas-based commercial and industrial construction company. “It’s breathtaking, the amount of damage. There are neighborhoods where families lost literally everything. It’s like the most grotesque garage sale. House after house is lined with all their earthly possessions,” he says. More than two weeks after the storm hit on Aug. 25, Neild’s company and contractors of all stripes are focused on getting homes livable, says Jennifer Gordy, executive director of Associated General Contractors of Southeast Texas. “The scope and magnitude is not realized yet,” she says. The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Sept. 11 said the assessment of damages is ongoing in Texas, but Harris County says at least 136,000 homes were damaged. Analysis
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September 18, 2017 enr.com
by real estate information group CoStar shows 27% of Houston’s commercial buildings may have flooded. Even as engineering and construction firms are bringing people to the state to assess and repair the damages, the Harris County Flood Control District, FEMA and the city of Houston are preparing a home buyout program to move people out of floodplains. The district says it will release more information on the program Sept. 18. Some of those buyouts may occur in the neighborhoods inundated by floodwaters after the Army Corps of Engineers began releasing water from the Addicks and Barker reservoirs two days after Harvey passed. The Corps says it is moving ahead with planned studies on how best to manage the water around Houston. Along with getting people back in their homes, firms are working to get critical systems functioning and roads and schools open, says Craig B. Thompson, president of the Texas section of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a municipal engineer. Thompson says he has been consulting with local munici-
Corps Under Fire The Corps is steadily decreasing water releases from the Addicks and Barker reservoirs and expects to hit 4,000 cfs by Sept. 15. “Things are getting better, but we still want to caution everybody: We’re still not out of the woods,” says Randy Cephus, deputy public affairs officer. As it continues to manage water
AP PHOTO/DAVID J. PHILLIP
Texans Begin To Assess ‘Breathtaking’ Damage
palities. He says structural engineers will start assessing homes and buildings in the next tranche of activity. Beaumont, which had its water system knocked out by the flooded Neches River, is back on line, but on Sept. 11 the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said 35 water systems are still shut down, 136 have “boil water” notices, and 35 wastewater treatment plants are inoperable. The Texas Dept. of Transportation notes that, as of Sept. 11, 26 roads remain closed because of floodwaters. The agency continues to take inventory of damages to roads and bridges. High, swift-moving water is blamed for most of the damage found so far, a DOT spokesman said. After a portion of the Sam Houston Tollway was severely damaged after sitting in about 15 ft of water, crews restored it to better-than-new condition, working 24/7 for five days straight. Industrial and commercial assessments have begun, as well; in at least a handful of cases, projects planned in lower-lying areas are on hold “till further notice,” says Neild. But many others are moving ahead, chalking up the flooding to an event that likely won’t occur again. The number of assessments is daunting. The damage is similar to that experienced in Superstorm Sandy, “except Sandy was very compact,” says Bruce Arita, senior vice president of Thornton Tomasetti and head of the Property Loss Consulting Practice, which is completing insurance assessments near Corpus Christi and plans to be in Houston later this month. “Texas is immense. The area is very big, so just getting around is tough,” he said.
ECONOMICS
Labor, Steel, PVC Shortages Could Hinder Swift Recovery in Texas, Florida
H
PHOTO BY LUKE ABAFFY
OUTFLOW The Corps says releases from the Addicks and Barker reservoirs were necessary to prevent even worse flooding and possible damage.
releases, the Corps’ decision to release the water is being scrutinized. At least three lawsuits have been filed seeking compensation from the flooding. Filed against the Corps, one suit claims the flooding is a “taking” under the Fifth Amendment. Residents of West Houston thought they had dodged a bullet after Hurricane Harvey passed. Their homes were still dry after record rainfall. But three days later, early on Aug. 28 after water levels increased dramatically in the Addicks and Barker reservoirs, the Army Corps of Engineers began to release water from the reservoirs to prevent further flooding and catastrophic failures. “The water rose very quickly—two and a half feet. It was very fast. It went back down for a minute and then suddenly back up,” says Russ Hyde, a mechanical engineer who lives near Buffalo Bayou, the tributary that drains the reservoirs. Had the water not been released, the Corps says, between 30,000 to 40,000 cfs of upstream water would have inundated a wider area. “It was a tough decision what we did, but it was one we had [make to] to ensure the integrity of the project,” says Richard Long, supervisory natural-resource manager for the Corps’ Galveston district. “I’ve lived in this community for 35 years now, and these are my friends and neighbors. I know people upstream and downstream that have been impacted by our operations, so it’s not an easy job.” By Pam Radtke Russell, Louise Poirier and Scott Blair
urricane Harvey’s immediate impact on the construction sector will be a disruption in the supply chain for key materials, along with scheduling problems for projects that were under construction. As the cleanup and eventual rebuilding proceed, increased demand for materials and labor will push costs upward and contractors will be scrambling to secure supplies and workers. “Based on our experience with Katrina and Sandy, we know that rebuilding requires several years to gear up, so we expect Harvey to start to influence construction starts in the region during the 2018-19 time frame after the immediate damage is dealt with,” says Robert Murray, chief economist for Dodge Data & Analytics. Before the storm hit, Texas already had generated $83 billion in new construction starts through July, slightly above last year’s pace, according to Dodge. Houston was a particular hot spot, with Dodge reporting 26 projects valued at over $25 million, starting since last January. Some of these projects are quite large, including a $3-billion liquef i e d - n a t u r a l - g a s e x p o r t f a c i l i t y, a n $850-million tollway, a $390-million refinery and a $385-million polyethylene plant, says Dodge. “Harvey will further tighten an already tight labor market,” says Emily Crowley, labor economist with Global Insight, Washington, D.C. In August, construction unemployment ticked down to 4.7% from 4.9%, with 28,000 workers joining the construction workforce. The number of unemployed, experienced construction workers hit a 17-year low in August, according to Ken Simonson, the chief economist for Associated General Contractors of America. Simonson says the high employment rate means few will want to leave their homes for Texas or Florida. An AGC sur vey conducted before Hurricane Harvey found that 70% of those contacted, including 69% of the 158 contrac-
tors in Texas, already were having trouble filling hourly craft positions, including carpenters, electricians and concrete workers. About 45% of the companies in Texas also were having trouble filling managerial positions. Simonson expects critical and time-sensitive projects will attract enough construction workers. But full recovery will take many years due to long-standing shortages of skilled workers as well as shortages in materials and parts that already are in high demand—elevators, curtain-wall assemblies, large-scale HVAC or water-treatment equipment, for example—complicated by funding issues and regulatory approvals. Wages could take a couple of years to catch up with demand, Crowley says. It took until 2007, two years after Hurricane Katrina hit, before carpenter wages in the area increased 10%. Contractors may have an additional concern: The Port of Houston is the largest importer of steel products into the country and the combination of a disruption of imports, lost inventory and increased demand from rebuilding could check steel prices, which were weakening before the storm, says John Anton, steel analyst for Global Insight. “Steel prices had been sliding, but, after Harvey, we expect prices to flatten out. Any risk to this forecast is now on the upside,” Anton says. Harvey’s hit on the petrochemical industry also will increase costs for diesel fuel, gasoline, PVC feedstock and natural gas, which is a major energy input for materials such as cement. “At least 70% of total U.S. capacity for PVC feedstock is either confirmed off line or has the potential to be impacted as a result of Harvey,” says Ted Semesnyei, a Global Insight economist. That number runs as high as 90% for resins used in other plastic products, he adds. However, natural-gas and gasoline shortages and price increases, initially a big concern, have been negligible. By Tim Grogan enr.com September 18, 2017
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