Text Box: Page 3 ò Return to Page 1 Text Box: STC LINES—October 2005 Text Box: Extreme Consulting: War Stories From STC Gulf Coast Consultants (From Page 1) Text Box: that protects the City of New Orleans. Although BellSouth managed to provide some local loop service to downtown New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina, its overall loss of Gulf Coast facilities was staggering. (See Table 1 on Page 8.) Many coastal ILECs fared much worse. In fact, many areas of Alabama and Missis-sippi devastated by Hurricane Katrina had not rebuilt from the effect of Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Bob Callahan, Jr. The STC’s Bob Callahan was within weeks of implementing a Cisco-based, multisite, multi-processor IP network for a regional bank when Hurricane Katrina struck. This bank, with 11 locations in southwest Alabama and two at the western end of the Florida Panhandle, had commissioned the project in order to protect itself from the damage that had occurred as a result of Hurricane Ivan. In September 2004,

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                                                                                   Photo by Bob Callahan, Jr. Open System  Wind damage from Hurricane Katrina to a rooftop elevator control room of an office building in Gulfport, MS. Estimate to restore one elevator to service: 14 weeks.

that storm devastated the greater Mobile area, causing severe structural damage to the bank’s head-quarters in Atmore, AL, located just northeast of Mobile. 

      Bob explained that he was on schedule to complete the Cisco system install the week before Hurricane Katrina, until the unseasonable arrival of Hurricane Dennis this past July. That storm set back the project schedule by 10 work days as project workers struggled to address damage to their own personal property.

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Photo by Bob Callahan, Jr.

Plenum Space  In the same building as shown above, the storm destroyed this ceiling, violently tossing debris upward and dislodging J hooks and other fixed support structure. This damage is typical.