January 15, 2007

Vacuum Maker Hailed as Savior Quits Gulf Town - New York Times

Vacuum Maker Hailed as Savior Quits Gulf Town - New York Times

Oreck, the high profile vacuum maker, has decided to move to Tennessee from the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Katrina. Extraordinarily high insurance rates and a difficult employment market were factors in its decision to move a manufacturing plant inland.

In some respects this is a good thing. If, over the long haul, the risks and costs to a business for its location near the ocean are too great, moving inland is the prudent action.

Perhaps this is one tiny indicator that people are seeing the vulnerability of living/working in unsafe coastal areas, particularly in an era of global warming which some say will create more ferocious ocean storms and rising sea levels. As one would expect, the economic signal is the best to propel action.

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