Em mag may10

A publication of e.Re
publica on e Republic

May/June 2010

inside:
Private-sector
organizations
in the EOC
Destined
for a life in
emergency
management

FIRST LINE OF RESPONSE
PLAGUED BY OUTDATED
TECHNOLOGY, LACK
OF STANDARDS

911:
A NATIONAL

Issue 3 — Vol. 5

PLIGHT?

From Incident Management to Incident Prevention
A Case Study on the G20 Summit Response and Readiness
In September 2009 the world came to Pittsburgh.
Presidents, prime ministers, and other world leaders
gathered to discuss global economic issues at the
G-20 summit.

UNPRECEDENTED COLLABORATION
Throughout the G20 there was an unprecedented
level of round-the-clock communication among security
and emergency personnel. More than 900 additional
users—many of whom had never used Knowledge
Center before—were seamlessly integrated into the
system. Knowledge Center allowed users to share more
than 3,000 individual log entries across the operational
theater.

‡
‡

Interactive maps guided security personnel who
were unfamiliar with the streets of a city that’s
notoriously difficult to navigate.

‡

Security was on everyone’s mind. More than 130 public
safety agencies were involved, including 30 federal
organizations and 26 NGOs. Local law enforcement
ballooned from 900 to 4,000 officers. If they were to
succeed, they all needed to work together.

The system met the federal agencies’ high
standards for speed, reliability, security, and
situational awareness.

‡

Such people never travel alone. They bring entourages,
security personnel, the press corps, and—given the
nature of this summit—the looming threat of violent
protests and widespread property damage.

Knowledge Center’s intuitive Web interface
made it easy to learn. A straightforward, twosided sheet of instructions got them up to speed.

Field personnel could enter or access critical
information from any location.

Most important, it gave all users a real-time common
operating picture, allowing them to track reports,
locations, events, and potential protests. Field personnel
knew instantly where to focus their attention, enabling
them to address
incidents
and
“I think this type of
rumblings before
information sharing is
they lurched out
an example of how it
of control.

And they did. Much of the credit belongs to a region
and city that were well prepared and ready to guard
people and property—and to Knowledge Center™, an
integrated incident management system that creates
a virtual collaborative environment for emergency
managers. Protests remained under control, as security
and emergency personnel stayed well informed and
prepared throughout the summit.

should be.”
— Lieutenant Zupanc
Ohio Fusion Center

“Access was given
not only to all those in
the MACC, but to the
street level and field
operations,”
notes
Commander
Richard
Timme, of the U.S.
Coast Guard. “Instant
communications were
— Commander Timme, US Coast Guard
possible via the logging
of incidents, which included every aspect of the event
including 911 calls. This type of ‘common operating
picture’ is something that every response organization
should strive for, particularly when faced with so many
different agencies.”

“The Knowledge Center’s
‘common operating picture’ is
something that every response
organization should strive for,
particularly when faced with so
many different agencies.”

HISTORY OF SUCCESS
The Knowledge Center Incident Management System
already was in place long before the dignitaries’ private
planes landed. It has served a 13-county region and the
city of Pittsburgh for four years, and it had been put to
the test with the 2006 All-Star Game, the 2007 U.S.
Open Golf Tournament, and severe weather events that
regularly occur in the region.
The G-20, however,
was far bigger than
any past events, and
once again Knowledge
Center absorbed an
influx of users.

In the end, the city sustained about $50,000 worth of
property damage, a mere fraction of the losses suffered
by other cities that have hosted similar events.

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Experience Knowledge Center in action!

Be part of our EOC @ 2010 National UASI Conference
Join us June 21–24 in New Orleans—EOC Participants get a Free Shirt or Hat

Sign up @ our website —Select “UASI Exercise” on Contact Form

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ON THE COVER

16

Contents

911: A National
Plight?
Since 911 call-takers and technology
are the ﬁrst line of response when
citizens have an emergency, it’s
surprising how standards vary
throughout the nation.
Cover Photo by the New York City Police
Department Photo Unit

FEATURES

28
Working Together
Since Katrina, the private sector
has joined hands with the public sector
during disasters.

44
High-Tech
Port Protection
Los Angeles port authorities bolster
line of defense against terrorists with
technology and a specialized canine.

DEPARTMENTS

24
MAJOR PLAYER

Spirit for Service
Jacqueline McBride, disaster
assistance employee, FEMA Region II.

54
INTEROPERABILITY

Born From Necessity
Tight funds and a need for interoperable
radio communications inspire nearly
20 years of collaboration on a statewide
network that continues to grow.

