Gleeds waits for clean-up before assessing US hurricane aftermath

Gleeds’ US operation is gearing up to assess some of the widespread damage caused by Hurricane Katrina this week in the south of the States.

Insurers are already predicting a loss of around £14bn caused by Katrina, which hit Louisiana and Mississippi on Monday and led to a deathtoll expected to be in the hundreds.

Chris Soffe, who heads Gleeds’ US operation and is an expert in disaster recovery, said the firm had already been talking to loss adjusters last week in anticipation of the hurricane. He said: “There will be a fact finding foray. We are looking at the second week in September right now but that could change. Clearly we need to wait until the humanitarian and environmental clear-up has been completed. Safety comes before insurance. We will hang back until that is sorted.”

Soffe said it was difficult for US States to produce adequate building codes to protect against hurricane damage. “A lot of the buildings do have hurricane resilience built in but the main problem is the debris. You cannot design for a telegraph pole travelling at a 150mph at a building,” he said.

Soffe added the main damage was likely to be from the flooding caused by the hurricane, which has been exacerbated by most of the affected area being below sea level. He said: “There will be millions of gallons of water to remove. You will need to rely on pumping most of it out or evaporation.”

You cannot design for a telegraph pole travelling at 150mph at a building

Chris Soffe, Gleeds

Soffe said the hurricane was also likely to have destroyed a lot of residential work under construction on the coast in places such as Biloxi, according to Soffe. He said: “There is a boom in high rise construction there right now.”

Gleeds also worked for insurance companies following last year’s Hurricane Jeanne in Florida. This year, the company will focus on non-residential buildings such as offices.

The most costly US hurricane in history was Hurricane Andrew, which hit Florida in 1992 and caused damage worth £14bn.