Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.bonus,americast.usa-today.bonus From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: bonus Fri, Sep 4 1992 Date: Fri, 4 Sep 92 04:34:27 EDT Message-ID: 09-04 0000 BONUS: Florida attracts construction USA TODAY Update Sept. 4-7, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network Hurricane Andrew destroyed 63,000 homes and countless businesses and damaged thousands more Aug. 24. Already, Dade County is turning into one big construction site. The roads are full of pickups loaded with ladders and rolls of roofing materials. On trees and telephone poles - those that are still standing - hang handwritten signs advertising tree cutting, roof patching or just "Rebuilder." And on roofs - those houses that still have them - contractors sweltering in 90-degree heat are laying down plywood and tar paper. IS THERE A SHORTAGE OF BUILDERS? Last year, David DelSol shut down his Miami engineering and contracting business, laying off 19 people he just couldn't keep working in the slumping south Florida economy. Now he's on top of a house on Franjo Road, rebuilding a roof ripped away by Hurricane Andrew. He has a crew of six, needs more men and has more work than he can handle. "Look around," he says. "Even if you've got a couple of states' worth of contractors working, there's enough for six months." WHO WILL DO ALL OF THEIR CONSTRUCTION WORK? A state Department of Labor economist estimates that the devastation could create up to 7,000 construction jobs - as many as Dade County lost the past two years. For contractors, the recession is over. And builders from all over the USA want a piece of the action. "We're getting calls from vultures all over the world," says Chuck Lennon of the Builders Association of South Florida. "They're circling." WHAT KIND OF WORK NEEDS TO BE DONE? There's a lot of work to do. Right now it's mostly clearing trees, patching roofs to make them watertight and cleaning up debris. Homeowners in the hardest-hit areas are still worrying about food, water and shelter. WHERE ARE ALL OF THESE WORKERS COMING FROM? Mike Adair drove down from Palm Beach with his partner, Rocky Elson, to stuff local mailboxes with business cards. "I can't sleep at night with the opportunities going through my head," Adair says. Meanwhile, his Bobcat bulldozer has been clearing fallen trees in wealthy Coconut Grove for $45 an hour. Peter Casanas came from New York to repair two rental properties and picked up six more reconstruction jobs. "We've had offers left and right," says Casanas, who is commuting to South Dade from Key Largo, 40 miles away. IS THE WORK EASY TO FIND? Randy Blair came from Orlando, one of a 14-man roofing crew that arrived with 5,000 rolls of tar paper. Doing business as Disaster Dry In Team, they get $1,500 to patch a roof. It takes about two hours. "You don't have to look," he says. "People just come up and ask you." He'll make "an easy grand a week." Builders are arriving with plans to stay months or longer. "We plan on possibly two years," says Bob LaRose, a contractor from DeLand, north of Orlando. He wants to buy four or five badly damaged homes - he's seen signs advertising houses for sale for $1,000 - repair them, house his crews there until work runs out, then resell. ARE THERE CREWS THAT FEAST ON DISASTER DUTIES? Many of the new arrivals are disaster specialists. They went to South Carolina after Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Inrecon, a Dearborn, Mich.-based company that specializes in insurance reconstruction, has brought in 300 workers and $750,000 worth of building materials from offices across the country. Inrecon's tactic: concentrate the work in a few expensive housing developments. In an upscale development in Cutler Ridge, where Inrecon has parked an air-conditioned trailer office, the company signed up 31 of 83 homes at a homeowners' meeting. "We go anywhere there's a disaster," says Vice President George Fenton. "This is our forte." WILL ANY OF THESE CREWS STAY IN SOUTH FLORIDA PERMANENTLY? Blaine Byars from Columbia, S.C., says the same thing. He and two friends drove down in a pickup loaded with five rolls of plastic, 20 sheets of plywood and generators and chainsaws to sell on consignment from a pawnshop, "and we were in business." Unemployed for three months at home, he plans to stay in south Florida permanently. Now he's parked on the side of the road opposite the Old Cutler Shopping Center with his merchandise spread out, a spray-painted "Low Prices" sign and one of his partners asleep in the shade of the truck. WHERE HAVE CREWS GOTTEN THE MOST BUSINESS? So far, he's had the best luck in wealthy neighborhoods, patching two houses with plywood and boarding up windows. He got $1,200 at each house. "Those people want their houses built today, and they've got the money to pay upfront," he says. Up the road, Todd Rishel and Tracy Gorczyca sit in lawn chairs behind the Winnebago parked on the grass verge. "I've worked three hurricanes" - David in 1979, Hugo and now Andrew, says Rishel. In South Carolina, he made $33,000 in two-and-a-half months. Here, he figures, he can make $2,000 on a good day cutting and hauling damaged trees. HOW DO THE LOCAL CONTRACTORS FEEL ABOUT THE INFLUX? The influx of builders doesn't necessarily annoy local contractors, though they are quick to point out that out-of-towners may not be familiar with south Florida's building codes. "There'll be work for everybody," says Robert Lennon, working on clearing debris at Old Cutler Shopping Center. HOW HARD IS THE WORK? The work is plentiful but not easy. Dade County has suspended requirements for building permits for emergency repairs. But building supplies can be scarce and prices are going up: from $7.50 to $13 for a sheet of plywood at MCR Lumber in Naranja. To get workers, LaRose had to raise wages, paying laborers $10.50 an hour instead of 8. He's paying skilled workers $18 an hour, up from $13. Crews are sleeping in motor homes, in campgrounds, with friends. LaRose spent one night sleeping atop his U-Haul. A few food trucks have appeared, but there are no 7-Elevens nearby to fetch a cold drink when the sun gets blistering. ARE THERE ANY PUBLIC RELATIONS PROJECTS TO DEAL WITH? However badly needed the jobs, the construction industry is in the uncomfortable position of profiting from the misfortune wrought by Andrew. Worried about their collective reputation, the south Florida home builders, with help from the National Association of Homebuilders, are preparing TV ads to run next week giving tips on how to avoid getting ripped off. Local media have already hammered home the message: Don't hire a contractor who doesn't have a license, including a certificate of competency, and insurance. Also, don't hand over any money up front. ADVISORY: Decisionlines will not be published Monday, Sept. 7, in observance of Labor Day. Decisionlines will resume publication on Tuesday, Sept. 8. Bonus Editor: Martin Baucom. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM