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.
· Terex delivered light towers and generators to the Gulf region to aid in early relief work. The company is accelerating machine deliveries to areas where equipment is needed most, and its factories have adjusted production schedules to concentrate on products needed in the Gulf Coast states. Terex is assigning a senior executive to the region to coordinate the company’s efforts to provide relief workers and contractors access to the equipment they require.
The company is also working with local agencies to fill current job vacancies when possible with victims of the hurricane. Terex will also match employee contributions to the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the United Way and Save the Children.
· Kubota committed $200,000 to the American Red Cross and $200,000 in equipment and support for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. In addition, Kubota’s U.S. subsidiaries will match employee donations to the American Red Cross Hurricane Katrina fund.
· The Associated Equipment Distributors has established the Construction Equipment Distribution Industry Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund and pledged to match the first $100,000 in contributions.
· Navistar Financial will offer its customers residing in federal disaster areas a two-month deferral of loan or lease payments. The company will move deferred payments to the end of the contracts, and will waive processing fees and deferral interest.
· DaimlerChrysler Services Truck Finance will offer customers in portions of Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi “special circumstance” extensions and deferrals.
· Bridgestone Global donated more than $1 million to the American Red Cross Hurricane Katrina response, and Firestone Polymers, which has a plant in Lake Charles, La., donated $10,000 along with a corporate match of up to $10,000.
· Longview Advantage, which markets GPS tracking products, will not charge monthly service fees to customers in the devastated regions of Louisiana and Mississippi.
