IT’s role in Katrina

by on April 4, 2006

Interesting video about how Red Cross, other emergency crews, and the IT industry responded to the Katrina disaster and the role that IT played. Does IT matter? Nah, move along, nothing to see here.

  • Microsoft site, Microsoft video.
    Excel was the solution? Have the Access and SQL Server teams seen this video?
  • IT and the Internet people who could, did a pretty good job of lending a hand down there, but they still need our help. This is one of the key reasons we are putting on BrainJams New Orleans on May 4 - to help the small businesses down there learn how they can take advantage of all the cool new communication and collaboration tools we often call Web 2.0 with blogs, podcasts and people powered search/tagging leading the way.

    If you care about getting this great American city on its feet and thriving, please try to make it down there to share your web strategy and technical expertise. Plan on spending the weekend while you are there - its JazzFest time, which for me is an even better party than Mardi Gras.

    (sorry for the flagrant self-promotion, but this is for a good, not for profit cause)
  • As someone who was born in New Orleans, let me ditto the comment above. I was impressed by IT's role in the disaster, but the video strikes me as a little self-serving for the Red Cross. They're under pressure from Congress and other groups because of their response to Katrina. Their corporate governance needs serious surgery and their turnover in CEO's is ridiculous. The Non-Profit Times reported that the Red Cross paid $2.8 in severance pay to these last two CEO's. When I read that, I knew I'd find other agencies to support in times of disaster. I'll be removing their link from my blog which has been up since last September.
  • Lincoln
    I was really impressed with the Joomla community. They went from talking about a site for tracking and finding people to developing www.disastersearch.org. I'll just do a big copy and paste job here from http://www.joomla.org/content/view/116/74/ ...


    On www.disastersearch.org people can register notifications that they are looking for others and displaced people can let friends and family know where they are. The database is searchable and can be accessed either via the Internet or by WAP over mobile phones.

    There is a database for evacuee centers which enables people to locate shelters and which provides a means for shelters to announce their spare capacity and seek assistance as needed.

    Other features of the web site include a private section designed for triage personnel.

    "People have lost their medical records and we are seeing situations where triage doctors are prescribing medication with no way of alerting other medical personnel of the treatment," says Peter.

    "We saw a need for temporary records which could only be accessed by medical staff, so we created it."

    With downloadable government aid forms, a volunteer register, morgue listings, and a job placement registry, www.disastersearch.org is providing help to people who so desperately need it.

    In just five days, working around the clock and using only open source code, this international team has created a resource to be used in any disaster event.



    I think that's just amazing!
  • thanks for that link. I have a whole series of posts on how technology is changing how we predict hurricanes, how we play football, baseball, run the US.Mexico border, track air flights, run Oscars, SuperBowl...

    My blog is I think appropriately named New Florence. New Renaissance. The new Florence is fueled by IT, even if some think it does not matter...

    www.florence20.typepad.com
  • thank you for your work
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