Red Cross Implements Lessons Learned From KatrinaRed Cross Implements Lessons Learned From Katrina

Emergency and disaster relief personnel use its mapping tools to track in real time where evacuees are headed. It's not always obvious. Planners had expected many of the Gulf Coast Katrina evacuees to head north, but most went east and west. The Red Cross operated 1,100 shelters in 27 states and Washington, D.C., to house Katrina evacuees, providing survivors with nearly 3.42 million overnight stays

Real-time information on where evacuees are heading enables relief groups and governments to direct relief provisions and establish shelters where the evacuees are. Relief workers will be able to collect information as people arrive and move them to shelters "with a clarity that was never possible before," says W. Michael Brackney, American Red Cross' manager of client services program development

Plan Ahead

Another change brought on by Katrina is to provide more than 800 local Red Cross chapters with software to let them track client assistance and document the services the agency provides to victims. In effect, information is predeployed to locations where a disaster could occur

The Red Cross also has established the "safe and well" Web site that lets loved ones search for the whereabouts of family members. As a security measure, those conducting the search must provide known information about the missing relative or friend, such as a phone number or street address.

The Red Cross has documented the best practices it learned from Katrina in its Extreme Mobilization Playbook that it will share with local, state, and federal governmental authorities and businesses. Cooper also is soliciting ideas from the IT community for the best and most cost-effective ways to deploy rugged, mobile application servers, laptops, and other technologies at shelters to provide clients with services. He's seeking a better understanding of how to quickly link shelters to the Internet and Red Cross networks, and to exploit technologies such as Wi-Fi and wikis. Cooper is looking for secure technologies and processes to quickly distribute millions upon millions of dollars to disaster victims in need, yet prevent fraud.

Specifically from CIOs, Cooper wants to learn what they liked and disliked about technologies they've tried. "If somebody else already has experience," he says, "I want the benefit of their experience on behalf of the Red Cross and literally on behalf of the American public."