Kickstart: Taking stock of Laura's damage

Updated, 4 p.m. Aug.27: Hurricane Laura was officially downgraded to a tropical storm Thursday afternoon, but state officials in Louisiana are warning residents to remain cautious.

In a news conference, Gov. John Bel Edwards said remaining storm bands still are causing floods in the state. A storm surge near Cameron, La., where Laura made landfall early on Thursday, topped at least 12 feet and may have reached 15 feet.

"Its a lot of storm surge but not the 20 feet we were told," he said.

Damage was still being assessed in a region that is home to a range of petrochemical and plastics plants. One fire reported in the area was caused by a chlorine leak at BioLab, a maker of pool chemicals.

Consulting firm ICIS noted that the hurricane prompted more shutdowns at refineries than anticipated.

Paul Bjacek, a consultant with Accenture based in Houston, said on Linkedin that about 75 percent of U.S. petrochemical and polymer manufacturing capacity is in the pre-declared disaster areas of Texas and Louisiana.

The National Hurricane Center said damaging winds will continue through northern Louisiana and Arkansas through today, while high storm surge waters continue to be an issue along the Gulf Coast.

The region is an area heavily populated by plastics and petrochemical plants. A lot of this same region previously went through the floods that followed Hurricane Harvey.

Materials plants started preparing for Laura earlier this week, preemptively shutting down and sending most workers home.

If you have information on the impact of the storm, feel free to reach out to us, and we'll share it with our readers.

You can reach me at [email protected], Senior Reporter Frank Esposito at [email protected] and Editor Don Loepp at [email protected].

Each year, plastics manufacturers have joined with other companies in opening their doors to students and the general public for National Manufacturing Day.

NMD is set for Oct. 2 this year, and organizers with The Manufacturing Institute are inviting companies to submit information on their plans for the event. But of course, 2020 is not like other years.

How will companies adapt in a pandemic to show their operations to neighbors and attract potential future employees?

The institute's website doesn't mention anything about COVID-19 or offer suggestions for a virtual or socially distanced event. The closest it gets to bringing up the coronavirus is a few seconds of footage of workers wearing masks in a promotional video. (The bulk of the promo is footage from past events.)

Has your company been actively preparing for a Manufacturing Day event, either virtual or live? Drop me a line and let me know. I'd be glad to share any best practices tips on the subject, for those still trying to roll out the welcome mat.

A new, nonplastics company has taken over the former Van Dorn Demag plant in Strongsville, Ohio, more than a decade after the company stopped making injection molding machines there.

Our sister paper Crain's Cleveland Business notes that the new owner, Pipeline Development Co., purchased the site from a real estate investment group.

Demag, now owned by Sumitomo (SHI) Demag, made thousands of presses at the site starting in the 1970s. It formally announced it was shutting down U.S. production in 2007, cutting more than 100 jobs.

Demag still has a presence in Strongsville, however, operating a technical center in the city.

One quick final note on some very trying days. We all know that starting the school year is stressful. The students at Penn State Erie the Behrend College, which is closely tied to the plastics industry, have an extra, shaggy, resource.

For National Dog Day, the college showed off photos on its social media streams of Ernie, who is available for visits through Penn State Erie's Personal Counseling Office and staff psychologist Sue Daley.

Good boy, Ernie.