Success Stories Feature

When Hurricane Katrina swept through the Gulf Coast region and into the history books as one of the deadliest and costliest natural disasters ever to hit the United States, RIT/NTID Alumnus Alan Gifford, ’77, was quickly propelled into the eye of recovery efforts.

“It was Labor Day weekend,” recalls Gifford, the first deaf graduate of RIT’s bachelor’s degree program in Civil Engineering. “I had just completed work as the resident engineer in Weymouth, Mass., for a $46 million pump station and tunnel system when I got an unexpected phone call.”

Gifford’s employer, The Shaw Group, Inc., dispatched Gifford from his home near Boston to the company’s headquarters in Baton Rouge, La.

Since early September, he has been providing construction management support services for work projects to remove debris and restore New Orleans’ natural gas, water and sewage systems.

From the company’s command center, Gifford receives information from project managers in the field. He compiles the data, including costs and methodology of repairs, into reports that he submits to Federal Emergency Management Agency officials.

“Our first task was to repair water mains,” Gifford says. “In Jefferson Parish we repaired 481 broken water mains in 17 days.”

And he has received kudos for his work. “In fact,” says Shaw’s Resource Manager Barton Rogers, “the organization and documentation by Gifford has been used as a model for other Shaw hurricane projects.”

While the extreme devastation has made it a challenging environment in which to work, Gifford, who will continue working in New Orleans for several months, says he’s happy to help.

“The people have been kind,” says Gifford. “They all say, ‘Thanks for coming down here to help.’”

This story appeared in the Fall/Winter 2005 issue of FOCUS Magazine.