New Orleans: Picking Up the IT Pieces - ' VOIP, Web portals, geographic '
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information systems all play a role in New Orleans' recovery">
City of New Orleans Base Case
HEADQUARTERS: New Orleans City Hall, 1300 Perdido St., New Orleans, LA 70112
PHONE: (504) 658-4000
BUSINESS: Governing a major port city known for jazz and its nightlife before 80 percent of the city was flooded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER: Greg Meffert
FINANCIALS: The city is facing a projected deficit of $358.6 million because of vanished tax revenue and increased expenses.
CHALLENGE: Recover from one of the biggest natural disasters in U.S. history. Use technological efficiencies to compensate for the layoffs of more than 3,000 city employees, or about half the municipal workforce.
BASELINE GOALS:
Rebuild the population of New Orleans, which was 484,000 before the storm but stood at just about 200,000 at the end of February.
Restore the city's tax base, which was expected to drop 80 percent from the $260 million collected in 2005.
Complete inspections of more than 120,000 flood-damaged homes, which happened in November—four months sooner than might have been expected with paperwork methods.
Bring back local businesses; there were about 81,000 before the storm, but only 42,000 had resumed full operation at the end of February.
Projects: Processes 
