Logistics professor provides crucial assistance after Hurricane Katrina

CMU expert joined colleagues
from around the world

Marketing and logistics professor Omar Keith Helferich recently spent 15 long, challenging days in Louisiana as an American Red Cross volunteer, providing logistics expertise in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“As assistant director of the logistics operation, I helped in the logistics planning and operations for transportation, facilities, and supplies that supported the total relief effort for Louisiana,” Helferich said. “This meant not just helping the victims, who we call clients, but other volunteers as well as rescue workers, police, and firefighters.”

Stationed at the Red Cross headquarters in a former Wal-Mart in Baton Rouge, Helferich worked to solve major logistics issues with the help of 40 International Red Cross logistics professionals from Belgium, France, Germany, Norway, and Switzerland.

Red Cross supplied many basic needs
for survival

Helferich and the overall Red Cross logistics team was involved in areas including:

• Buying food
• Enlisting churches and restaurants to help prepare food
• Supporting up to 20 mobile kitchens serving 10,000 to 20,000 meals per day
• Dispersing water, clothing, and personal care items
• Securing several thousand vehicles to transport volunteers
• Locating warehouses for temporary storage
• Installing telephone lines
• Establishing service centers
• Setting up shelters in schools and churches

“When you look at the scope of Katrina and the disaster relief efforts, it was the largest in U.S. history,” Helferich said. “And there were problems. We were not involved in supporting shelter operations at the New Orleans sports complex, yet many Red Cross workers wished we had been. It also seemed that one group had not been given much thought: people who did not have cars.”

Daunting communications problems stymied efforts

Effective communication for the minute-by-minute assessment of the situation presented the biggest challenge for officials and volunteers in the hurricane’s wake.

“Phone lines were down and cell phones weren’t dependable,” Helferich said. “It was a wonder that we were able to get as much done as we did in those first few days. The Red Cross used the equivalent of the Pony Express by sending out people familiar with different areas to deliver messages and mail twice a day. Yet that was not as effective as necessary.”

Helferich plans to suggest establishing an agreement with a company such as UPS or Fed Ex to develop an efficient emergency relief courier system that can be launched quickly following a major disaster.

“You can’t do a good job and meet client expectations without effective communication, especially considering the dynamics of a disaster, which involves decision-making among multiple organizations and at various management levels,” Helferich said.

More work ahead for Helferich

Helferich, who has been a Red Cross volunteer since 1991, believes Hurricane Katrina resembled a major bioterrorism event in many respects. It involved the evacuation of an enormous number of people and injuries from different sources like wind, water, and crime. It also presented potential environmental health problems through contamination caused by water pollution, mold, feces, toxicity, chemicals, oil, and potentially dangerous animals.

“In that sense Hurricane Katrina offered us some good lessons,” Helferich said.

Helferich plans to apply these lessons in his work with the Department of Homeland Security’s recently established Center of Excellence in the National Center for Protection and Defense.

While Helferich was in Louisiana, professors Robert L. Cook and Jim Burley covered Helferich’s teaching assignments. Since his return, he has shared his experiences with his students, emphasizing the value of planning for uncertainties, the importance of communications, the complexities of decision-making when several organizations are involved, and the difference between measuring performance with a for-profit organization versus a nonprofit organization, especially when life and death decisions are involved.

“I always encourage my students to become involved in community service and give them the advice my parents gave me: Whatever community service you choose, do it with passion, patience, and perseverance,” Helferich said.

American Red Cross
relief efforts were massive

The level of the combined Katrina/Rita operations for the American Red Cross involved close to 200,000 workers and included:

• More than 1,000 shelters
• More than 25 million meals
• More than one million family-assistance cases opened
• About one million mental health and medical health contacts

Omar Keith Helferich lent his expertise on logistics and operations to aid relief efforts in Louisiana.

American Red Cross volunteers rely on logistical planning to bring basic survival needs to hurricane victims.