FEMA talks about IT lessons learned

The office of the CIO for the Federal Emergency Management Agency has made several changes in the past year in order to better communicate with state and local officials, support citizens who need assistance, and keep better track of assets such as food and water. Network World Senior Editor Denise Pappalardo recently spoke with FEMA CIO Barry West and Deputy CIO Jeanne Etzell about some of these changes. West is about to make a career change as he heads over to the Department of Commerce to become its CIO.

What are some of the changes in your department that make FEMA better equipped to aid in future disasters?

West: There’s a lot that has happened since last hurricane season. What we’ve done is gone back and look at our core systems that we used and significantly enhanced those systems. One example is NEMIS, the National Emergency Management Information System. This system processes all disaster victim claims for issuance of checks for aid. We’ve gone back and made this system more robust using the latest and greatest from Oracle. And we’ve moved applications that were running on Microsoft to Linux. The system does a lot of replication. We have been able to take advantage of some of the Web services features that don’t require as much transfer of data.

How will the upgrade better support disaster victims?

West: NEMIS was originally designed to support 20,000 to 25,000 applications daily. During [Hurricane] Katrina the system was stretched to support nearly 110,000 applications daily. Going into this hurricane season we’re trying to make it more robust.

Etzell: We’re trying to process 200,000 registrations per day in addition to the normal caseload activities that occur at the call centers. What we’re testing right now is putting a load on the application to simulate the call center load plus 200,000 transactions in a 24-hour period. Our results look positive, but we have an independent test firm coming in to test and get me the specifics. . . . By upgrading to the new Oracle cluster servers and grid environment we have been able to eliminate some replication that shut down the system for backup.

There were reports post-Katrina that some citizens had to return checks to FEMA. What has been done to minimize fraud?

West: We’re now using ChoicePoint for all registrations. It’s a service that verifies and authenticates data against an applicant. If a person enters their name, Social Security number and address, this database is smart enough to know if something doesn’t add up.

I understand that about 40% of all applications for assistance were processed via the Web. Are you shooting for a higher percentage?

West: We would love to see more. Those numbers also include FEMA going out into the field with our Mobile Disaster Response Centers [MDRC] assisting with applications. There is a whole host of ways those Internet numbers are increasing.

Etzell: This year we are piloting a program called Internet Cafe where we have modified mobile homes to have 20 PCs and 20 telephones. They will be moving around in the disaster theatre. Victims will be able to register themselves from these units.