VICTORIA, BC, CANADA - Carmanah Technologies, a global leader in solar-powered LED lighting, has been rushing to fill orders for hundreds of lights to rebuild facilities destroyed by Hurricane Katrina on the U.S. Gulf Coast. In the week following the hurricane, Carmanah says it received orders for more than 500 of its solar-powered LED marine, railway, and aviation lights. To meet the demand, the company has diverted all of its inventory and production to the hurricane region, according to Carmanah’s CEO, Art Aylesworth.
“Carmanah has been in full production mode all week and has been shipping lights daily to the Gulf Coast,” Aylesworth said. “All of Carmanah’s marine distributors worldwide have volunteered to forego shipments so that everything in stock and all production can be rushed to the hurricane zone. When we finish filling orders for hurricane relief, we will be busy catching up on backorders for our distributors.”
Most of the orders have been for Carmanah’s 700 Series marine navigation lights, which have been sent to the U.S. Coast Guard in Mobile, Alabama, for distribution to affected areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Also, CSX Corporation ordered 100 Carmanah Model 601 lights to mark railroad bridges along its hardest-hit 100-mile stretch of track between Pascagoula, Mississippi, and New Orleans. Aviation lights are being ordered to mark helicopter pads.
Other orders continue to arrive as agencies assess their rebuilding needs. A preliminary estimate of damages to the Port of New Orleans and other public ports of Louisiana totals US $1.7 billion. Together, the shipping facilities of the Louisiana coast represent the largest U.S. port and the fifth largest global port.