From: Ronnie Smith, Vice Chancellor, Administration and Finance
Subject:  Hurricane Katrina Recovery – Update #6
Posted: December 9, 2005

We continue to make progress on a number of tasks related to both temporary and permanent repairs to the campus facilities.  Much of the temporary work has been completed or will be completed shortly.  The architectural firm awarded the contract for the design of the major repair/renovation projects on the downtown campus is expected to begin that work shortly.  We continue to work closely with the State’s Office of Facility Planning & Control and the Office of Risk Management, FEMA and the LSU Systems Office to execute strategies designed to re-open the upper floors of the three primary research buildings as early as possible (CSRB, MEB, & Lion’s Eye Center). 

Here are highlights of work that has been accomplished since our update posted on Wednesday, November 23^rd.

• The assessment of the damage to elevators across the campus has been completed.  Repair parts are beginning to arrive and the permanent repairs to individual elevators have begun.  Until permanent repairs are completed and elevators certified by the State Elevator Inspector, routine use will be discontinued.  Restricting the use of elevators in buildings where the environmental remediation has not been completed will help to minimize further spreading of mold to upper floors.
• A new contract is being bid to clean the upper portions of the Dental School Administration and Clinic Buildings. 
• The movable equipment and furnishings in basements and 1^st floors of flood damaged buildings has been assessed by LSUHSC staff.  Work under the contract awarded for the removal and disposal of the items that are not salvageable continues.  Work has  largely been completed at all of the campus locations.  The contractor is now focusing on the punch list items to complete the contract.
• Two new contracts have been awarded for the emergency removal and disposal of carpet and other porous & semi-porous materials from basements & 1st floors of the flooded campus buildings.  One contract covers the majority of the buildings, but a separate, more specialized contract was required to deal with the additional environmental issues present in the basement spaces at the Dental School.  Work is getting underway presently.  This work will help in removing more of the major sources of mold from the buildings.
• Work is largely completed on the permanent repair/rebuilding of domestic water pumps in the Resource Center, Residence Hall, and MEB.  The final pump from the Residence Hall has been removed and sent to be rebuilt.   When it has been reinstalled and tested the contract will be complete.
• Work is underway on the contract to make repairs to the switchgear in the Residence Hall, CSRB, Lion’s Eye Center and Nursing/Allied Health Buildings. 
• Permanent repairs to the MEB switchgear are in progress and power has been restored to most of the building.  Testing revealed that power was not available to some of the individual emergency and regular electrical circuits.  The cause has been identified and parts are on order to make the needed repairs.    
• The State of Louisiana Architect Selection Board will receive proposals from architects for the design contract for the major repairs/renovations to the Dental School on 12/12/05 and will consider them at their meeting on 12/13/05.  An award of the contract is anticipated at that time.
• The bid to make repairs to various types of pumps to supply water and heat to the Residence Hall, MEB, CSRB, Lion’s Eye Center, Nursing/Allied Health, and Resource Center is being re-issued.  Adjustments to the specifications were needed to increase the opportunity for the expenses to be reimbursed by FEMA and to address completion date issues on selected pumps with unusually long lead times.
• Responses to the bid solicitation for the permanent refurbishment or replacement of fire pump systems in the Nursing/Allied Health Bldg, the Residence Hall, the Resource Center, the CSRB, the Lion’s Eye Center and the MEB were received on 12/2/2005.  The award recommendations were forwarded to the Office of Facility Planning & Control and to FEMA for their concurrence.
• A plan to repair the fire alarm systems and their components in downtown campus buildings has been submitted to the Office of Facility Planning & Control and to FEMA for their concurrence.  The approach will utilize the contractors currently responsible for on-going maintenance to insure that the systems can be re-certified and remain under the existing maintenance contract.
• A small contract was awarded on 11/15 for the repairs to the MEB boilers.  Work has now been completed.
• The last of the emergency repairs to damaged windows on campus have been completed.
• The LSUHSC Facilities & Property staff members are regularly working on a variety of small projects in key buildings.  For example:
  • Damaged electrical breakers are being identified and replaced in various buildings.  Recently, a replacement for the main breaker supplying power to the MEB cafeteria has been received and is being installed.
  • Various activities to prepare buildings for winter operations are underway.  The MEB boilers have been cleaned, etc.
  • Two of the four air handling units on the 6^th floor of the MEB have been cleaned.
  • Battery powered emergency lights have been purchased for the stairwells and hallways of the Lion’s Eye Center and are being installed.

Over the past few weeks the LSUHSC-New Orleans IT staff has continued to make progress on re-establishing or improving services impacted by Katrina.  Here are some of those highlights:

• Power has been restored to the 7^th Floor Data Center at the Resource Center in downtown New Orleans.
• Network nodes located in the Resource Center were restored to service for BellSouth, La Office of Telecommunications Management, La Department of Social Services, and the LSUHSC.  As a result, telecommunications services have been restored to several sites in the Greater New Orleans area and beyond that relied on these nodes.
• LSUHSC network services have been restored to MCLNO – Butterworth Bldg., the MCLNO tent hospital, various Juvenile Justice Program sites, Kenner Regional Medical Center, the LSU Healthcare Network Amoco site, and various other sites around New Orleans.
• The Health Care Services Division frame relay connection into the Resource Center has been restored which adds capacity to the already recovered hospital network connections.
• Video bandwidth and MCU services supporting Telemedicine, Distance Learning, and Video Teleconferencing have been restored.
• The Mainframe system located in the Resource Center, along with its entire required infrastructure, has been restored and progress is being made on restoring scaled down operational support services.
• Mainframe-based applications such as LSUHSC-Shreveport OR Log and Surgery Scheduling, E. A. Conway Surgery Scheduling, Enterprise Budget, Applicant Tracking, and Resident Tracking have been brought back up and should be released to the users soon.  The Shreveport Budget application is scheduled to be available today.
• Assessments of the individual building networks in New Orleans have been started.  The Medical Education Building, the Clinical Sciences Research Building, and the LSU/Lions Building are being visited today.
• A web-based application has been deployed which allows people to reset their own passwords from the LSUHSC-New Orleans web site. 
• An advanced Help Desk answering system is currently being tested.  Once it has been deployed, it will improve the coordination and delivery of Help Desk services to the enterprise.
• The Healthcare Services Division's Document Imaging System has been restored and made available for testing.

We hope that you continue to find this information helpful.  Daily Updates are also posted on the web site so that you can follow the recovery progress more closely.