As MissionMode sales manager Rick Bradley watched storm coverage of Hurricane Katrina’s approach on TV, he knew he couldn’t sit idly by. He jumped on a plane to Houston, driving eight hours to the City of Mandeville, Louisiana to help out one of the hardest hit communities. This is his firsthand account of what transpired:
I had been tracking the storm for several days and knew Mandeville was right in the path of the hurricane. Before the storm hit, I contacted city officials to offer help should they encounter communication problems. Unfortunately, our predictions were right: The Mandeville Police Station lost all vital communications to City Hall and the St. Tammany Parish Emergency Operation Center. All phone lines, Internet connectivity, and paging systems were completely offline during the vicious storm.
In preparation for the trip, our tech staff pre-built out a command center using MissionMode situation awareness software configured for Mandeville’s environment. They had sent me a list of police officers, agents, dispatchers, and existing system devices beforehand. This enabled me to input this data beforehand to minimize ramp-up time. I also brought along ten laptops equipped with Sprint EVDO wireless cards.
As soon as the equipment was ready, I traveled to the site as quickly as I could to help the Mandeville police reestablish vital communications. Once I got about 5-10 miles outside Baton Rouge I started seeing the effects of the storm but that was nothing compared to what was going on in Mandeville. The city looked like a combat zone. Power lines were in the road, trees were everywhere. It was an emotional roller coaster. I met people who had lost everything. Their world was turned upside down. Things we take for granted were completely wiped out.
The city hadn’t been evacuated, yet they only had a small detail at the police station, as 80 percent of the police force had been dispatched elsewhere. It was bedlam. Many officers who remained had lost their homes and were living at the station. National guardsmen and women were coming in and out. 95 percent of the police station cell phones weren’t working. The police chief needed a way to alert officers and dispatchers of changes and any emergency details that arose. They were keeping track of residents and recovery efforts on paper.
We needed to hit the ground running. Using the EVDO cards, we were able to get Internet access running at the police station within three hours of arrival. We used MissionMode situation awareness software as a central communication channel to open up lines of communication between the police department and city hall so the mayor could monitor activities.
This also proved useful in tracking residents. For example, people were calling in to request checks on relatives in the area. If multiple calls came in on the same person, officers were often being dispatched to the same location because there was no way to cross check calls. Once MissionMode was up and running, they began logging these calls in the system so that whenever a call was received, they could search for the missing person’s name and notify the caller if the person has already been checked on, and conserve valuable staff resources.
The city building inspector also used the software in the field, transmitting photos and structural damage assessments of area businesses and residents remotely from his truck. In parallel, Mandeville 9-1-1 dispatchers logged into MissionMode to track and audit incidents, such as welfare check disbursements. The police department also used the system to track donations and supplies donated from area businesses to ensure valid and audited reimbursements from the city.
On my second day, I began a vehicle drive through devastated areas of Mandeville, Slidell, and other Gulf Coast cities to give officials firsthand knowledge from the front lines of the extent of the damage. I took digital images of street-by-street damage and used the wireless laptop to upload these along with grid coordinates, maps of the location, and area notes of to the Situation Center. This allowed public officials to send needed resources from the Red Cross, FEMA, and the National Guard to those severely affected areas. These clear photos and associated data kept the mayor updated on the devastation in and around the city and assisted in the decision-making process for dispatch of relief teams.
I took 50,000 pictures—it was unbelievable. I saw trucks wrapped around trees, boats 15 miles away from the water, cement bridges completely disabled. It looked like someone flew a B52 bomber and dumped lumber all over the ground. A bridge I had planned to cross was completely gone. When I got out of my car to capture the damage, people saw that I had Internet access and formed a line to log into FEMA for the latest information.
This experience showed me firsthand the impact these systems can truly have on a community. Continued communication is what it’s all about. I hope the city will use the system should they face future emergencies. For example, officers can be the police chief’s eyes in the field, uploading pictures to the Situation Center for improved decision-making. Specially programmed and secure camera phones linked to MissionMode get the photos uploaded in seconds so everyone with access to the system can see them right away…without risk of leaks to the media. This is immensely important for making appropriate decisions about where to dispatch officers, road crews, and other resources. It can also be used to post messages to the public as to which roads are clear to speed up traffic in cases of evacuation.
Unfortunately, these storms are going to continue. While a disaster of this proportion is impossible to prepare for, there are steps officials can take to minimize the impacts. Documenting and practicing emergency plans, and having backup systems in place, will go a long way to ensuring continuous operation. Likewise, being organized is fundamental to managing difficult situations. Having systems that streamline urgent communications protects lives by speeding the proper emergency response.
