Disaster Recovery in New Orleans, LA

The Gartrell Group provided ongoing GIS support services to the Mayor’s Office of Technology in New Orleans, Louisiana following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

We had staff on-site shortly after the hurricane passed, and our initial involvement was focused largely on urgent disaster recovery needs.  Task work included:

• Developing mobile solutions for building and infrastructure assessment
• Collaborating with the disaster recovery team to streamline a re-permitting process for commercial buildings
• Integrating remote sensing data and derivative products to develop inundation measurements in support of FEMA funding and insurance claim processes
• Providing support to improve coordination with the independent City of New Orleans Emergency Response Center.

In post-recovery, our team continued to provide planning support, and system design and implementation services to the City.  This resulted in a far more capable GIS platform and a service oriented architecture enabling broader internal and external access to GIS capabilities and information.