Companies are getting to the business of cleaning up after the hurricanes. William Yates, president of Yates Construction, tells host Melissa Block how it's done and where all the debris goes. Yates, one of several sub-contractors working on Gulf Coast debris removal, is focusing Biloxi, Miss.
MELISSA BLOCK, host: The Gulf Coast is covered in debris from southwestern Louisiana to      Mississippi and Alabama.  The Yates Construction Company helped build the      casinos and hotels in Biloxi, Mississippi.  Now it's one of three      contractors the city has hired to haul away the tons of debris left by      Hurricane Katrina.  There was a competitive bid process right after the      storm.  Yates is being paid $16 per cubic yard to collect, haul and sort      debris.  William Yates is the company's president.</s>Mr. WILLIAM YATES (Yates Construction Company): There are slot machines      from the casinos.  There are refrigerators.  There are cars in places      that cars shouldn't be.  There are all sorts of collapsed wood structures      that you're not even really sure where they came from; lots of signage,      just a lot of mass that you can't even tell where it originated.  It's      just now metal and wood and other debris in between.</s>MELISSA BLOCK, host: Where do you start?  How do you organize this effort?</s>Mr. WILLIAM YATES (Yates Construction Company): Well, you have to come up with a plan that makes sense.  And      another big challenge we've had is actually transportation and hauling.      We've had all these bridges and roads that have been affected, and so      actually getting the debris from point A in the city to point B outside      the city has been a whole nother challenge.  So we've had to deal with      issues like staging debris at an intermediate location and then waiting      until traffic is not quite as bad and then trying to get the debris out      of the city.</s>MELISSA BLOCK, host: Where are you trying to take it?</s>Mr. WILLIAM YATES (Yates Construction Company): Well, we're taking it to approved landfills.  Some of it, if      it meets the qualifications for burnable material, it's being burned.</s>MELISSA BLOCK, host: What would be burned?  What kinds of stuff?</s>Mr. WILLIAM YATES (Yates Construction Company): Just wood products that aren't painted or don't have any      harmful substances on them.</s>MELISSA BLOCK, host: So somewhere along the line you have to be sorting this stuff      out, figuring out what gets burned, what gets put in a landfill.</s>Mr. WILLIAM YATES (Yates Construction Company): That's right.</s>MELISSA BLOCK, host: How do you do that?</s>Mr. WILLIAM YATES (Yates Construction Company): Well, it's just a visual process with supervision.  And you      make sure that if there's any question as to whether it's burnable or      not, you go ahead and assume that it's not.</s>MELISSA BLOCK, host: How much progress have you been able to make since Katrina came      in?</s>Mr. WILLIAM YATES (Yates Construction Company): Significant progress.  We--the way our contract works is we      have to make four passes down every street in our area.  We're complete      with the first pass, which means we've now gone through every street and      picked up the debris on the side of the road.  We have three more passes      left.  Logically it'll--you know, we'll probably get less and less as the      major debris gets picked up.  And so, you know, we're probably in terms      of passes 25 percent complete, but in terms of actual debris removal, I      would say we're closer to 50 percent complete.  Of course, the debris      removal is just a small part of what it's going to take to build our      community back.</s>MELISSA BLOCK, host: As the president of a construction company, you've got to be      thinking about that end, too, about the rebuilding.</s>Mr. WILLIAM YATES (Yates Construction Company): Sure.  I mean, that's what we do, and we take pride in it.      And there's a need for our services now.  And there are all sorts of      mixed feelings on our behalf because we have had--we think we have lost      one employee that has been identified and we think possibly another one.      We've had over 60 of our employees who have substantially lost their      homes, and so it's very, you know, upsetting from that standpoint.  But      at the same time we feel a responsibility that we have to help build our      community back and do it as quickly as reasonably possible and do it in a      way that creates a bigger and better Biloxi for the future of all of us      and all our kids and all of our grandkids.</s>MELISSA BLOCK, host: Mr. Yates, thanks very much.</s>Mr. WILLIAM YATES (Yates Construction Company): No problem.</s>MELISSA BLOCK, host: William Yates is president of Yates Construction.  He spoke with      us from Philadelphia, Mississippi.