Manufacturers and distributors of construction equipment, trucks and other products have contributed to Hurricane Katrina recovery and victim support efforts in the following ways during the past week:
· Ingersoll-Rand made a $100,000 cash contribution to the American Red Cross National Disaster Relief Fund and established a program through which its U.S.-based workers and retirees can make tax-deductible donations that will benefit IR employees affected by the hurricane. The company will match contributions made to both funds.
More than 100 Ingersoll-Rand employees and their families are among those affected by the hurricane. Two of the firm’s 84 Climate Control Technologies sector employees are unaccounted for. The sector has operations in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and western Florida. The unit’s Hussmann service and installation facility in St. Rose, La., part of the New Orleans metropolitan area, employs 70 people and was severely damaged.
The hurricane also destroyed IR’s Air Solutions sales and service facility in New Orleans and damaged its Thermo King unit’s dealership in Jefferson Parish.
· The Caterpillar Foundation is matching employee and retiree contributions made to The American Red Cross Hurricane Katrina relief fund and The Salvation Army’s Hurricane Katrina relief fund.
The company is also mobilizing products, personnel and resources to help its dealers assist governmental agencies and other organizations that are responding to the disaster.
At the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Caterpillar arranged for 60 power modules – each capable of providing electricity to 200 to 300 homes – to be shipped from Brazil to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The company also donated two material handlers to municipalities in Louisiana and Mississippi, and is working with the federal government to donate a large material handler to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help rebuild levees in New Orleans.
