As Hurricane Katrina hurtled herself toward the Mississippi and Louisiana Gulf Coasts this week, Valero employees at the St. Charles and Krotz Springs refineries braced themselves for the worst. The rest of the company, meanwhile, prepared themselves for what they do best — caring and sharing.

“Rest assured, we are going to take care of our employees,” CEO Bill Greehey said. “Whatever financial help they need, they will be taken care of by Valero. They are our family.”

Early Monday, Katrina slammed onto shore just east of New Orleans with howling, 145-mile winds. The death toll has reached at least 110 in Mississippi alone. But the full magnitude of the disaster has yet to be realized — primarily in Louisiana, where thousands are feared to have perished.

On the energy front, the storm shut down eight refineries — only one of them belonging to Valero — and the bulk of all U.S. offshore oil and natural gas production. But Greehey believes the company will bounce back unscathed; it’s the employees who will need the most attention in the weeks and months to come.

“It’s going to be a long time before we see the full impact of the hurricane,” Greehey told employees at a United Way fundraising kickoff event in San Antonio. “In the aftermath of Katrina, we started getting hundreds of e-mails — everyone volunteering to give money and supplies, even volunteering their homes to employees who could not go home.”

Greehey said the St. Charles Refinery suffered no significant structural damage. Up to 3 feet of water had collected in parts of the plant, he said, but by Wednesday the levels were down to 12-18 inches. Krotz Springs, meanwhile, was unharmed by Katrina but was forced to run at minimum rates due to pipeline problems. Asphalt terminals in Mobile, Alabama and St. James Parish, Louisiana were down due to power loss, but not significantly damaged. The Mobile terminal also experienced flooding.

All employees in all locations were safely evacuated before the storm made landfall, and are only now beginning to trickle back into the area. A check of employees’ home ZIP codes, however, shows that at least some of them lived in hard-hit areas. Roughly 1,000 people were affected — 550 from the St. Charles Refinery, Greehey said. “It appears a lot of our employees probably lost their homes,” he said.

Valero is preparing to offer temporary housing help by setting up trailers near its St. Charles refinery when it opens within the next two weeks. “We are anxious for our employees to return as soon as local authorities will allow it," Valero Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications Mary Rose Brown told the media Wednesday. "We are also anxious to know if any of our employees have significant damage to their homes so we can assist in getting their homes repaired.”

Companywide relief efforts will be plentiful and necessary. Valero has made a $1 million contribution to the American Red Cross, while Valero employees across the nation are offering support by way of blood drives and food and clothing collections. By the end of the day Wednesday, Valero had collected more than $10,000 from just 29 donations. And even offers to give up vacation time had reached Greehey’s e-mail box, all in a push to help in search-and-rescue efforts.

In Houston, employees have made a donation to the local food bank, and offered support to a church shelter that already has reached maximum capacity. The plant is collecting supplies, planning a cook-out for one of the activated shelters, and collecting money for a contractor living with 25 displaced family members from Louisiana.

In Benicia, plans are in the works for a quilting marathon on behalf of hurricane victims. In Paulsboro, bins are already out for the collection of household items, clothing and linens.

“Our Valero Volunteer Council has established collection boxes for our periodic food, sneaker, coat and clothing drives and we are ready to facilitate and activate this mechanism to assist,” said Claire Riggs, Lead Community Relations Specialist in Paulsboro. “In addition to those employees who have been requested to assist with restarting St. Charles, a number of our employees have expressed interest in going down to assist fellow Valero employees rebuild and reestablish their homes and lives. 

“We have a blood drive set for next week and will make a plea for additional assistance with this effort as well. We are very eager and ready to help.”

And in Krotz Springs, Valero employees have been helping comfort 200 displaced people from New Orleans, offering food, toiletries and shelter.

In San Antonio, Valero is helping ease the trauma of 50 children and 14 youth-care workers who arrived from a Father Flanagan’s Boys Town chapter in New Orleans, hit hard by the storm.

“Of course, these kids have had the same kind of traumas in their lives that our San Antonio kids have had.  Now, the evacuation,” one Boys Town worker said. “They had to leave their siblings in other shelters and don't know if they are safe or not. And they've had to leave other family members. The youth care workers have also had to leave their families behind so they have stress.”

Along with an outpouring of support from churches and businesses in San Antonio, Valero has offered support in the way of Six Flags Fiesta Texas tickets, plus funds for meals and parking.

Valero will hand-deliver employees’ donations to the Red Cross. In addition, the company is coordinating delivery of 20 portable living trailers to be located across from the St. Charles Refinery’s main office building, and a giant air-conditioned tent — used for a United Way kickoff reception in San Antonio — is also on its way.

Valero Corporate is supporting  local employee emergency needs and shipping food and supplies from Valero’s Retail Distribution Center in Schertz, Texas. And 20 people from the Corpus Christi and Three Rivers refineries are on their way to St. Charles to assist with repairs and startup of the refinery once power is restored to the area.

Once power is up and repairs complete, restarting the refinery itself will probably require another five to seven days. In all, St. Charles is hoping to be back in operation in about two weeks, Greehey said.

Amid all the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina, Valero’s retail stores in Louisiana stayed open and provided a very important service at two crucial times: as people were fleeing for safety, and as they returned to survey the damage to their homes.

As the storm approached, residents in large parts of Southern Louisiana were told to evacuate. With supplies dwindling, Valero’s retail stores stayed open — in some cases after securing hurricane shutters or makeshift plywood shields over the windows. People eager to get out of Katrina’s way were able to purchase much-needed gasoline as well as food, drinks and other necessities.

Many of the stores lost power as the hurricane struck, but reopened as quickly as possible after it passed. Two stores in Houma, La. required power from generators, but their store managers recognized that people still in the area and those returning from the evacuation would need supplies. In some cases, the Valero stores were the only stores open in the area. This, of course, was all going on while the employees themselves were concerned about getting their families to safety and the storm’s devastation to their own homes.
Retail managers realized even before the storm hit that customers would need certain supplies, and ordered accordingly.

“We’re getting our normal groceries, but we’re also getting extra hurricane supplies, like paper towels, toilet paper, batteries, duct tape and disposable cameras,” said Danny Meadows, Zone Manager of the Houston South Zone, which includes the affected areas. “When our stores opened, there was traffic lined up a block away for gas.”

Drivers made emergency deliveries of gasoline to the stations as soon as they could.

Loss Prevention Manager Marc Gonzalez had a loss-prevention team in place at stores in the area even before the storm hit, helping to secure the sites. After the storm passed, Gonzalez and his team assessed damage and helped organize the crowds that were showing up to buy gasoline and supplies.

“This could be the worst natural disaster in U.S. history,” Greehey said. “But we will help in whatever way we can.”