LOUISVILLE, Ky. - In response to ATMmarketplace's Aug. 31 new item about ATM companies affected by Hurricane Katrina, Gary Walston, senior vice president of New Orleans-based Innovus Inc./Momentum Cash Systems LLC, said his company "hasn't missed a beat" and is now operating from its Houston and Dallas offices.
"We don't have a way to assess the damage to our (New Orleans) facility at this point," Walston added. "We have rerouted our customer support calls from Louisiana," and company officials are now in a wait-and-see mode.
Most of the 70 employees who worked in Innovus' New Orleans facility have been located, Walston added, and are being moved to operations in Houston and Dallas for the short-term. "We are trying to assess what we can do to make a more permanent solution for them" until operations resume in New Orleans.
"Obviously," he added, "we are all seeing the same thing (on the news) - complete devastation."
Also working from Dallas is New Orleans-based Columbus Data Services.
"We began sending our people to our backup site in Dallas on Saturday, when it became evident that New Orleans was going to be hit by Katrina," said CDS president Ron Schuldt in a statement issued Sept. 1. "We processed transactions throughout the hurricane and are running completely on our backup systems in Dallas. Judging from the reports we are getting out of New Orleans, we will be operating out of Dallas for a long time."
The address for CDS in Dallas is 5220 Spring Valley Road, Ste. 605, Dallas, TX, 75254.
"God was watching over our people," Schuldt added in the statement. "They are all safe. We don't know yet the extent of damage to our homes or to our office. The after-flooding really hurt, but we are alive and kickin'. I want to thank our clients, our vendors and the rest of the ATM industry for all their support and encouragement during this disaster."
ATMmarketplace will continue to report as more information becomes available. If you have information or an update about a company affected by Katrina, please contact Tracy Kitten at (502) 241-7545, Ext. 125, or via e-mail.
Read also, Breaking: Triton issues statement after Katrina ravages Gulf states.
