Home At Last - PBS&J Utilizes Multiple Integrated Data Capture Technologies To Aid In Rebuilding After Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina left thousands of Gulf Coast residents without homes, forcing them to live in temporary and emergency shelters. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the agencies it coordinates faced the challenge of transitioning these people from temporary shelter into longer-term dwellings.

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) turned to its engineering contractor PBS&J (which has since merged with Atkins) to redesign the construction management process in an effort to get residents out of motels and other temporary housing and into the new cottage-style dwellings more quickly. Mobile computers with multiple integrated data capture technologies were essential to this reinvention and rebuilding process. Better data collection through these devices allowed PBS&J to complete home delivery, installment, and inspections at a faster rate, moving victims into new homes and allowing them to move on with their lives.

MEMA and PBS&J didn't want paperwork to be an obstacle to residents moving out of their temporary living conditions and they sought to streamline the processes required to build and install new modular homes. They made the decision to rebuild their processes with electronic forms on handheld computers instead of paper.

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