One Year Later: Fast Food Can Make VAR's Day in New Orleans

When it takes eight months to move back into your house -- and you're one of the lucky ones -- it doesn't take much to make you happy, according to Mont Echols, senior vice president of solutions at Louisiana Technology Group, a New Orleans-solution provider, on the eve of the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Some days, when the city's recovery feels like it couldn't go any slower, the biggest news is when a Burger King reopens near the office.

"That was real exciting. It was the first fast food place to open for three to five miles from here," Echols said. Then there's the co-worker who moved back to the heavily- amaged New Orleans East neighborhood and has to drive more than 10 miles to a grocery store.

Such is the case for New Orleans residents, who continue to pick up the pieces of their lives. When CRN visited Echols in February, he had just started renovating his large house located in a nice neighborhood near the 17th Street Canal. It had taken months to begin renovations because the neighborhood had no power. Echols and his family moved back into the house in April and he's a few weeks away from putting a second house on the market that he purchased after Katrina.

"We're still doing little finishing work, we're waiting to finish our bathroom. We have to put in the vent hood above the range, the side lights for the front door. But it's certainly livable," Echols said.

He is in the minority. Few neighbors have returned to Echols' neighborhood. He estimates about 50 of the 400 houses in his neighborhood association are inhabited, with only about a dozen houses as renovated as his house.

"About another 50 are under construction. There are about 24 more that haven't even been gutted. They've been left the same way as after Katrina," he said.

Early in the rebuilding process, Echols told CRN that resources were so scarce that contractors had to take nails home with them at the end of the work day or they'd be stolen overnight. The availability of materials has improved in the last several months, but finding good workmanship still is a major problem, he said.

"Because of the demand, you've got a lot of new people doing the jobs. If you're not careful you'll get someone who it's only his first, second or third job laying tile," Echols said. "The old Better Business Bureau practice of getting three estimates is all well and good, but finding three contractors to even return your call is a lot, particularly for a licensed trade like an electrician. They've got 50 jobs lined up behind yours, so they don't do the final 10 percent."

In his business, Louisiana Technology Group now relies heavily on doing federal contract work. State and local government is also strong, but commercial accounts, particularly those in New Orleans, have dwindled dramatically post-Katrina, Echols said.

"I am seeing cases where state and local don't even look at the bottom line. If they've got money, they will spend it. Then they'll go look for more money," Echols said.

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Another interesting phenomenon is some SMB customers that had to buy replacement equipment immediately after Katrina because they couldn't physically get to their servers now are looking to unload their excess equipment, Echols said.

"Some clients have asked 'Know anyone who wants a Dell server for $6,000?' They have twice as much as they need, or they bought space on racks in Baton Rouge or Houston. It's expensive, doubling your IT budget in some cases," Echols said. "I see people looking harder now at how they host things. I think you'll see more of them lean towards an ASP-type model. Where they used to host things like e-mail internally, now it'll be hosted externally."

Echols said the area around New Orleans Yacht Club hasn't changed since February, when CRN photographed New Orleans solution providers amid the debris of hundreds of boats.

"There's maybe one or two little po' boy shops that have opened, but that's it. The commercial side is way, way down. By the Yacht Club, they've moved boats off the sidewalks and the roadways, but the ones in the harbor and sitting on top of the docks and pilings are still there," he said.

Of course, it's hard to put Katrina out of your mind when there are still reminders of its devastation everywhere you go.

"Our neighborhood is probably in the top 10 percent as far as seriously flooded [areas]. Driving into my office, there's still a lot of areas where it's less than 10 percent back. There are still a lot of blocks with nothing for the whole block. Maybe 10 percent or less have trailers, half of which are occupied. A lot of houses haven't been gutted yet. Or they have been gutted, but the weeds are six feet high now.

While many former New Orleans residents haven't moved back " or don't plan to " Echols wrestles with the choice he made to stay.

"Obviously you think about it every day. Is this the right place to be? I still want to live here. I like the lifestyle here. I'm not too excited about going to Home Depot every day. My kids' friends are coming back so that is returning a sense of normalcy. As far as doing business here, making a living here, that's tough. It seems like it's just yesterday.

For the one-year anniversary of Katrina, Echols' neighbors have a small get-together planned for later Tuesday. "My personal sense is I don't have enough time. Weekends are not the time to play and you can't really take off in the middle of the week. I'll work a regular day. Maybe have a beer somewhere in the neighborhood. Probably some people who haven't moved back will come visit," he said.

Echols asks how New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is perceived outside the city. Nagin was recently featured in the New York papers after calling the World Trade Center site "a hole in the ground" compared to New Orleans.

"He hasn't changed," Echols said of Nagin, who was re-elected this spring. Echols feels more progress should have been made by now.

"The biggest thing is there's no plan. What's being rebuilt is hodge-podge, house by house. There's no leadership. Everything that's being done is private enterprise or non-government stuff," Echols said. "The analogy I use and probably over use is trying to get a drink by pouring water through a roll of paper towels. A lot goes in, but only a little comes out at the other end."

CRN coverage of the Katrina disaster:

> One Year Later: New Orleans VAR Recovering (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)