2005: HVACR Industry Rallied to Help Hurricane Katrina Victims

This is a look back at how the heating and cooling industry responded after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in August 2005, killing more than 1,800 people and flooding about 80% of New Orleans. In the weeks after the storm, companies in the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVACR) trade stepped in to help. Carrier Rental Systems brought in portable air conditioning for evacuees, Desert Aire shipped portable dehumidifiers to dry out flooded buildings, and Rheem worked with relief agencies on donations.

Trade groups pitched in too. The Air Conditioning Contractors of America set up a relief task force, giving money, phones, tools, and service vehicles to member companies whose owners and workers had lost everything. Bryant later partnered with local dealers and New Orleans Habitat for Humanity to donate heating and cooling systems for rebuilt homes, and a union representing HVAC technicians and other trades workers raised $1.2 million for affected members. By the summer of 2006, contractors with the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association were volunteering to repair plumbing and install new water heaters in homes of low-income residents across the Gulf region.

There's no new program or rebate here for homeowners today. It's a retrospective on an industry mobilizing during a disaster two decades ago, a reminder of the scale of damage Katrina caused and how trade groups and manufacturers organized to help communities recover.