Despite the tremendous damage and unfortunate loss of life in the Southeast during this year's hurricane season, the preparedness of area first responders has benefited greatly from improved coordination and information-sharing between emergency agencies.

This year's recovery from three major storms — Category 3 and higher — has gone much more smoothly than last year, when Hurricane Isabel made landfall as a Category 2 storm with sustained winds of 100mph. Isabel struck the North Carolina coast and then continued westward to the Appalachians. In our area, Virginia fire, rescue and police departments from Charlottesville and Albemarle worked tirelessly to respond to a record number of emergency calls, restore order, and ensure the safety of our citizens.

Responding to this emergency was a monumental task for thousands of firefighters, EMTs and police officers. One of our greatest challenges, however, was keeping teams updated and coordinated. During the storm, we lacked the ability to keep current regarding road closures, river flood levels and power outages. Along with limited situational awareness, our planning was likewise hindered by the lack of weather data and real-time situation reports from nearby jurisdictions.

Weather reports came via radio and TV, and throughout the storm, we relied on radios, Nextel Direct Connect phones and hand-written reports to coordinate our response. While most local fire, police and rescue jurisdictions were equipped with computers and access to the Internet, there was virtually no common system that enabled us to coordinate activities and obtain shared access to the same information.

Technology tools

Today, however, we have the technology tools that enable emergency responders to stay connected, access and share information, and communicate both locally and nationally.

Part of the Disaster Management e-Gov initiative, the Disaster Management Interoperability Services program was developed to ensure that emergency response organizations across the country can communicate and share information related to an incident. DMIS is designed to enable responders to share information seamlessly between organizations for increased disaster response effectiveness.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency ensured that DMIS is:

• Simple to use,
• Compatible with most computers and proprietary software systems, and
• Available at no cost to first responders.

In New Mexico, Office of Emergency Management Director Jeff Phillips has indicated a statewide rollout of DMIS, seeing it as an answer to a long-standing problem. “Each of the locals has individual bits of information, but no one pulls it all together,” he says. “People can't see what's on the ground.”

Phillips says that he has had 100% cooperation with other jurisdictions and that after a three-day preparedness drill, the excitement and understanding has continued to grow. “DMIS allows us to link information from regions that are very far away from one another,” he says of the free system. “The cost wasn't too hard to swallow, either.”

Software deployment

In essence, DMIS is a nationwide Web service that acts as an “electronic backbone” to securely link any participating first responder with an Internet-connected computer. DMIS may be used by one agency or many within a locality or region.

Through DMIS, users can access automated collaboration tools, such as maps, weather data and private instant messaging. Users also can seek and track material assistance from other organizations. DMIS allows for:

• Local incident information to be input to a national map display and shared.
• Hourly weather forecasts by ZIP code.
• GIS information to be imported.
• Responders to request assistance and resources from other organizations and track their response and delivery.
• Notification through e-mail listservs.

Responder groups receive and transmit data over the Web, enabling them to rapidly develop and exchange incident information with other responder organizations. This sharing capability gives all responders greater knowledge of a particular disaster event by leveraging technology. The resulting efficiency allows responders to gain early and broader awareness, better coordinate response among organizations, save more lives and minimize property damage.

To deploy DMIS, one person serves as the project administrator to coordinate setup and implementation. Generally, this task is assigned to someone who coordinates the emergency management role for a community, but it can be any public safety official.

Only one DMIS software package is needed within each locality, but it requires a client installation on all computers that will be using it. Much like any software program with multiple users, it requires identification of the people who will have security clearance to access the program and information. The system can be initiated by any authorized position.

Full and effective use of DMIS requires that the computer with the DMIS client be connected to the Internet. However, documentation of information and activity may continue even when connectivity is lost. Through a capability called “mirroring,” DMIS enables users to continue working, performing functions such as capturing incident report data. When the network connection is re-established, DMIS automatically updates the information and downloads any new inputs.

Nationwide uses

Though we are just completing our installation of DMIS in Charlottesville, reports from around the DMIS network show just how valuable and versatile the system has been during the past few months.

For example, during Hurricanes Bonnie and Charlie, the U.S. Naval Air Station at Whiting Field in Florida used DMIS to coordinate with local fire departments and the emergency operations center at a nearby police station. The system provided the command staff with visual maps and text updates on the storms. DMIS also was used to address questions from and provide information to first responders. Overall, DMIS helped to organize an orderly and efficient response to the storms.

Dewey Ratliff, emergency management coordinator with Bosque County, Texas, is rolling DMIS out currently. Bosque County is a rural community with no information technology or GIS support. DMIS opened a door that otherwise would have remained shut due to the lack of support resources.

“Other surrounding counties all had something, but nothing was collaborative,” Ratliff says. “This tool brings everyone together on an even playing field.” DMIS is serving as a collaborative catalyst, expanding to five other counties and involving the entire Heart of Texas Council of Governments region. Ratliff is enthusiastic that over the next year there will be measurable deployment of DMIS.

In our case, the Charlottesville Fire Department could have used DMIS during Hurricane Isabel to review incident reports from other jurisdictions also in the path of the storm and analyze weather data to look for trends, such as increasing wind velocities, property damage and rising river levels. We look forward to having these capabilities to aid in preparation and response to future emergencies.

In addition, DMIS could have been used to track road closures and share listings of detours with area fire, rescue and police dispatchers. Such a tool would have eliminated duplicate response efforts, helped to expedite the cleanup operation and perhaps improved safety for responders and the public alike.

Future plans

Because DMIS is compatible with many proprietary emergency response systems, we plan to interface with other software tools such as Blue 292, Web-EOC and CAMEO/MARPLOT.

This interface capability enhances the value of these software systems, even as DMIS provides basic interoperability between other emergency first responders in our region. What's more, DMIS is a national backbone, so we will be part of a much larger community that shares common goals — to serve the public and save lives.

Although we're new to the system, the decision to move forward with the installation was a good one. DMIS has not cost our department a dime, yet we will solve one of our interoperability challenges and have access to vast amounts of information and technical resources.

The importance of this solution in the context of terrorism can't be overstated. Already, DMIS has been used in response to more than 60 real-world incidents, including chemical spills and suspected chemical and biological attacks. (All of these threats proved to be hoaxes or accidents.) While we know that more terrors — like the Charleys, Ivans and Jeannes — are inevitable, we are far better off with technology tools to help us weather the storm.

The DMIS Web site at www.cmi-services.org will guide you through information about DMIS, its capabilities, training, registration procedures and available resources.

---

Charles Werner is a 28-year veteran of the fire service and is presently deputy fire chief with the Charlottesville (Va.) Fire Department and serves on numerous interoperability working groups and the International Association of Fire Chiefs Communications Committee.