Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Be prepared

The Lincoln Public Schools has launched a new application to provide its staff and emergency responders with updated situational awareness information about each of its schools and facilities.  The system, developed with assistance from a U.S. Department of Education Readiness & Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) grant, was developed by a contractor, SafePlans.  I attended a kickoff training session yesterday, along with other staff from LPD and LF&R

The system is called Emergency Response Information (ERIP), and provides data such as area maps, aerial photographs, floor plans, exit locations, utility shutoffs, hazardous materials locations, and digital imagery of the interior and exterior of each site.  This is all good information, and it is nicely packaged.  The site is designed for simple navigation, and does not require any uncommon plug-ins or helper applications.  It runs fine in IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, Safari's iPad edition, and the webkit browser on my Android tablet.  Like many such systems these days, it is a secure web application.  Here's the problem with web applications for emergency preparedness: in an emergency, there is a fair possibility the Internet will be unavailable:  power may be out, data centers offline, backhaul cut, wireless services overwhelmed.  


We have experienced all of these to varying degrees with three comparatively minor crises during my tenure as police chief: We had a fiber optic line cut between the County City Building and the Law Enforcement Center that effeectively severed computer communications with police headquarters and the 911 Center.  We experienced a water main break at the County City Building that took out the entire building for four months.  We had a huge early season snow storm that took out power to over 100,000 citizens for up to a week, and crippled both landline and cellular telephone.  These are nothing of the scale of an F4 tornado, a Category 4 hurricane, or a major earthquake.

If your eggs are all in the basket of an Internet/Intranet solution for preparedness, you may not be prepared.  That's why I was very pleased to see that ERIP also provided a low-tech "offline" variant.  If the cool web version is inaccessible, you've got the backup on a memory stick and still provides critical information with nothing more than a working laptop and a generator for an occasional recharge.  Keep it fairly current with an update at least every year and you will have a good sturdy belt in the event your suspenders fail.  

9 comments:

Steve said...

So, the belt is low tech, and the suspenders are high tech...nice analogy, Tom.

Anonymous said...

Ain't technology great? I paid less than $7 for a 2 Gig jump drive last week. If I remember correctly the first Jump Drive I bought was 256 Megs and I paid around $50 for it.

Gun Nut

Anonymous said...

I couldn't trust a man who wore both suspenders and a belt, because he can't even trust his own pants.

Steve said...

Gun Nut:

Jump Drive makes me think of working my way around the house as a kid on a pogo stick.

Brad Spicer said...

Thanks for taking the time to attend the training. Ultimately, ERIP is a tool and the responsibility of safeguarding schools is dependent upon the district and local public safety. The leadership and commitment exhibited by the Lincoln community has been incredible.

While I certainly hope the site mapping data in the ERIP system is never needed, I am proud to be able to help make Lincoln's schools even safer.

Brad Spicer
CEO/SafePlans

Anonymous said...

Steve,
Check out the archives of POPULAR MECHANICS. They made a Diesel Powered Pogo stick a few years back. I may have a set of plans for it somewhere. I sold my Metal Mill and Lathe before I got around to making it. Hopefully Santa Claus will treat me nice at Xmas and I will have a new lathe in the garage again.

Gun Nut

ARRRRG!!!! said...

Speaking of pogo sticks....

Dog Mom said...

I attended your presentation to Leadership Lincoln back in September. You mentioned that LPD practices going unplugged. That idea struck me as so very important for businesses and residents to prepare for crises. Thank you for sharing that message about electricity and this post about internet. BTW, I thought you did a great job with questions.

P.S. Last week one of my co-workers was a pedestrian who was hit by a car at 11th while crossing O Street. That is a hazardous intersection. Today I was having a cup of coffee at Scooters and saw two separate incidents where vehicles (one was a construction semi with trailer) ran VERY RED lights going west on O Street. HINT: station a policeman there and I'm sure he'll keep busy.

bill oliver said...

Another bit of redundacy that you may already employ is use more than one wireless provider. For those moments when service is cut or overwhelmed.