Emergency groups clamor for directory
Dibya Sarkar writes in FCW.com:
A coalition of national health, police and fire and other groups is trying to raise awareness and obtain federal funding for a real-time automatic messaging and information-sharing system that draws from a shared electronic directory of public and private emergency response agency contact information.
The geographic information system-enabled Emergency Provider Access Directory (EPAD), which has taken three years to develop, provides authorized users to share data across disparate systems and transmit emergency alerts and descriptions of specific incidents to registered individuals within a particular area or region.
posted by Fergie @ 6/17/2005 12:24:00 PM
1 Comments:
One of the problems with any emergency communications systems is that, in time of actual disaster, many of the high-tech whiz-bang systems tend to be among the first things to go. I remember that being the case with the cell phone service in Houston, following TS Allison. I used my cell to communicate with the family while I was out of town, but as soon as I arrived at IAH, no more service -- for about 3-4 days.
That's one reason why the Amateur (ham) Radio operators are so invaluable -- their equipment can often be taken to where it is needed, and can be made to run off a variety of power sources.
-etee
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