Northrop Grumman resumes work

Northrop Grumman will resume building Navy ships at its Katrina damaged Gulf Coast yards as early as next week, according to company executives.

Operations in Pascagoula, Gulfport and New Orleans represent about 10% of the company’s annual business, with Pascagoula making up about 7%. The company had a profit of $1.1 billion on revenue of $29.9 billion in 2004.

Hurricane Katrina brought a halt Northrop Grumman’s shipbuilding business that spans two states. Since Katrina struck last week, as many as 3,000 workers from of the Pascagoula shipyard’s 12,000-person work force have been loading scores of trash bins with debris strewn over the facility. The company however is having trouble contacting thousands of employees who may be displaced from their homes.

Now, the company is poised to phase in some shipbuilding work while crews continue the massive clean-up project, said Philip Van Teel, the company’s president of ship systems. “The work force won’t have to be rebuilt,” Van Teel said. “The facility is what we have to rebuild. As we get the yard ready for them, they will be here. Next week we will be transitioning into ship building activity.”

On Tuesday, it established a hot line and a call center in Dallas. Van Teel said the company has not determined how much the damage will cost Northrop Grumman, particularly as each day reveals new discoveries after unearthing piles of trash, metal storage bins and damaged office trailers.

One of the eight ships under construction sustained a three-inch by four-foot gash, but that was repaired within 24 hours.