When Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in August 2005, it left more than 1,800 people dead, displaced hundreds of thousands of others, and destroyed homes, businesses, and entire communities across the region. Levees in New Orleans, Louisiana, broke, and an estimated 80% of the city was under water at one point.
Amid the staggering destruction and loss, HVACR contractors, manufacturers, and industry organizations joined recovery efforts, providing equipment and assistance as communities began the long process of clearing debris, drying out buildings, and rebuilding.
Within weeks of the storm, Carrier Rental Systems was providing portable air-conditioning for evacuees, Desert Aire was shipping in portable dehumidifiers to dry out buildings, and Rheem began working with relief agencies to provide donations, according to ACHR NEWS reports from the time.
Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) organized a relief task force, supplying donations of money, phones, tools, and even service vehicles to help member companies and their employees, some of whom had lost everything, get back on their feet.
“It was a true object lesson in how this industry can come together when tragedy strikes,” Paul Stalknecht, ACCA’s president at the time, later told The ACHR NEWS.
Efforts ramped up in the following months, as Bryant, partnering with dealers and New Orleans Habitat for Humanity, donated residential HVAC systems to rebuilding efforts and the United Association (UA), a union that represents a variety of trades workers, including HVAC technicians, raised $1.2 million to aid affected members.
By the summer of 2006, Plumbing-Heating–Cooling Contractors-National Association (PHCC) members were volunteering to help rehabilitate damaged homes for low-income people in the Gulf region. Members focused on restoring and updating plumbing and installing new water heaters.
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PHCC member Stephen Cordia of Cordia Plumbing Inc. in Richmond Heights, Missouri, was there with his wife, Bonnie, and their three children: Joseph, also a plumber in the family business, and Shelly and Beth.
“I think the most rewarding part of the experience was just to know that you are helping somebody,” said Bonnie Cordia. “The people in that area are pretty desperate.”
Two decades later, the industry’s contributions remain part of the story of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a disaster whose consequences extended beyond the physical destruction and whose human toll cannot be measured solely in damaged buildings and lost property.
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