ORECK CORPORATION SURVIVES HURRICANE
HELPS EMPLOYEES REBUILD LIVES

September 01 , 2005

NEW ORLEANS, La. and GULFPORT, Miss., Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Amid the devastation of Hurricane Katrina one New Orleans corporation with production facilities near Gulfport, Miss. (Long Beach) is already helping their employees start to rebuild their lives. Against all odds, the family operated Oreck Corporation is bringing in temporary housing, generators, food, water and medical supplies to Long Beach, Miss. They will continue to provide paying jobs for Oreck employees who lost everything to Katrina. Other employees will be temporarily relocated to Dallas, Denver and Atlanta.

"If they were an Oreck employee before the hurricane they still have a job," said Oreck President and CEO Tom Oreck. Employees evacuated throughout the country should call 888-528-0088 to get vital information about how Oreck will help them rebuild their lives.

"It's not just the employees and families at our New Orleans headquarters, and Gulfport plant," said Oreck. "It's also the employees and families of our 450 retail stores across the country and the employees and families of our suppliers and vendors and agencies across America. We have a huge responsibility to these people."

Oreck manufactures the popular 8-lb. Oreck vacuum cleaner, other floor cleaning products, air purifiers and household and industrial cleaning supplies. They are sold through their 450 Oreck retail stores across the US and through direct response.

Operating out of a hotel room in Houston with his wife and 3 children ranging in age from 3 months to 5 years old, a cell phone, a fax machine and his Dad, founder and TV personality, David Oreck, Tom Oreck and his team put the pieces back together again through courage, quick reaction, sleepless nights and a will to survive while their homes and memories in New Orleans and the Gulfport area are devastated.

Tom Oreck's fourth child, a medical doctor, elected to stay in New Orleans. She has been working around the clock in the emergency room of Charity Hospital.

"Our advance planning facilitated bringing in portable generators so our plant can operate. Our product inventory is intact and there is hope for our people," Oreck said. "We are in business."

"Working with UPS, we will bring trucks of food, water and supplies into the Gulfport, Long Beach area. Those same trucks will haul our products out to Oreck retail stores and make deliveries of those products purchased at our stores and through our other business partners," Oreck said.

"My Dad founded this company 40 years ago and I'm not going to let a hurricane destroy what he created," Oreck promised.

"We're alive. We're able," Oreck said. "It's up to us and people like us to help. The people affected by Katrina need help. I urge everyone to donate whatever they can to the Red Cross for relief efforts," he said.

"By keeping our company running and healthy, we help keep the American economy going. Our employees and their families not just in New Orleans and Mississippi but all across the country all depend on Oreck for their livelihood and Americans depend on our products for cleaner, healthier homes," Oreck said.

"We will do whatever it takes," Oreck said.