58
TECHNOLOGY AND TRENDS

A Critical Link
Amateur radio operators ﬁll communication gaps and provide situational
awareness to emergency managers
during and after disasters.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT PHOTO UNIT

4

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ALERT
THOUSANDS
IN MINUTES

WHEN IT MATTERS MOST.
Whether you need to mobilize constituents,
communicate weather-related closures or notify
your community in an emergency, Blackboard
Connect provides the professional-grade solution
to quickly and reliably deliver your message, every
time. Backed by our client care team and a worldclass infrastructure proven to deliver over 6 million
messages in a 24-hour period, Blackboard Connect
is relied upon by over 500 government entities to
deliver their message when it matters most.

blackboardconnect.com
© 2010 Blackboard Inc.

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Group Publisher:
Founding Publisher:
VP Emergency Management/
Homeland Security:
Publisher:
Executive Editor:

Contents

EDITORIAL
Editor:
Associate Editor:
Managing Editor:
Assistant Editor:
Features Editor:
Chief Copy Editor:
Copy Editor:
Staff Writers:

Don Pearson dpearson@govtech.com
Tim Karney tkarney@govtech.com
Martin Pastula mpastula@govtech.com
Scott Fackert sfackert@govtech.com
Steve Towns stowns@govtech.com

Editorial Assistant:

Jim McKay jmckay@govtech.com
Elaine Pittman epittman@govtech.com
Karen Stewartson kstewartson@govtech.com
Matt Williams mwilliams@govtech.com
Andy Opsahl aopsahl@govtech.com
Miriam Jones mjones@govtech.com
Sarah Rich srich@govtech.com
Hilton Collins hcollins@govtech.com
Corey McKenna cmckenna@govtech.com
Russell Nichols rnichols@govtech.com
Karen Wilkinson kwilkinson@govtech.com
Courtney Hardy chardy@govtech.com

DESIGN
Creative Director:
Senior Designer:
Graphic Designer:
Illustrator:
Production Director:
Production Manager:

Kelly Martinelli kmartinelli@govtech.com
Crystal Hopson chopson@govtech.com
Michelle Hamm mhamm@govtech.com
Tom McKeith tmckeith@govtech.com
Stephan Widmaier swidm@govtech.com
Joei Heart jheart@govtech.com

PUBLISHING
VP of Strategic Accounts:
VP Bus. Development:

Jon Fyffe jfyffe@govtech.com
Tim Karney tkarney@govtech.com
East

Regional Sales Directors:
East
West, Central

Leslie Hunter lhunter@govtech.com
Shelley Ballard sballard@govtech.com

Account Managers:
Melissa Cano mcano@govtech.com
Erin Gross egross@govtech.com
Business Development Director: Glenn Swenson gswenson@govtech.com
Bus. Dev. Managers:
Lisa Doughty ldoughty@govtech.com
John Enright jenright@govtech.com
Pat Hoertling phoertling@govtech.com
Kevin May kmay@govtech.com
Regional Sales Administrators: Sabrina Shewmake sshewmake@govtech.com
Christine Childs cchilds@govtech.com
National Sales Administrator:
Jennifer Valdez jvaldez@govtech.com
Director of Marketing:
Andrea Kleinbardt akleinbardt@govtech.com
Dir. of Custom Events:
Whitney Sweet wsweet@govtech.com
Associate Dir. of Custom Events: Lana Herrera lherrera@govtech.com
Custom Events Manager:
Karin Morgan kmorgan@govtech.com
Custom Events Coordinator:
Tanya Noujaim tnoujaim@govtech.com
Dir. of Custom Publications:
Stacey Toles stoles@govtech.com
Custom Publications Editor:
Emily Montandon emontandon@govtech.com
Custom Publications Writer:
Jim Meyers jmeyers@govtech.com
Director of Web
Products and Services:
Vikki Palazzari vpalazzari@govtech.com
Web Services Manager:
Peter Simek psimek@govtech.com
Custom Web Products Manager: Michelle Mrotek mmrotek@govtech.com
Web Advertising Manager:
Julie Dedeaux jdedeaux@govtech.com
Web Services/Project Coordinator: Adam Fowler afowler@govtech.com
Subscription Coordinator:
Gosia Colosimo subscriptions@govtech.com
East

West, Central

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE LOS ANGELES SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT

REST OF THE BOOK

8

62

Letters/Calendar

Products

10

64

Point of View

Eric’s Corner:

Simplifying the Message

Selling Emergency Management

12

66

In the News

CORPORATE
CEO:
Executive VP:
Executive VP:
CAO:
CFO:
VP of Events:
Marketing Director:
Chief Content Officer:

Last Word
Protecting the Public Against H1N1

Dennis McKenna dmckenna@govtech.com
Don Pearson dpearson@govtech.com
Cathilea Robinett crobinet@centerdigitalgov.com
Lisa Bernard lbernard@govtech.com
Paul Harney pharney@govtech.com
Alan Cox acox@govtech.com
Drew Noel dnoel@govtech.com
Paul W. Taylor ptaylor@govtech.com

Government Technology’s Emergency Management is published by e.Republic Inc.
© 2010 by e.Republic Inc. All rights reserved. Opinions expressed by writers are
not necessarily those of the publisher or editors.

