Of the five IAMC members hailing from Louisiana, three are from Baton Rouge, which more than any other city in the U.S., in relation to its size, has had to bear the brunt of evacuee and business assistance. A Sept. 27 discussion hosted by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber on whether Katrina’s impact on Baton Rouge is "Blip or Transformation" yielded some interesting observations and data. A further glance at the area’s business space being offered reveals the extent of the real estate "boom."

Tulane Prof. Peter Ricchiuti

Anheuser-Busch’s Scott Reed reported that the company had no facilities closed due to Katrina. But the St. Louis-based brewery was shipping up to 2.5 million cans of potable water per week to Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama as part of the initial relief effort, in addition to donating $1 million outright and pledging up to $1 million in matching funds along with its independent wholesalers around the country. Successive water supply efforts in the wakes of both Ophelia and Rita followed in short order.

Elsewhere in Missouri, the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC), the research arm of IAMC member organization Missouri Department of Economic Development, delivered maps to the U.S. Department of Labor looking at how Hurricane Katrina will affect workers, businesses and transportation systems in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The detailed maps are part of a larger involvement in a pilot program funded by the Labor Department to illustrate how maps and spatial analysis using federal data can be effective tools for decision-making.

Member company Campbell Soup Co. lost three Godiva retail shops in New Orleans. It is sending $2 million in food, in addition to managing an employee match of donations program.

Offering a beacon of economic development hope from its own hurricane experience of 2004, the state of Florida in August welcomed a new 865,000-sq.-ft. (80,359-sq.-m.) distribution center in DeSoto County from fellow IAMC member organization Wal-Mart, bringing 450 jobs to the area.

"After more than $2 million in damage to Wal-Mart's structure, the company's dedication to this project and the community's resilience proved strong," said Lt. Governor Toni Jennings. "The associates at this distribution center have overcome some incredible obstacles in the wake of the hurricanes," said Larry Mahoney, regional vice president for Wal-Mart’s logistics division, "but have made this distribution center an example of excellence for our company."

In other hurricane aftermath news, the National Association of Homebuilders has asked Congress, among other measures, to relax tariffs on building materials in order to aid in the reconstruction of the estimated 275,000 homes lost to Katrina alone.

"Exorbitant duties imposed on Canadian lumber and Mexican cement, as well as new duties on Brazilian plywood, have increased the cost of housing and contributed to shortages of materials," said NAHB President David Wilson in Sept. 15 testimony, adding that the recovery from the four major hurricanes that struck the Gulf Coast region in 2004 is still incomplete, hampered by a lack of

Students in Purdue University's Department of Building Construction Management learn about building homes and other structures in one of the department's laboratories. The department, part of Purdue's College of Technology, has received a gift to establish an endowed professorship in reconstruction and disaster restoration. (Purdue News Service photo/David Umberger)

Putting some of those materials to use will be the aim of a new program in reconstruction and disaster restoration funded by Purdue University’s College of Technology, within the Department of Building Construction Management.

"Purdue is the national leader in building construction management, and this gift will help us establish the country's first education program focused on rebuilding communities that have been ravaged by disasters," Purdue President Martin C. Jischke said this week. "The devastation from these disasters — like what has been seen in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita — presents special challenges in rebuilding, and Purdue will be on the forefront of meeting those challenges."