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Katrina hits home for Prince George’s businesses
Despite climbing costs, companies aid relief efforts
Thursday, Sept. 8, 2005
by Marcus Moore
The effects of Hurricane Katrina — including higher prices for everything from gasoline to oysters — are being felt by Prince George’s businesses, even as they mount efforts to send relief to the Gulf Coast.
‘‘Our gas prices have gone up 37 percent in a week,” said Bridget Burns, CEO of Century Fence Construction, LLC in Upper Marlboro.
Before Katrina, Burns estimated it cost $65 to fill up one of her construction trucks. Last week, it cost $90.
‘‘It’s something you have to figure into your costs,” Burns said. The increased gas costs, she said, ‘‘really gives you a perspective.”
Yet while Century Fence is feeling the pinch at the pump, it is donating $500 to the American Red Cross and canned goods for hurricane survivors to the Associated Builders & Contractors of Metro Washington.
The seafood industry is being squeezed, too: The pre-Katrina price for a box of oysters was $42. Now, seafood restaurants pay $48, said Greg Daley, president of Mid-Atlantic Seafood in Prince George’s.
‘‘The cost of eating seafood could go up,” Daley said. ‘‘Supplies are limited, and what’s available costs more.”
Crab supplies have also been decimated, after Slidell, La., a major distributor of crabs to Maryland, was ‘‘all but wiped out” when Katrina knocked out portions of the Interstate 10 bridge over Lake Pontchartrain, he said.
Not all county businesses have been hurt, though.
Supermarket chain Giant Food LLC of Landover has not been at all affected, said spokesman Barry Scher.
Last week, Giant launched a fund-raising relief drive, collecting donations from customers and employees. Proceeds will be donated to the American Red Cross and America’s Second Harvest, a food bank network.
Some officials said they still don’t know if their businesses have been affected by the hurricane.
‘‘To be honest, it’s too early to tell yet,” said Gregory TenEyck, a spokesman for grocer Safeway.
Immediately after the hurricane struck, Safeway’s Texas stores donated truckloads of water to the devastated areas, TenEyck said.
The Safeway Foundation also started a fund-raising drive last week — it is matching employee contributions — and has donated $100,000 to the American Red Cross and 10,000 emergency preparedness kits, which contain blankets, flashlights and first-aid supplies.
Some Prince George’s companies are donating services, rather than money.
Spherix Inc. of Beltsville has expanded its call center in Cumberland to perform disaster recovery services for the Thrift Savings Plan call center in New Orleans, which has closed.
Spherix has also expanded its government call center operations for other agencies dealing with the aftermath of the hurricane.
‘‘Running a parallel call center with disaster recovery responsibilities is one of our specialties,” Richard Levin, president and CEO, said in a statement. ‘‘We were prepared for the worst. We started taking 100 percent of the calls early in the morning on Aug. 29, and we’ll continue to do so for as long as necessary.”
Officials with Dimensions Healthcare System of Cheverly, which operates several hospitals in the county, and the Maryland Hospital Association did not return phone calls seeking comment on whether their institutions were providing any services to hurricane victims.
The storm’s economic impact will be felt for many years in many parts of the country, says analyst Peter Morici, an economics professor at the University of Maryland, College Park.
‘‘Rebuilding will be much delayed, and the impact on neighboring regions will be larger and longer lasting,” Morici said.
Morici speculated the impact will be ‘‘much broader and deeper than initially estimated by economists.”
Repairing refineries, oil rigs and pipelines will help stabilize fuel prices, but that is not the most daunting task to stanch the economic damage, he said. The loss of the port of New Orleans — the nation’s largest — will be compounded by the loss of east-west transportation routes across the Mississippi River, Morici said.
‘‘The crisis created by Katrina will only serve to exacerbate the consequences of rising energy prices and of other fundamental shifts in the economy,” Morici said.
Copyright © 2005 The Gazette
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