Monitoring firm continues its work, plans to open redundant central in weeks
By SSN Staff
Updated Thu September 8, 2005
METAIRIE, La.--When Hurricane Katrina was forecast to hit New Orleans in late August, where Alarm Monitoring Services is based only minutes away, the third party central station was uncannily prepared.
Having lived already lived through her own share of natural disasters, company President Dera DeRoche-Jolet's contingency plan was well in place before the storm reached ground.
As a Dice customer, and a user of its Aegis monitoring software, AMS was able to transfer its accounts without loss of service to Dice's Bay City, Mich. headquarters and disaster center.
Coincidently, DeRoche-Jolet's strategy to open a redundant facility reached an important milestone the same day the hurricane arrived at The Big Easy. On Monday, August 29, she inked an agreement for a second facility.
DeRoche-Jolet has already begun work on the Monroe, La. central, which is more than four hours away, and she expects to begin monitoring at the site by the end of the month.
"The last time we evacuated, the hurricane didn't hit as hard," recalled DeRoche-Jolet in a statement. "People laughed at us and we even lost some accounts." AMS has been in business sine the early 1980s.
DeRoche-Jolet's staff survived the storm, although some lost their homes, she said.
For more on this story, see the October issue of Security Systems News.
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