Hot Vocational Truck Market Fanned by Hurricane Cleanup

he mountains of wreckage that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita left behind along the Gulf Coast added to the hottest-ever market for heavy-duty vocational trucks, creating an air of urgency to the production of the vehicles required to haul the debris away, according to industry experts.

Truck makers said dealerships in the Gulf were scrambling to provide the vehicles, including dump trucks, refuse haulers and roll back carriers used for towing.

The Army Corps of Engineers said debris from the storm is equal to about 300 football fields piled 50 feet high, Bloomberg News reported. By other estimates, Katrina left behind 55 million cubic yards in southeast Louisiana alone — enough to fill 3.5 million dump trucks.