Wal-Mart Reopens 112 Stores

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, said Wednesday that it reopened 112 of 126 stores that it had closed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Eighty-nine stores have been damaged and nine reported “major damage,” Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart said in a statement. Fourteen stores remain closed.

Major damage means “something along the lines of power has been knocked out or the structure’s been damaged,” Wal-Mart spokeswoman Andrea Rader said. She said it wasn’t known how soon the closed stores would reopen.

Wal-Mart last week donated $15 million in supplies such as clothing, food and water to aid Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Earlier it donated $2 million in cash. U.S. relief agencies are using 17 vacant stores, the company said.