Chapter Appendix B - What Went Right
Section Private Sector Organizations
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Private Sector Organizations
Private sector organizations provided commodities, services, expert advice, financial donations and volunteer groups to assist in the relief efforts. FedEx facilitated equipment and supply distribution, particularly for the American Red Cross.15 Dell, Home Depot, IBM, Lenovo, Pfizer, Wal-Mart, and other corporations gave millions of dollars in cash and in-kind donations to support immediate relief and recovery efforts as well as long-term rebuilding.16
Vanguard Technologies, Inc., "showed up the day after the storm and provided communications when we had none," said St. Bernard's Parish officials. Vanguard Technologies, a small Louisiana business, provided Saint Bernard and Plaquemines parishes with innovative internet protocol (IP) network solutions and utilized a Point of Presence (POP) internet connectivity, that remained fully operational during Katrina, when no other company, big or small, was able to restore crucial communications in this devastated area. Vanguard also deployed a fully operational, redundant, broadband, wireless IP network, covering more than 100 square miles, within five days of Katrina's Gulf Coast landfall. The networks supported: Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony; Video surveillance over IP; mobile video surveillance; high speed World Wide Web internet access; email communications via simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP); and web mail services. Vanguard, to date, continues servicing the parishes with critical communications access linking key government services and facilities.
Private companies also worked hard to mitigate the economic damage that Hurricane Katrina was sure to bring. Norfolk Southern Railroad recognized the potential impact of the loss of certain key bridges, and pre-staged repair barges just outside the hurricane impact area. After the Hurricane passed, the barges moved in and quickly repaired the bridges to minimize the impact on the flow of commerce. By pre-positioning freighters offshore and swiftly returning their grain transport facilities to operational status, the Cargill Corporation started shipping grain internationally almost immediately after landfall. With over half of all U.S. grain exports flowing through ports affected by Hurricane Katrina from 17 different states17 this single action had a significantly positive national economic impact.
Academic institutions across the country accepted students who had been displaced from their universities and provided them with financial assistance. For example, the Office of Student Aid and Scholarships at Louisiana State University (LSU) administered a Hurricane Katrina/Rita Student Relief Fund to assist students who had lost financial support or were displaced by the hurricane and flood. In addition, the LSU campus hosted one of the largest peacetime triage operations in the history of the United States.
While State and local governments, non-governmental organizations, private companies and even individual citizens were pulling together to provide services for the victims of the storm and assistance for the public services that were overwhelmed or incapacitated, the departments and agencies of the U.S. Federal government pulled its resources and personnel to mitigate the devastation that Katrina would bring.
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