The title of this entry will likely get some people up in arms. I assure those people that I do not mean to draw attention from the tragedy, or to diminish it in any way. Nor do I think this blog entry will stop a single rescuer from going about their business.

However, what has happened has happened, and many of us have pledged our monetary donations and are really left twiddling our thumbs at what else we can do.

As software developers and technology experts, I think there is plenty we can do. For instance, there were obviously technological gaps in information management (knowing who and what was where when, and sharing that information with everyone. The lack of this sort of knowledge led to some of the chaos that horribly delayed the response). After the disaster technology was necessary for communications, with many of the emergency personelle and victims having no means of communicating. There were gaps in battery storage, with basic infrastructure dying quickly. There were gaps after the pieces began to be cleaned up, coordinating communications amongst the victims in various municipalities.

Technology can't stop a category 5 hurricane (yet), but it can help ameliorate the damage and to help society get back on track as quickly as possible.

Given this, invariably this tragedy will be followed by billions of taxpayer dollars going into various strategies to prevent occurrences like this from happening again, or to at least have a better grasp on responding to it. Many of those dollars will be going towards IT projects. Something to keep your mind open to if you have ideas for solutions that would avoid this sort of nightmare scenario from happening again.

Something to think about.