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Katrina: Lessons Learned
After Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, the rebuilding began, and not just by residents.
By Suzanne Kubota
Senior Internet Editor
FederalNewsRadio.com
After Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, the Small Business Administration was overwhelmed with requests for help, and couldn’t keep up with demand. The process backlogged. Needs of citizens were not met.
That, hopefully, will never be the case again.
Adm. Steve Smith, Chief of Disaster Response at the Small Business Administration, tells FederalNewsRadio SBA is rebuilding its disaster operations all together. According to a fact sheet, the SBA has “upgraded technology, reformed processes, and leveraged personnel to create a system far better able to handle major disasters and better serve survivors.”
As proof that it’s working, Smith points out that when Hurricane Katrina struck, SBA’s Disaster Credit Management System’s (DCMS) could handle about 2,000 simultaneous users. A hardware upgrade last year boosted that to 12,000 concurrent users.
Smith says, “on August 4th of this year we introduced an electronic loan application which is receiving good response in the field, in fact we have almost 300 applications come in yesterday from some of the disasters which are in progress right now.”
To ensure SBA has enough staff to quickly respond to future emergencies, according to the fact sheet, “the agency established a disaster reserve corps of more than 2,000 trained and experienced individuals who can quickly staff up disaster field offices in the event of a major disaster. Approximately 900 of these individuals have signed up as reservists and are committed to reporting with 48 hours notice.”
“Many of them have worked for us before,” says Smith. “We call them up as we need them. It allows us to throttle our workforce depending on what the loan volume is.”
To handle the additional work and personnel, the agency has secured over 400,000 sq. ft. of space in multiple locations across the country including Ft. Worth and Sacramento, says Smith. This extra space, according to the fact sheet, “will handle any initial surge requirements while allowing time for the agency to work with GSA to obtain additional space as necessary.”
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On the Web:
SBA – Post-Gulf Coast Hurricanes Reforms (fact sheet)
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