Nancy Cox and Nigel Ballard write about Intel’s Katrnia response in Intel’s house organ, Technology@Intel.
Although Intel is a large corporation (90,000+ employees), it is extremely flexible, well organized, and able to respond quickly to unusual situations, such as Hurricane Katrina. Employees and executives alike are heavily involved in their communities. In the wake of Katrina, those business ideals, processes, and actions provided critical help to relief organizations and evacuees throughout the stricken region.
As Intel and the rest of the world were realizing the extent of the damage, managers with personal experience in disaster-related areas quickly stepped forward. For example, Nancy Cox, Intel’s Greater Americas Region IT Manager, was asked to lead the coordination team for the hurricane relief effort. She had gained emergency management experience several years ago when her manager and another Intel executive were murdered by Hutu rebels in Africa.
Nigel Ballard, who manages Intel initiatives for low-income, underserved or immigrant populations, had extensive prior experience with civil and military wireless equipment. While the shock of the hurricane damage was still reverberating through the country, he was immediately asked to join the tiger team Intel had assembled to manage aspects of wireless technologies and deployments in the stricken area.
One of the first things the coordination team had to do was manage the volunteers. With thousands of Intel employees calling in to ask how they could help, keeping track of offers was a massive effort in itself. An entirely separate team was assigned just to take over that task. That team quickly set up a database to organize volunteers by their skill sets, regions, and so on.
Hundreds of employees were assigned to provide technical support. Others immediately underwent Red Cross training—a mandatory step before volunteers would be allowed into the disaster area—and were deployed in the disaster zones between Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. Still others were organized at local centers that were preparing to receive evacuees, at fund-raisers for relief efforts, and with other important response groups.
Because of Intel’s expertise in Wi-Fi* solutions and WiMAX technology, the Intel team initially thought the Red Cross would ask them to help set up wireless communications. Instead, they were told that the biggest contribution would be to help the Red Cross in setting up computers at relief sites.
Explained Ballard, “The first thing I did Saturday morning (of Labor Day weekend) was phone every supplier I could think of to find one that had that many access points in stock. Then I had to find an Intel person who could put $106,000 on his credit card by Saturday noon, because we needed the equipment then and there.” Added Ballard, “Normally, the bigger the company, the slower and thicker the treacle. Instead, we actually managed everything by noon. I was amazed at how a company this size could make things happen so easily.”
For the laptop-supply team, the main challenge was coordinating the donation, build, and deployment of 4,000 laptops.
On Ballard’s team, one of the first major challenges encountered was getting their hands on the cutting-edge equipment needed to set up a WiMAX network. WiMAX is currently an experimental, point-to-point or point-to-multipoint solution. The 3.65-GHz technology, which reaches much further than Wi-Fi, is not licensable yet for use in the U.S., so few corporations have it. Ballard’s team, determined to get the system for relief efforts, finally contacted a partner company—Redline—in Canada.
Explained Ballard, “We told Redline we needed some of this equipment, and that we needed it tomorrow in the disaster area, 3,000 kilometers (about 1,800 miles) away. They had very little of it, some of which was installed on their roof, pointing at another building for trial purposes—and it was storming at the time. There was a pause on the phone, then the Redline person said, ‘You’re expecting me to go up and take the gear off and send it to you, aren’t you?’ And we said, ‘That’s the spirit’.” They sent the equipment.
DailyWireless has more on Katrina Telecom, Ham Radio, WiMax: Trial By Fire, FEMA = Death, Live From New Orleans, 700 MHz On The Line, Solar Electric to Go, FCC Talks Katrina and Georgia COWs.
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