Sep 15 - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Will Rodgers Tampa Tribune, Fla.

It may take up to 45 days to repair hurricane damage to TECO Energy Inc.'s coal-handling terminal near New Orleans, but there's plenty of coal available elsewhere to keep Tampa Electric power plants running, the company said Wednesday.

About a 40-day supply of coal is on the ground at Tampa Electric Co.'s Big Bend power plant in Tampa with more on the way, said Chuck Black, president of Tampa Electric. Black recently flew over the damaged dry-bulk terminal on the Mississippi River and other parts of southern Louisiana. He was joined by Tom Hernandez, Tampa Electric's vice president of energy delivery and customer services, and Sal Litrico, president of TECO Transport.

"I think the terminal is pretty much indicative of everything that affected the whole area," Litrico said about the flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina at the 1,000-acre TECO Bulk Terminal. The facility transfers, mixes and ships coal from Davant, La., to Tampa Electric power plants. "There's been a lot of damage. This is some serious stuff."

As the Gulf Coast continues to emerge from the devastation caused by Katrina and its aftermath, officials with TECO Energy and countless other companies continue to assess the damage.

About 45 percent of TECO's generating capacity if fueled by coal.

At TECO's terminal, about 45 miles south of New Orleans, the three men also saw how the storm tossed coal-carrying barges atop levees. The evacuation scattered more than 100 TECO employees across several states. No serious injuries were reported by TECO Bulk Terminal, although the company has been unable to locate one worker.

The executives flew on a company plane Saturday to Louisiana to swap out a manager and safety employee working 16-hour days along with about 100 Tampa Electric employees sent to the area to help to restore power in Marrero, La.

Litrico, whose TECO Transport operates TECO Bulk Terminal, said operations have moved about 20 miles upriver to another company's facility, Burnside Bulk Marine Terminal in Darrow, La. That's where a floating crane now loads ocean-going barges with coal destined for Tampa, the headquarters city for TECO Energy, parent company of Tampa Electric and TECO Transport.

Burnside is handling about 70 percent of capacity that normally would have come out of TECO Bulk Terminal, and TECO Transport has to pay Burnside for using its terminal, Litrico said. Insurance may cover the additional cost associated with the coal headed to Tampa, he said.

Some of the employees, many of whom have lost their homes, are being housed on barges acting as "floating motels" on the Mississippi, Litrico said. Each barge sleeps about 20 people and has a galley where they can cook and eat, he said.

Hernandez, Tampa Electric's vice president for energy delivery, said crews that Tampa Electric sent to the storm-damaged area are working in conditions they have never seen.

Floodwaters lifted poles out of the ground, carrying them away and ripping out power lines, Hernandez said. There's a certain eeriness to the work of restoring power to empty homes, marked with a "0" if nobody was found there or an "X" if a body had been found, he said. The crews are staying in La Place, La., and working in Marrero.

"It's something else to see that kind of devastation," said Hernandez, who graduated from the engineering school at Louisiana State University and has friends in the surrounding communities.

Reporter Will Rodgers can be reached at (813) 259-7870.

"I think the terminal is pretty much indicative of everything that affected the whole area. There's been a lot of damage."