Earthquake: The Long Road Back : Federal Assistance Is a Touch Away : Technology: FEMA is using new hand-held computers in recording claims for quake victims. Officials say the system will save time and money.

After trials by fire, flood and temblor, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has provided its Northridge earthquake inspectors with a new, portable computer system to help repair the shattered lives of disaster victims.

“This is the first very large-scale use of the Automated Construction Estimate system,” said Scott Martin, chief of the FEMA Housing Disaster Branch. “My guess is it’s going to shave at least five days to a week in the time the people get their checks and between $10 million and $20 million in administration costs.”

The ACE system developed for the agency by UCS Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., consists of hand-held computer terminals on which inspectors can enter damage information while touring disaster sites. The information is then fed into a central computer bank in Redwood City, saving paper and man-hours.

The computers are manufactured by two companies, AST Research Inc. of Irvine, and Dauphin Technology Inc. of Lombard, Ill.

In some field tests, the ACE system slashed the time to process victims’ applications for disaster aid in half.

The ACE system was tested in the Eureka earthquake and Phoenix floods, both in 1992, and during last year’s Southland firestorms. The results were positive enough that the computers were given to all 800 inspectors working on the Northridge quake.

At first glance, the 2.5-pound computer looks like a portable video game or an “Etch-a-Sketch” toy. But inspectors say it is all business, with software that contains inspection forms for FEMA aid applicants.

“The computers have cut down on a lot of garbage,” said FEMA inspector Andres Villalon, 56, of Key Biscayne, Fla., who filled out paper forms during last year’s Midwest floods. “The difference between working the Missouri floods and the Northridge quake is like night and day.”

By touching a pen to a screen to fill out the inspection survey, inspectors say they are able to work faster and more accurately than they were with the old system of writing by hand on forms as they walked through damaged buildings.

Unlike the paper forms, which provided for only 99-line items of damage, the software for the pen computers stores a list of more than 250-line items of loss resulting from tornado, hurricane, earthquake, fire and flood, Martin said.

The inspector simply touches the pen to one of the 11 damage categories on the screen (including electrical, floor and ceiling), then, the location of the damage (kitchen, bathroom, etc.) and finally the damaged item, which can range from common dishware to mobile home foundations.

The software calculates how much damage is done and the replacement costs in the area of the country the inspectors are working. And since a small keyboard types up reports, there is no confusion or delays resulting from poor handwriting.

“There seems to be something in the human gene pool that if you know how to repair a house, you can’t spell,” Martin said of his inspectors.

FEMA’s cost for each unit and its software is about $5,000. But Martin said the price will be worth it.

“The paper system shortchanged victims,” Martin said. “During the field test in the Eureka, Calif., earthquake, inspectors’ reports were 30% more accurate than with the paper system.”

The new system will also benefit taxpayers, Martin said.

At the end of each day, the ACE system allows inspectors to hook up a modem and send all their inspection data into a central processing facility in Redwood City. In prior disasters, they had to drive to a processing station to drop them off.

In an average disaster year with about 75,000 FEMA applicants, Martin estimates that the ACE system will save about $5.4 million in administrative costs. The Northridge earthquake, by comparison, could result in four times as many applicants and four times the savings.

“Typically, an inspector will lose a couple of days of work just driving back and forth,” Martin said. “What we’ve done is turn inspectors into data-entry people.”

This is a welcome relief for FEMA inspector Don Walters of Eureka, Mo., who drove daily from the flood-ravaged areas of Missouri to the central processing headquarters in St. Louis.

“I would drive seven hours, do between eight and 11 appointments, and drive back,” he said. “Here, I can go from Northridge to Sylmar to Lake View Terrace and send everything in at night.”