Katrina One Year Later: New Orleans VAR Looks Forward

The president of New Orleans solution provider Universal Data, Perrier narrowly escaped New Orleans with his family on this date last year before the brunt of Hurricane Katrina tore the city apart, taking more than 1,800 lives with it.

Today, Perrier and his wife are visiting a Dallas hospital, eagerly anticipating the imminent birth of their first grandchild. Back home, the world Perrier knew has not returned to its previous state, but this is a different day, a different time.

"My view is that everything is bright, everything is coming up great. We are very lucky," said Perrier in a phone call from the hospital. "Thank god for little things right now."

In the year since Katrina, CRN has talked several times with Perrier about the rebuilding process for his company and New Orleans. Today, his company is thriving thanks to a renewed focus on providing disaster recovery solutions for customers. Before the storm, only about 10 percent of his revenue came from disaster recovery projects. Now it is more than 50 percent, he said.

"We had 11 employees prior to Katrina. Now we have 21," he said. "Unfortunately, a lot of it is because negative things have happened around us. I'd like to think we fought through it. Things are really looking good. Before, nobody was looking at disaster recovery, now everybody does."

In addition to selling hardware, software and storage solutions, Universal Data assists customers with their evacuation plans, a lesson learned the hard way during Katrina when Perrier lost communications with several of his own employees.

"We are making sure they know where they're going and where we're going," he said.

Sometimes, Perrier said, it's difficult to imagine that Katrina happened a year ago but at other times it seems like a lifetime ago.

"I can't figure out how I feel. Looking back, it was exhilarating to go through but as I reevaluate it, I don't want to do it again. We had to act quickly. There was no time for planning. Now we're in the position where people are planning," he said.

Life around New Orleans is still struggling to return, Perrier said. Many businesses and families haven't returned -- or have returned and left again.

"There are still a lot of areas without electricity. We went to a block party last weekend in my wife's old neighborhood. We thought it was going to be a big occasion with all kinds of things, but in reality it was the first house on the block that was finished, so they threw a block party," he said.

Meanwhile, at the hospital in Dallas, Perrier did not yet know if he would have a grandson or a granddaughter, but he knew one thing, a girl would not be named Katrina. "I told my daughter she ought to do that," Perrier joked, "but that's absolutely not what it's going to be."

CRN coverage of the Katrina disaster:

> One Year Later: Even Fast Food Can Make VAR's Day In New Orleans (Aug. 29, 2006)

> VentureTech Members Recount Hurricane Katrina Experience (April 7, 2006)

> Masters Of Disaster (Feb. 24, 2006)

> No Easy Street (Oct. 21, 2005)

> Hurricane Katrina's Impact Ranges Far And Wide (Sept. 9, 2005)

> Solution Provider Sees Katrina Damage Firsthand (Aug. 30, 2005)