Glass Shops Attempting to Get Back to Business in Wake of Gustav

While many glass shops in the path of Hurricane Gustav still are without power, many are attempting to get back to business.

Gordon Ogden of Louisiana Windshield in Baton Rouge is one who's trying to get back to work-though he notes it's still difficult.

"Most of the electricity is off and it's still chaos," he says. "The phones don't work many times and without electricity, it's hard. The gasoline lines are real long-no ice, no food, and most stores aren't open."

He notes that the clean-up process continues, too.

"There are wires and trees down," he says. "It'll take two to three weeks maybe, but they're starting to get some power back."

Wooddale Glass in Baton Rouge also is seeing the effects of the violent storm.

"Everyone is really strung out," said a representative of the shop.

Vitro America has a distribution facility in New Orleans, and according to company spokesperson Alice Dickerson, the company has had to deal with some electrical outages and a few computer glitches at this facility-but nothing major. However, the facility is still enduring the aftereffects of Hurricane Katrina.

"Since Katrina, the real problem has been scattered employees," Dickerson says.

"Employees left and not all of them came back [possibly deciding] they didn't want to live in that type of area anymore."

She adds, "The [New Orleans] branch has suffered because there's a lot of work to do when the glass shops are busy and it's hard to find the manpower to make all the deliveries. There's definitely a shortage of employees and it's been tough for them to find the people they need to do the work."

For Baton Rouge, Hurricane Gustav has been reported as the worst storm the city has seen since Hurricane Betsy in 1965. And unlike New Orleans, Baton Rouge was not ordered to evacuate. On Tuesday of this week Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden told the U.S. Conference of Mayors that approximately 300,000 homes were still without power; wind damage was extensive and there are approximately 1,000 trees down.

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