Rising Up After Katrina: One Retailer’s Story
Following major devastation by Hurricane Katrina, the Saks Fifth Avenue store in downtown New Orleans will open in September but is already helping to revitalize the city.
Michael J. Ebel

Saks Fifth Avenue on Canal Street in downtown New Orleans, following Hurricane Katrina.

All that changed in a heartbeat on August 29, 2005. When Katrina roared through, electricity was knocked out citywide. While the flooding that devastated so many other parts of New Orleans didn’t affect this area, squatters who occupied, looted and vandalized the store may have used candles (three empty boxes of candles were later found in a stockroom) to move around the interior at night. The candles ignited the men’s shoe stockroom, setting off fires that ultimately caused major smoke and water damage. The building’s fire suppression systems apparently failed due to inadequate pressure and no electricity. The fire was eventually extinguished by the New Orleans Fire Department.

Overnight, 237 employees were suddenly unemployed. But Saks Fifth Avenue, since its inception in 1924, has always striven to take care of its employees, no matter what the circumstances. According to Ed Stagman, Saks Fifth Avenue’s senior vice president of operations, initially the company was going to cover everyone’s salary for 30 days, but once the extent of the damage was realized, all employees were kept on full salary through December 2005. Every employee was also offered a transfer opportunity to any Saks Incorporated location throughout the country (the parent company, Saks Incorporated has more than 45,000 employees nationwide, including over 13,000 Saks Fifth Avenue employees).

Some of the visible destruction to Saks.

Stagman added that Saks Incorporated had an existing Disaster Relief Fund for its associates. Employees and vendors around the country were solicited, and $440,000 was collected and added to the fund for the Katrina disaster. These collected funds are being distributed on an as-needed basis to the 237 affected employees to help bridge other expenses.

The Scope of the Damage

While Saks Fifth Avenue has been exemplary in taking care of its employees, it still had to determine what to do with its 105,000-square-foot building, which for more than 20 years had been one of its top performing stores in the country. The company obviously missed the peak Christmas holiday season and lost store sales and profits, according to Stagman, were “in the millions.”

A light pole flattened by Katrina in New Orleans.

Other issues included:

•There was substantial fire and water damage to the mechanical-electrical-plumbing (MEP) system, as well as structural damage as a result of the heat generated from the fire.

•The structural damage was severe enough to require the installation of an emergency temporary shoring system to supplement damaged columns and beams. Significant structural damage was limited to two bays at the northwest corner of the building. The most heavily damaged area was the fourth level reinforced concrete structural slab that serves as a parking area over the retail space. The concrete masonry north wall in these bays was also damaged by the fire, but prevented the fire from spreading into the adjacent mall atrium.

•A lot of the electrical wiring was cut that controlled the elevators and other equipment and components.

•Many of the electrical panels located in the basement got wet and had to be carefully inspected before they could be turned back on.

•Lights, speakers and receptacles were damaged.

•The HVAC duct systems had to be removed.

•Water in the bottom of the elevator and escalator pits had to be pumped out and placed into 55-gallon drums (more than 4,900 gallons of water was eventually collected, enough to fill about 90 drums). The liquid also had to be tested for proper disposal.

•A potent combination of high humidity and moisture and no air conditioning caused a lot of mold — swathes of the interior in effect became a giant petri dish.

Project Challenges

Interior damage to Saks Fifth Avenue.

Stagman initially flew to Jackson, Mississippi, from Saks’ New York City corporate offices. From Jackson, he had a daily 2.5-hour drive each way, also went through various checkpoints and had to have documentation signed by city officials to get downtown.

According to Stagman, one of the more harrowing tasks he faced involved removing all the cash and expensive jewelry from the third floor store safe. He stopped off at a Costco, bought two suitcases, and rented a car and two vans. The vans were loaded up with the furs and jewelry; the car contained six figures worth of cash.

“Even though we had a police escort that day they only escorted us to the edge of the city limits — after that we were on our own,” Stagman recalls. “There were reports of snipers in the area but fortunately we didn’t have any problems and made it back safely to Jackson where we made arrangements to have the cash, furs and jewelry shipped to New York.”

Assessment & Implementation

Within days, a quick assessment of the building was done and a bid package was prepared that consisted of a project manual that included structural, mechanical and building materials remediation items. The project was divided into six key tasks:

TASK I: Fire and Water Remediation Design and Bidding Services

A plan was developed that specified the scope of abatement. The remediation plan served as a guideline that included equipment, materials and suggested procedures.

TASK II: Fire and Water Remediation

Oversight and Management

Included briefing Saks executives each day and observing conditions within the work areas prior to and during remediation activities by the contractor.

TASK III: Structural Reconstruction Design and Management

Key tasks included:

•Close coordination with the mall owner and Saks management to develop a plan for structural evaluation of the damage, stabilization of the heavily fire damaged fourth level floor and development of repair recommendations.

•Taking 8- to 10-inch diameter core samples from columns, joists and slab sections. This was done to better evaluate the extent of the concrete damage. Core samples were sent to labs for compression strength testing and petrographic analysis, in accordance with ASTM International (originally known as the American Society for Testing and Materials. ASTM is one of the largest voluntary standards development organizations in the world and serves as a source for technical standards for materials, products, systems and services). This work was performed by other consultants working directly for the mall management.

•Sections of reinforcing steel were removed from the fourth level damaged slab and were tested by Atlanta laboratories for strength and ductility.

•Once the concrete was cleaned of soot and debris, cracks were mapped and the limits of damage were refined by the use of sounding techniques.

•Repair plans and note form specifications on drawings were prepared by the mall’s New Orleans-based structural engineer, Morphy Makofsky Inc., to accomplish repairs. We provided a peer review of the proposed repair documents.

TASK IV: Mechanical and Electrical System Cleanup

An MEP cleanup plan was submitted based on results of an assessment performed last September.

TASK V: Environmental Water Samples

Three liquid samples were collected from the onsite drummed waste. Chemical analyses helped in selecting the appropriate waste disposal facility. Each sample was analyzed for volatile organic compounds.

TASK VI: Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)

Assessment Prior to Building Re-occupancy

Measurements from more than a dozen areas of the store of typical indicators of indoor air quality were collected. These included carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, temperature and relative humidity. Air samples were also collected from areas of the store where mold was known to exist. The samples were shipped to a certified laboratory for analysis.

Opening for Business

While the environmental remediation work is continuing, the Saks Fifth Avenue store is on schedule to open its doors again for business in mid-September of this year. City officials are thrilled that Saks Fifth Avenue will once again be the anchor store for the Canal Place shopping mall.

“We survived Hurricane Katrina — it has been a long and challenging process, but we look forward to serving our customers in New Orleans,” Stagman says.

Michael J. Ebel is national director of commercial facilities for MACTEC, Inc., based in the firm’s Greensboro, North Carolina, office. MACTEC, based in Alpharetta, Georgia, is a $436 million environmental, engineering, construction management and infrastructure services firm.