Contractors bracing for rising material costs, work force vacuum after hurricanes - Memphis Business Journal:

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An estimated 275,000 homes and tens of thousandds of businesses were destroyed by Katrinain Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama; Rita's wratg has yet to be assessed. That catastrophw has created a black hole that coul d suck in materials and manpowee on agargantuan scale. "It's like looking down the barrel ofa gun," says Henryu Haizlip, vice president of . "It'sa going to tremendously affect our work force herein Memphis." Grinder Haizlip has "a tremendous workload," according to Haizlip. Current projects include three retailshopping centers, three new-car virtually continual work at and numerous projects in the heavyt industrial sector.
"The building businesse is good andstrong here," Haizlip says. There's no guarantede of keeping workers in theMemphisw market, though, when pasturesw will begin to look much greene to the south as reconstructionj begins. Haizlip figures coastal rebuildingwill "be red in about six months, aftere demolition and clearing are completed and solid planning and redesign have kicked in. "And if the economt weakens here, it will double the reasonh to godown there," Haizlil says. "We do realize there will be issues with saysPage Inman, president of But he is bracingy more for material shortages and price increases.
The Inman firm specializesa in health care construction and otherf commercial projects ineast Arkansas, west Tennessee and nortyh Mississippi. "Materials will be sucked down intothat area," Inmanb says of the Gulf Coast. "It could causer delays in projects up Inman admits that what problems they may face are not yetin "We just don't know what the situation will be down he says. Inman adds that he doesn't expectr to pursue any rebuilding projectas on the coast since he's enjoying "a pretty good backlogy of work." And neither does Roger vice president of .
"We're pretty busy in this area and don'y see venturing out," he Along with the hundreds of thousandxs of homes andbusinesses destroyed, Katrina and Rita leveleds hundreds of churches. Burns does expectg higher prices as thecoastt rebounds, but he expects that to be more detrimental to ownersw since MCB contracts generally include clauses that pass rising material costsd on to them. "But we'll absorn some of them," Burns He says MCB doesn'tt expect much of a labor shortage problemm since the firm relieson "people who have been with us several years.
" "We have no desirw to go down there as a company," says Chrisd Woods, owner of "But we'rw apprehensive about what the future holds. When Hurricane Andres hit Miami, the price of plywoof doubled."