Under the circumstances, EP&R CIO IT support staff provided significant 

service during the Florida hurricanes of 2004.  FEMA IT was tasked to 

establish quickly a 200,000 square foot disaster field office the largest in its 

history within just seven days.  Approximately 2,000 employees staffed this 

disaster field office.  Previously, a field office of just 400 500 employees was 

considered large; accordingly, NEMIS was designed to support a maximum of 

three disaster field offices of 150 employees each.  (See Figure 8).  Significant 

IT resources were required to set up phone and data lines and computer 

stations, and to manage system access rights for system users.  Providing 

system and network support for such a large operation proved challenging.   

For example, during the hurricanes, NEMIS handled more than one million 

requests for disaster assistance in just six weeks.  Due in large part to NEMIS 

automation, individual assistance was generally provided within 7 to 10 days 

as compared to several weeks via the predecessor system.  NEMIS and its 

support staff were stretched to the limit and demonstrated remarkable 

dedication to sustaining operations where systems access and capabilities far 

exceeded systems design.  At one point, NEMIS supported 18 call centers, 

well beyond its design requirement of three call centers and 20,000 calls per 

day.  Overall disaster victim satisfaction with call center service was about 85 

percent, despite this large volume of calls.  

Figure 8:  Disaster Field Office in Orlando, Florida 

The national IT helpdesk also provided effective support for FEMA's disaster 

management operations in Florida.  During FY 2004, largely due to the 

concurrent hurricanes, the helpdesk handled a 50 percent increase in call 

Emergency Preparedness and Response Could Better Integrate Information Technology  

with Incident Response and Recovery 

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