14

Article submissions should be sent to the attention of the Managing Editor.
Reprints of all articles in this issue and past issues are available (500 minimum).
Please direct inquiries to the YGS Group: Attn. Mike Shober at (800) 290-5460
ext.129 or governmenttechnology@theygsgroup.com.

EM Bulletin

Subscription Information: Requests for subscriptions may be directed to subscription
coordinator by phone or fax to the numbers below. You can also subscribe online at
www.emergencymgmt.com.
Canada Post Publication Mail Agreement 40048640, undeliverables 2-7496
Bath Road, Mississauga, Ontario L4T 1L2
100 Blue Ravine Road, Folsom, CA 95630
Phone: (916)932-1300 Fax: (916)932-1470
www.emergencymgmt.com

6

e

The inside pages of this publication are printed
on 80 percent de-inked recycled fiber.

A publication of

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For safety administrators,
waiting is not an option. When it
comes to public safety, getting the right resources to the
right spot simply can’t wait. The BlackBerry Curve™ 8350i
with Nextel Direct Connect and GPS tracking is here to
help. Dispatchers can track resources and route employees
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used with permission. Other marks are the property of their respective owners.

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Reader Feedback
Enforce the Codes
Comments in response to the online article
Proposed Addressing Standard Could Boost Emergency
Response, which covers how inaccurate addresses cause
potentially fatal delays in emergency response, but a proposed standard could improve the situation. Read the
article at: www.emergencymgmt.com/publicaddressing
All of the computerized gizmos in the world
don’t mean a thing until we enforce the existing
codes requiring clearly visible address numbers
on every structure.
— J. Allen
Twenty-five years ago the Champaign County,
Ill., Fire Chiefs Association started a project
that did away with rural route box number
addressing. Now all addressing is a locatable
address instead of “telling only the postal letter carrier where the mailbox is.” We converted
about 10,000 addresses in our county, which is
the size of Rhode Island.
— Tom Harnsberger

Hot Topic
Cultivating Emergency Managers sparked many
comments online, and here’s what one reader had

to say about the impending shortage of emergency
managers and how to groom the next generation.
Join the conversation at: www.emergencymgmt
.com/cultivating
It is extremely difficult to break into the [emergency management] field. I have been trying
g
for almost three years now with no luck. Local
l
and state offices seem to be full of people who
have been there for years and don’t plan to
leave for even more years. There are few to
no entry-level positions. It has become so concerning that I am thinking about going back to
school for something else. I have learned one
thing in this field: You cannot look for the job
in your local areas, meaning you can’t wait for
the job to come to you. You will have to go to
the job and that means relocating. I am currently looking all over the country for positions
but so far still no luck.
— Tiffany Barnes

Encouraged
Comment in response to the interview with
FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate titled Raising
the Bar in the March/April issue, in which he discussed ethics, technology and the Haiti earthquake

in a rare one-on-one interview. Read the interview
at: www.emergencymgmt.com/fugate
This interview was very insightful and encouraging! Craig Fugate is moving FEMA in the
right direction. I do agree that the largest challenge is teaching, on a local level, key stakeholders and players how to “dance” together
before disasters happen!
— John Crabtree

Your opinions matter to us. Send letters to the editor
at editorial@govtech.com. Please list your telephone
number for confirmation. Publication is solely at the
discretion of the editors. Emergency Management
reserves the right to edit submissions for length.

Emergency Management Events
5-10 June

6-9 June

NATIONAL EMERGENCY
NUMBER ASSOCIATION
2010: 9-1-1 CONFERENCE
TRADE SHOW
Indianapolis
Indiana Convention Center
Join public safety
professionals, telecommunications specialists
and government leaders
for a week filled with
opportunities to develop
a keen understanding of
the near- and long-term
issues facing public
safety and plan to leave
with the skills necessary
to tackle these challenges
head on.

7-10 June

20TH WORLD CONFERENCE
ONDISASTERMANAGEMENT
Toronto, Ontario
Metro Toronto
Convention Centre
The conference is
an annual event for
disaster management
professionals, meeting
delegate demand for
a global perspective
on current industry
issues.
www.wcdm.org

www.nena.org/NENA2010

7-10 June

1-4 August

FEMA ANNUAL EMERGENCY
MANAGEMENT HIGHER
EDUCATION CONFERENCE
Emmitsburg, Md.
Emergency Management
Institute

NATIONAL FIRE
PROTECTION ASSOCIATION
CONFERENCE AND EXPO
Las Vegas
Mandalay Bay
Convention Center

The program’s goal is to
work with colleges and
universities, emergency
management professionals and stakeholder organizations to help create an
emergency management
system of sustained,
replicable capability and
disaster loss reduction
through formal education,
experiential learning,
practice and experience.

