Signal sustains $20 million in hurricane damages

Sherry Koonce

Between the number of extra employees needed to make Hurricane Ike repairs and those hired in conjunction with a $50 million contract to make upgrades to offshore drilling ships, Orange’s Signal International is busy staffing during a time of economic upheaval.

About 200 to 300 new employees will be added to the company’s payroll by late spring, or early summer for the Noble Corp. contract. The additional staff will bring the company’s total work force in Orange to 800 at the project’s peak, Rodney Meisetschlaeger, senior vice president and general manager of Signal’s Texas Operations, said.

While the new contract bodes well for the company’s balance sheet, six months ago Signal’s Southeast Texas facilities were looking at making massive repairs just to stay operational.

“We had damages in excess of $20 million dollars caused by Hurricane Ike,” Meisetschlaeger said. “At the company’s Orange facility, Hurricane Ike flood waters destroyed every administrative building from human resources to engineering to production to accounting.”

The facility also lost its entire electrical system, and are just now back to about 90 percent Entergy live power.

Still, the yard was back up and running within a month of Ike with generator power.

Signal’s Orange facility was not the only property impacted by Ike. The company’s Sabine Pass facility was nearly wiped out, and is still inoperable.

Built on a floating platform, the Port Arthur dry dock yard was not damaged in the hurricane.

Because large cranes and floating cranes were not damaged in Orange, the company was able to have limited production as little as three weeks after Ike.

Though Ike did cause delays in production, Meisetschlaeger said the company is nearing completion of its contract with Northrup Grumman to build components for Navy ships. At its peak, Signal employed about 1,600 people during that contract, Meisetschlaeger said.

Per the Noble contract, the Orange workers will be producing add-ons for offshore drilling ships. The add-ons are designed to enhance the reliability and operational performance of Noble’s drillships with DP2 technology, along with new power management systems, generators and thrusters.

This will be accomplished by the fabrication of a new stern section that will house all new generators, switchgear and thrusters. At the same time, about 200 workers in Pascagoula, Miss. will make helipads and other ship components.

The year-long Noble contract could extend until 2011, if the company is successful in securing additional contracts.

To help get the company back up and running after Ike, administrative offices at the old Navy base were leased for the next five years.

The Orange yard was also raised up to 15 feet above sea level to guard against future floods, and underground wiring has been minimized.

“We weathered two storms this year. Our people really pulled together. We got this going once again and the yard is better for it,” Meisetschlaeger said.