Vermont Public is independent, community-supported media, serving Vermont with trusted, relevant and essential information. We share stories that bring people together, from every corner of our region. New to Vermont Public? Start here.

© 2024 Vermont Public | 365 Troy Ave. Colchester, VT 05446

Public Files:
WVTI · WOXM · WVBA · WVNK · WVTQ · WVTX
WVPR · WRVT · WOXR · WNCH · WVPA
WVPS · WVXR · WETK · WVTB · WVER
WVER-FM · WVLR-FM · WBTN-FM

For assistance accessing our public files, please contact hello@vermontpublic.org or call 802-655-9451.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Computer Software Developed After Irene Being Used To Aid Puerto Rico's Disaster Relief

Christina Moore of Halifax, Vt. sits at her desk in San Juan where she is managing disaster relief, using software she developed.
Christina Moore, Courtesy
Christina Moore of Halifax, Vt. sits at her desk in San Juan where she is managing disaster relief, using software she developed.

A Halifax resident who developed a software program to help with the federal disaster relief process is in Puerto Rico managing the relief effort there.Christina Moore got into disaster relief management out of necessity.

After Tropical Storm Irene devastated the Windham County town of Halifax, where she lives, Moore discovered there wasn't any computer software that helped communities manage the mountains of paperwork that follow disasters.

Moore has been working in the computer programming field most of her adult life, but she says in the days following Tropical Storm Irene she didn't immediately see a need to start writing code.

"Like so many other people who go through a natural disaster, my focus was on my own life, and my neighbors' and my community," she says.

But then the rebuilding started.

And while FEMA did its part to help, there were plenty of people in Halifax who had questions and anxiety over navigating the federal bureaucracy.

"It wasn't until probably a year later that I understood that there were no other tools out there that supported these kind of functions," she says. "Applicants were basically left to their own devices in following these very complicated federal rules."

So a few years after Irene, Moore released her software program that guides individuals and communities through the federal grant process.

"There's a secondary disaster that follows these things where lives are not devastated by the rain and the destruction of buildings and property, but they're devastated by the financial fallout." - Christina Moore, software developer

The program identifies when there are pieces missing, and it makes sure that applications are complete when they hit the desks at FEMA. Ultimately, she says, the program helps disaster relief gets into the hands of the people who need it, as quickly as possible.

"There's a secondary disaster that follows these things where lives are not devastated by the rain and the destruction of buildings and property, but they're devastated by the financial fallout," Moore says. "And so if Puerto Rico doesn't manage the federal dollars very well, they are at risk of having the U.S. federal government take some of this money back, and our tools prevent that secondary disaster."

Moore has been in San Juan for a few weeks.

She says the island was hit hard by Hurricane Maria, and so she's eager to do what she can to help.

"Everything has destruction on it," she says. "Every tree top and every  palm top is just removed. Wires are down everywhere. There's debris everywhere. The new buildings weathered the storm terrifically well, but those that were more than a couple of decades old, they have no windows. They have no roofs."

Moore's company, Storm Petrel, will be managing 100 percent of the federal disaster recovery grants.

When she's in the U.S. Moore still works out of her office in Halifax, though she has programmers working for her around the northeast.

She says the work in Puerto Rico will probably take five years, and she's hiring three new computer programmers to help out.

 

Howard Weiss-Tisman is Vermont Public’s southern Vermont reporter, but sometimes the story takes him to other parts of the state.
Latest Stories