New Orleans, LA: Hurricane Katrina Special Report

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UPDATE: New Orleans, One Year Later Coverage from 2005 New Orleans, LA (2006) — As so many New Orleans residents grapple with rebuilding their homes, the city’s Goodwill is likewise struggling. Three weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit, Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Louisiana’s headquarters looked like it had survived with little damage—yet the staff soon learned that the facility had indeed sustained structural damage. Currently, insurance claims are still being settled, and the disposition of the building is still unclear. “We feel we’ll eventually have to tear down the building, rebuild on the site and customize it for services we have now,” says Vice President Jodee Daroca. In February 2006, the Goodwill staff moved from a temporary location in Baton Rouge to leased space in a New Orleans suburb, where they operate today. Currently, 437 people are employed with the Goodwill, representing 63 percent of the pre-Katrina workforce. Daroca says, “Immediately after the storm, we worked without computer systems, without creature comforts you expect to have. In retail, the stores that could open, opened. It truly is amazing what anyone can do without normal things. We had a staff that was willing and able to do so.” In the weeks following the storm, work was apparently where many New Orleans Goodwill employees preferred to be. “For many of us who lost homes, as long as you had a job to go to and a job you felt was contributing [to something], that took the stress off,” Daroca adds. “It was kind of your haven for a while.” Goodwill Industries International’s Disaster Relief Fund has helped the New Orleans Goodwill restore operations, and funds were also given directly to workers affected by the store in the five hardest hit parishes—Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard and St. Tammany. Read letters from those who received funding. Signs of progress, despite lack of workers Like so many other things in the Crescent City these days, progress is stymied by the lack of people, a dearth of resources and the slow wheels of bureaucracy. Of the Goodwill’s 13 retail stores, three remain closed, in Slidell, Chalmette and Lakeview. All but one of the Goodwill’s federal contracts are operating again, although not at full capacity. It’s a challenge to find employees, since many people with disabilities have not yet returned to the New Orleans area. The Goodwill faces major challenges in keeping its good retail employees because of the lack of affordable housing and the high, competitive retail wage. “Everywhere you go, you see ‘Help Wanted’ signs, and the problem is about to get worse because [working-age] kids are ready to go back to school.”

New Orleans Goodwill Keeps Up Work in Baton Rouge

New Orleans, LA (2005) — By the end of the day September 19, employees of the New Orleans Goodwill had a temporary headquarters in Baton Rouge and the prospect of yet another hurricane threatening to flood the Crescent City.

Yet, the fact that the staff of Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Louisiana could even worry about these things was in itself progress. Just three weeks before, Hurricane Katrina had left most of New Orleans in several feet of water and forced the Goodwill to start its business operations virtually from scratch.

In a nutshell, the Goodwill’s challenges are many. Of the Goodwill’s 13 stores, six are open, four are essentially intact with minor damage and three are totally gone. Five of the Goodwill’s 30 federal and state contracts are operating in some form. No job training programs are occurring. And the Goodwill may have lost its Job 1 contract to provide Workforce Investment Act adult services, because the state may have taken it over.

“Every time we bump up against something, then we say, ‘What can we do to fix it?’” said New Orleans Goodwill CEO Bill Jessee, whose staff is operating out of the College Drive store in Baton Rouge.

In the process, several of the Goodwill’s leaders have stepped up.

As she’s done nearly every day for the past three weeks, Jodee Daroca, the Goodwill’s Vice President of Finance and Administration, started the day September 19 by checking her e-mail at the Starbucks near the College Drive retail store. Since September 1, the Goodwill’s corporate staff has worked out of that store, because of its convenient location off Interstate 10.

From the start, Daroca’s goal was two-fold: to make sure the Goodwill’s employees received their paychecks and to locate as many staff members as possible. With Jessee helping out the fire department in New Orleans for the first few days after the story, Daroca became the onsite leader for that and other efforts.

“We wanted to get everyone paid,” Daroca said September 19. “Once we figured out we’d be here for awhile, it’s a question of making that happen.”

It wasn’t easy, given that the New Orleans Goodwill staff was scattered all over the country. On September 1, several staff members began arriving at the College Drive store – among them, Vice President of Human Resources Scott Mire; Administrative Assistant Christy Whitaker; Director of Job 1 Angela Cryer; Vice President of Development Patricia Kennedy; Controller Kathy Voitier; Retail Store Manager Samson Gemechu; and Job 1 Billing Clerk Ann Garcia.

That crew and others began helping the College Drive retail store staff process donations, take product out to the floor and even man the cash register over the next couple of weeks. But, at the same time, they also worked on coordinating with local officials, assessing local stores, and getting out the payroll – despite the fact that Daroca and Voitier were only able to bring emergency contact information, accounts payable data, a backup of the server and 20 checks with them out of New Orleans.

The initial challenges to the Goodwill staff ranged from sporadic communication on both cell and landlines and a dearth of housing close to the College Drive store, Daroca said. By the end of day September 19, the Goodwill had located all of its senior staff and 320 of its 542 employees – or nearly two-thirds of the workforce.

But even though many staff members have commutes of over an hour or more, they are coming in to the College Drive store, working an eight-hour day and driving back to wherever they’re staying.

“I used to have a three-mile commute,” joked Voitier, who is staying with her brother-in-law’s family in Lafayette with her husband and family. “Now I have a 63-mile commute.”

Although the commute won’t change for many staffers, their comfort level soon will. On September 16, Jessee and Daroca reached an agreement with Rev. David Griffin Sr., a pastor with the Bible World Christian Center, to lease a six-room office space at 2156 Wooddale Blvd. in Baton Rouge for $3,700 a month.

Despite that step, Jessee said the staff would “absolutely” be moving back to New Orleans.

“It’s a question of when,” said Jessee, who, with Voitier, retrieved some equipment from the New Orleans headquarters on September 19. “We’re going back to our facility there.”

In the meantime, Jessee said he anticipates that staff may begin moving desks, file cabinets and shelving into the temporary office space as early as September 20. Staff may begin working there as early as September 21.

And there have been other small signs of growth – the Goodwill will attempt to participate in a $62 million state initiative that will pay workers $9 an hour for 12 weeks. Jessee said he would like to include many of his hourly employees in that program, which will help with the agency’s cash flow issues.

NISH has also fronted the Goodwill a month of revenues and also gave the Goodwill some satellite phones, Jessee said. And the GII Member Services Center is helping the Goodwill run its accounting system and sent the agency 10 laptops to facilitate work, Daroca said.

According to Voitier, many of the Goodwill’s staff members have lost their homes and all their belongings, and their families find themselves in the same position. They may be facing another round of flooding, as Hurricane Rita makes her way through the Gulf of Mexico.

Yet Voitier counts her blessings.  

“There are families are far worse off than I am,” said Voitier, whose house suffered some wind damage. “But we’re all alive. We’re all here.”

That positive attitude is evidently catching among the Goodwill’s senior managers, who recognize the rebuilding of New Orleans as an awesome opportunity for their Goodwill as well.

“It looks like a bomb hit [New Orleans,] said Scott Mire, the Goodwill’s Vice President of Human Resources. “But we have an opportunity to make this a better place.”

“[New Orleans] will come back better than ever,” he said. “And Goodwill will be right there.”