Hurricane damages Lion Copolymer. ExxonMobil unit on shutdown

Baton Rouge, Louisiana -- Lion Copolymer LLC's SBR plant in Baton Rouge sustained damage. It and Lion's EPDM rubber facility 20 miles away in Geismar, Louisiana, are shut down after Hurricane Gustav pummeled the area yesterday.

Both the Baton Rouge factory and company headquarters building were damaged, a spokesman said. Power is out in the entire industrial area of the city, all phones are down and Lion Copolymer is unable to communicate with its customers.

"We had an orderly shutdown, the normal hurricane preparation,” at both plants, the spokesman said. “The main office (in Baton Rouge) had a fair amount of water damage, and a leaking roof. There's an inch of water in the second-floor offices.”

Damage assessments are under way at both sites, and until they are completed Lion Copolymer can't speculate on a recovery plan, the official said. As best the company knows, all its employees came through the hurricane okay.

The ExxonMobil Corp. refinery next door to Lion Copolymer in Baton Rouge also is down, with no timetable set for restarting, according to local news reports

Hurricane Gustav hammered Baton Rouge with 95 mph winds, worse than Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and as bad as Hurricane Betsy, in 1965, according to state officials.

From Rubber & Plastics News (A Crain publication)