Northrop Grumman Ship Systems Composite Mechanic Lisa Black stacks items to determine their operational status at Northrop Grumman's Gulfport, Miss., facility.

Six feet of water flooded Northrop Grumman's Pascagoula shipyard as a result of Hurricane Katrina. (Photo taken by Ron Elias, Northrop Grumman, Sept. 3, 2005)

Northrop Grumman's Owen McLeod clears storm debris during recovery operations at the Pascagoula shipyard.

Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Ship Systems sector (www.northropgrumman.com) has three shipyards along the Gulf Coast. They stood in the path of Hurricane Katrina, and they suffered for it. The shipyard in Avondale, La., (Northrop Grumman's New Orleans Operations) had the least amount of flooding and facilities damage, while the company's Gulfport Operations in Gulfport, Miss., had extensive flooding and wind damage, according to the company. However, Northrop Grumman's Ingalls operations in Pascagoula, Miss., were damaged the most. The Ingalls operations took on six feet of water in some areas, and its facilities that handle shop work and materials that feed shipbuilding and repair work were heavily damaged by the storm.

Lee Kvidahl, manager for welding engineering at the Pascagoula operations and past president of the American Welding Society, says that all the shipyard's operations were impacted, especially welding. " With the flooding that we had throughout the shipyard, a large percentage of our welding power supplies, positioners, cutting tools and other items were under water. A relatively small percentage could be salvaged. The rest are being replaced."

Kvidahl says the company's welding equipment providers have been supportive with deliveries. "Several of them have told us they have worked overtime to make the numbers that we need. It's just the fact that we have so large (a welding equipment) population that we do not have all of them (yet)," Kvidahl said in late December. The shipyard had some incidents in which workers needed tools that were not available.

The Pascagoula shipyard continues to build ships and make deliveries. For example: the San Antonio, an LCD 17-class amphibious transport dock ship built for the U.S. Navy, left the shipyard Dec. 3, for commissioning in Texas. Meanwhile, the company focused most of Pascagoula's resources on its waterfront operations in an effort to maintain its shipbuilding schedules. However, Kvidahl notes that the company expects an approximate six-month schedule delay on some of its work because its ability to build components in the shipyard's shops was damaged so extensively. "That is where we are going to have a delay," Kvidahl says, adding, "It just takes time when you have something of this magnitude."