Technology to the rescue
By Natalie Otis, September 20, 2005
business@seacoastonline.com
PORTSMOUTH - From a third-floor business downtown, Michael Gray's company is making a big difference in the South.
Global Relief Technologies has done for relief workers what computers did for the banking industry. The company has managed to take the pens and pads away from people trying to document what is needed in an area by turning the process of gathering vital information into a method that is as easy as using an automatic-teller machine to check a balance on an account. In just a few steps, relief workers can transmit what road conditions are like, if there is fuel in an area, what the housing situation is and what the food and water needs are.
These key factors become critical when disaster strikes. The coast of Louisiana and Mississippi had no cell-phone towers or land telephone lines in the days following the hurricane. Gray sat watching, thinking that his product was exactly what the nation needed. Before he knew it, the telephone in Portsmouth was ringing and the United States Marines were on the line. They wanted to be able to take Global Relief Technologies' hand-held data-gathering devices and satellite phones with them to the Louisiana coast. The company reacted to the demand quickly and then watched from the Virtual Network Operations Center in Portsmouth as data about the conditions in the area began to come in from Marines responding in the area.
"It is really exiting to see this in action," he said.