Lessons Learned About Partnerships and Information Technology from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

1. Lessons Learned About Partnerships and Information Technology from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita ISM Conference Minneapolis, Minnesota September 11, 2006

2. Statistics 200,000 homes destroyed 1,300 people killed 1.2 million people evacuated 80% of New Orleans flooded

8. The DSS Role in Disaster Response & Recovery Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco put forth the Louisiana Emergency Operations Plan by Executive Order Signed July 11, 2005. In this Emergency Operations Plan, all state agencies are given responsibilities necessary to respond to a disaster in a coordinated, effective, and efficient manner. DSS was given primary responsibility for the Emergency Support Function 6, which is �Mass Care, Housing and Human Services.� The majority of DSS staff time and effort were spent on the sheltering aspect of this ESF.

9. Sheltering Statistics  DSS staff managed 8 special needs shelters DSS coordinated 400 general population shelters with a high count of 62,460 185 employees invested 127,824 hours in working at shelters

12. Sheltering: What Were the Problems? No database of information existed to track the location of individuals and maintain an accurate accounting of which citizens were in each shelter. No mechanism existed to ensure that only appropriate individuals, including staff and volunteers, were admitted to the shelters.

13. Sheltering: What is the Solution? Software that will house registration information for sheltered individuals to ensure the tracking of these individuals and to ensure that services are provided to these individuals as they enter transitional housing. This software will also allow the identification and credentialing of individuals who are to work at the shelters.

14. Housing As part of DSS� role in ESF 6, DSS worked to move citizens from shelters to transitional housing. Most of this transitional housing was in the form of travel trailers in congregate settings.

16. Housing: What Were the Problems? DSS Leadership was involved in setting the priorities for moving citizens from shelters to transitional housing. The priorities were: 1) Individuals with special need 2) Individuals age 65 and older 3) Families with children below school age 4) Families with school age children 5) All other evacuees In order to ensure that these priorities were followed, DSS staff attempted to work with FEMA as evacuees moved from shelters and hotels to transitional housing units. Due to an information-sharing barrier, DSS staff were unable to verify that these priorities were actually followed. DSS was unable to provide appropriate services to clients once they were in transitional housing because FEMA would not give information about their whereabouts.

17. Housing: What Are the Solutions? At best, FEMA must increase the flexibility in interpreting the Stafford Act and Privacy Act in order to work with states in helping citizens recover. At worst, FEMA must make conscientious effort to obtain privacy waivers from each applicant so that states will know what citizens are being placed where in order to provide the appropriate services.

18. Core Operations In addition to the responsibilities of ESF-6, DSS must perform its core functions during disaster response and recovery. This includes: Providing assistance to eligible families in the form of food stamp benefits, child care assistance, and cash assistance Managing child protection investigations, and administering the foster care and adoption programs Providing vocational rehabilitation services Collecting and distributing child support payments

19. Emergency Food Stamp Benefits: What Were the Problems? In 8 weeks, DSS issued $378 million in food stamp benefits to approximately 500,000 households Compromised communications systems made the issuance of benefits in disaster-affected areas difficult

20. Emergency Food Stamp Benefits: What Are the Solutions? Contracting for mobile satellite communications equipment to allow the disbursement of food stamp benefits in affected areas Transmitting information that is gained when residents are registered at a shelter to the office distributing the benefits to speed up the processing time

21. Child Welfare: What Were the Problems? No single database existed to track individuals as they evacuated and were sheltered, so the constant movement of children was not tracked. Forwarding board payments to foster parents was difficult. Reliance on paper records made completing the investigation of 1,885 open cases in the New Orleans area alone impossible. Foster/adoptive parents were not able to reach staff to advise of their whereabouts

23. Child Welfare: What Are the Solutions? Creation of a registration and tracking system at the point of sheltering. Establishing a means for electronic payment issuance to foster parents Develop electronic case records to ensure that ongoing child protection cases can be worked. Work with partners such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the National Foster Parent Association to locate foster families Establish and publicize a toll-free number for foster/adoptive parents to report their whereabouts

24. Child Support Enforcement: What Were the Problems? Due to significant interruption of mail service, it was not possible to distribute child support checks. There was not a reliable mechanism by which clients could reach the child support offices in the affected areas. There was not a means for clients to provide their new addresses to the offices in the affected areas.

26. Child Support Enforcement: What Are the Solutions? Develop a system whereby child support payments are sent to clients electronically via direct deposit or direct payment card. Create a customer service call center with an automated voice response capability so that clients can obtain information. This will also allow them to provide new addresses Make use of change-of-address data possessed by U.S. Postal Service to electronically match and update addresses so that checks could be mailed to citizens.