Tornado Cleanup Efforts
OXFORD, Miss. – An Ole Miss alumnus’ frustration after Hurricane Katrina was the motivation for software called a ‘game-changer’ in disaster debris removal.
In fact, eight years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Mississippi and Louisiana coasts, the software is changing the way other areas stricken by natural disasters handle the immense job of removing debris.
Brooks Wallace, CEO of Debris Tech and a vice president of Dungan Engineering. P.A. in Picayune, was a partner in a civil engineering firm that won a $200 million contract to remove wreckage from six Mississippi counties. The firm was using a paper ticketing system to track the trucks hauling away debris, a standard industry process.
So, Wallace developed a software that tracks debris trucks with barcode scanners, digital photos and global positioning systems. That data is then wirelessly uploaded to a central database where FEMA and other agencies can retrieve it later for verification purposes.
“The idea is to stop greedy contractors from overcharging by claiming they have trucked away more wreckage than they have,” Brooks said. “The new software combats fraud and also streamlines the task of documenting every last dumpster of debris or broken tree branch to prove to Federal Emergency Management Agency auditors that the money was spent properly.”
Since Wallace created Debris Tech, it has been used to document debris removal in the New York City area after Hurricane Sandy and in Pearl River, Lincoln and Pike counties after Hurricane Isaac.
City officials in Moore, Okla., used the Debris Tech software to cleanup the devastating piles left by tornados earlier this year, and industry experts expect technology like Debris Tech’s to have a profound effect on post-disaster cleanup.
Executive Recovery Group, started and co-owned by Wallace, used 60 employees in Moore to monitor and document debris removal contractors.
“I’ve been in debris-removal projects all over the country – Florida, California, Texas, Virginia – huge hurricanes, wildfires, floods,” said Russ Towndrow, a former Mississippi Emergency Management Agency official who has used Debris Tech software. “This real-time data is a game-changer.”
Dungan Engineering has experience in all aspects of disaster-related planning, and pre- and post-disaster management. Services include pre-disaster assistance and planning, assistance with emergency operations centers, preparing preliminary damage assessment reports, damage assessments, assistance with project worksheet, management of right-of-entry process on private property, preliminary cost estimates, project management and complete oversight of debris removal, debris monitoring, debris disposal permitting and management, coordination with FEMA, MEMA and Corps of Engineers, and securing reimbursement through FEMA and other agencies.
With engineers licensed in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, South Carolina and West Virginia, Dungan is a registered firm in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.
For more information about Dungan Engineering P.A., visit http://www.dunganeng.com/.