The Weather Channel is reporting that dozens are dead and that millions of Americans are without power this morning, due to Hurricane Helene.
Columbia Regional Economic Development Incorporated (REDI) vice president Bernie Andrews tells 939 the Eagle’s “CEO Roundtable” program that Boone County’s largest manufacturer will be busy with orders, because of the hurricane’s devastation:
“So our largest manufacturer is Hubbell Power Systems up in Centralia: they employ over 700. What they do is utility pole hardware. So when this hurricane (Helene) takes out a lot of the utility poles down in the southeast, they’re going to be busy shipping a lot of product,” Andrews says.
REDI’s website says Hubbell Power Systems Incorporated in Centralia has 730 employees, making it the largest manufacturer and the ninth-largest overall employer in Columbia/Boone County.
Meantime, national manufacturing day is Friday and Mr. Andrews says Columbia/Boone County’s manufacturing jobs average more than $60,000 a year:
“So we have 5,007 manufacturing jobs in Boone County, which is about five percent of our local workforce is in manufacturing. And that’s about a 1,500 job increase from ten years ago,” says Andrews.
Mr. Andrews, who was worked for REDI for 28 years, tells listeners that those 5,000 manufacturing jobs pay an average salary of $60,800. You can listen to Mr. Parry’s full interview here.
