GNODRP ("No Drip") Greater New Orleans Disaster Recovery Partnership

“No Drip” (GNODRP) – Hurricane Preparedness and Hurricane Recovery Partnership

Greater New Orleans Disaster Recovery Partnership (GNODRP)

Formed in November of 2005

Gulf coast residents know all too well what June – November mean: Hurricane Season!

Thankfully all has been calm out in the ocean water but that does not mean New Orleans isn’t engaged in serious preparation. The Greater New Orleans Disaster Recovery Partnership (GNODRP) pronounced “no drip’ is just that. In the coming months the greater New Orleans area will need to be on guard and preparing for tropical storms and hurricanes. GNODRP offers services to help the community prepare before a disaster and to recover after. GNODRP is also working in many ways with people still recovering from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The Mission of the Greater New Orleans Disaster Recovery Partnership (GNODRP) is to regionally support long-term recovery and preparedness.

What You Should Know Now

The GNODRP is working on two large projects that benefit the greater New Orleans area.

1. RECOVERY SUPPORT: GNODRP provides long-term recovery support to victims of Katrina and Rita. The number of people still needing recovery is extensive and GNODRP wants to get the word out that they’re here to help.
2. FUTURE DISASTER PREPAREDNESS: GNODRP will be serving as the central point of contact for nonprofit organizations for preparedness and recovery efforts of future disasters. GNODRP will serve as the leader in organizing nonprofit recovery efforts in the event of a future disaster. Referred to as Greater New Orleans Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (GNO VOAD)

Hurricane Katrina Satellite Image

Who and What GNODRP Serves

GNODRP currently has 7 member parishes: Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Washington & the River Parishes: St. John the Baptist and St. Charles.

GNODRP offers services to aid in the disaster recovery process, these include but are not limited to rebuilding and repairing homes, case management, advocacy, emotional and spiritual care, donations collection and distribution, preparedness and volunteer coordination.

Through the GNODRP Donations Warehouse Program, rebuild agencies and case management agencies can pick up furnishings and materials on behalf of clients still in need of recovery.  The materials are donated from a hodgepodge of sources. The partnerships that GNODRP has are extensive.

Who Is Involved?

GNODRP is made up of a coalition of over 70 organizations who give support by meeting community needs in the recovery process that have gone un-met by other sources The coalition is made up of faith-based, non-profit, government liaisons and long term recovery organizations.

A full list of member agencies and resource partners can be found by click the corresponding link. Some representative members include the United Way of New Orleans, the Red Cross and Catholic Charities and there are many more.

How You Can Get Involved

The GNODRP is always looking for people and organizations to join in their effort to collaborate and share resources. There are many ways to support GNODRP some include putting your name on the mailing list, signing up to volunteer, or making a donation. GNODRP is looking for many skill sets including social services, construction expertise, grant writing, PR, and most of all friendly and passionate people who want to make a difference in the local community.

For more information about GNODRP and to get Involved visit their site at: http://www.gnodrp.org/

or email: info@gnodrp.org

Keywords: disaster recovery, disaster preparedness, hurricane, New Orleans, GNO

We’re talking business and Marc says to me “why do you stay in New Orleans”?

Look, if you live here, you know why I stay in New Orleans. But for the rest of you, here’s a few:

• I can often wear shorts in January
• When you go out to see music, people are dancing
• When you go to morning meeting at your kids’ school people are dancing
• It’s funky, eclectic, exotic and refined
• It’s a small town with an international vibe
• There is a warmth that’s real, I mean real
• There is a thriving business community who gets what’s important
• It’s easy

Why not stay? I’ll leave that for someone else, I don’t know where else to go, you know? I love New York, I love San Diego, I love Paris, but none of them is this easy.

And, regardless of what the papers say, it’s a great place to start a business.

Ok, enough rah, rah, how bout some facts!

• in 2008, Louisiana was 5th in the nation in Entrepreneurial activity
• The Louisiana Angel Investor Tax Credit
• The Digital Media / Motion Picture and Sound Recording Tax Credits
  Measures are underway to extend this to all technology firms
• Unlike the rest of the country our unemployment rate is going down

And finally, we have GNO Inc. who is putting together the GNO Digital Media Alliance to advance the cause of Digital Media and Media as the next growth industry in Louisiana.

Michael Hecht of GNO Inc was kind enough to come speak with us and told us that GNO Inc has put together a data sheet with some key facts about New Orleans. At our Net2NO meeting on Tuesday night I suggested everyone with a blog should take it upon themselves to spread the good news.

On their web site it’s an image. I had it transcribed below:

GREATER NEW ORLEANS: A GREATER REALITY

The Greater New Orleans Reality Check

• The Greater New Orleans region has international trade assets, such as six-class A railroads, excellent highway access and a location at the mouth of the Mississippi, that are unmatched anywhere in the country.
• Our port system, taken from Plaquemines to Baton Rouge, is one of the largest in the world.
• We have 88% of the nation’s oil rigs off our coast, and are in the top three in the country in oil and gas production. We are America’s Energy Coast.
• Every single manned flight that has gone into space since Apollo has done so with a massive fuel tank built in one of the largest and most advanced manufacturing facilities in the world, right here at Michoud.
• We are now the center of the third largest film producing region in the country, behind only Hollywood and New York.
• The GNO region has a collection of colleges and universities that is as good, in quantity and quality, as that of any city of comparable size in our country. And these schools have come back strong: admissions at Tulane is up 180% from pre-storm levels.
• 94% of our region is above sea level.
• And, the technology exists to restore our wetlands and protect the remainder.
• 9l% of the regional population is back.
• And the population that is back is filled with highly educated and motivated “brain-gainers.”
• Our region is experiencing a level of civic and business engagement that hasn’t been seen in decades.
• Our region is embarking on one of the most ambitious educational reform programs in the history of our nation.
• Here you can find a sense of place, a value for dollar and an overall quality of life that city planners have discussed since Jane Jacobs, but few actual regions can offer. In an ever more homogeneous world, the GNO region increasingly shines as a unique beacon of culture.
• While the rest of the country is reeling from a massive financial crisis, we are relatively better-off thanks to billions of recovery dollars, a surplus from formerly high oil and gas prices, and record-breaking exports.

This is our reality. This is Greater New Orleans.

• Voodoo Ventures