Meet executive decision-makers from all
building types to get
current with new
developments in codes
and standards, and find
suppliers who can help
you achieve safetyrelated objectives.
www.nfpa.org

23-25 August

ASSOCIATION OF PUBLICSAFETY COMMUNICATIONS
OFFICIALS INTERNATIONAL
ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Houston
George R. Brown
Convention Center
Executives, dispatchers
and technicians
involved in all aspects
of public safety communications from law
enforcement to public
safety answering points
to government agencies,
gather here each year.

4TH ANNUAL HAZUS
CONFERENCE
Indianapolis
Indiana Government
Center South
This event will promote
HAZUS training and
provide quick links to key
resources that encourage
the use of HAZUS to make
our nation safer.
www.hazus.net/2010

www.apco2010.org

http://training.fema.
gov/EMIWeb/edu/

Go to www.emergencymgmt.com/events
to add your event to the calendar.

8

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Point of View

Simplifying the Message
There are 27 items on Ready.gov’s list of supplies to incorpo-

as needed. This is one way of making the task of creating a

rate into an emergency kit, divided by recommended supplies

preparedness plan simple and interactive.

(12) and additional items to consider (15). At the All-Hazards,

The state also has a business disaster planning tool, which

All-Stakeholders Summit on March 25 in Seattle, former

after 10 to 15 minutes of entering information, provides steps

FEMA Region VIII Administrator Garry Briese said the cost

business owners can take to save time and money on disaster

of these items can exceed $375 and many require replenish-

preparedness.

ment, like water and food. He said although many emergency

Florida isn’t the only government that’s providing citi-

managers take comfort in telling the public to purchase these

zens with online, interactive disaster planning tools. Boston

items, a community’s economic realities need to be consid-

launched its Family Preparedness Planner online applica-

ered when emergency supply lists are developed.

tion (http://hubmaps.cityofboston.gov/evacuation_planning)

Some emergency management departments are simplifying the process of creating preparedness
plans for citizens.
“I think we need to continue personal preparedness, abso-

in 2009, which was built in-house by IT staff. Residents add

lutely, but I want people to work on the top 10 things we want

to the planner information like important locations, such as

them to have,” Briese said. “I don’t care if they have plastic

schools and workplaces, and contact information, and they

wrap and duct tape. How do we simplify our message? We’re

upload pictures of household members and pets.

asking too much and sending mixed messages to the public.”

“We really wanted to create something that would be easy to

Some emergency management departments are simpli-

use, interactive and quick for average citizens to be able to go

fying the process of creating preparedness plans for citizens.

and develop their own emergency preparedness plan for their

Best Public Safety/Trade

The Florida Division of Emergency Management’s Web site,

family,” said Donald McGough, director of the Boston Mayor’s

2009 Maggie Award

www.floridadisaster.org, has an online tool that lays out simple

Office of Emergency Preparedness, after the tool went live.

steps to create a family preparedness plan. It prompts resi-

Residents can download the planner and save it on their

dents to enter information about their family, home and pets

personal computers or USB thumb drives, which keeps their

to create a personalized plan, and then calculates the amount

information private and easily accessible.

of food and water needed based on the number of household

These user-friendly online tools make the process of

members. The Web site also has a user name and password

creating disaster preparedness plans straightforward and

setup so families can return and update their information

streamlined — therefore simplifying the message. k

Elaine Pittman
Associate Editor

Questions or comments? Please give us your input by contacting our editorial department at editorial@govtech.com,
or visit our Web site at www.emergencymgmt.com.

L E A D , F O L L O W O R G E T O U T O F T H E W AY.

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In the News

6.5

7
.2

7.0

IT MIGHT SEEM as if 2010 is
making its mark as the year of
the devastating earthquake,
but in reality there hasn’t been
an increase in the magnitude or
the number of temblors — the
difference is that they’re occurring
in heavily populated areas.
The U.S. Geological Survey
(USGS) is trying to set the record
straight on its website: “Although
it may seem that we are having
more earthquakes, earthquakes
of magnitude 7.0 or greater
have remained fairly constant
throughout this century and,
according to our records, have
actually seemed to decrease in
recent years.”
The USGS also attributed
the perception of increased
earthquakes to its ability to detect
more earthquakes using new and
more expansive technology. In
1931 there were 350 seismograph
stations operating in the world, and
now there are more than 4,000
stations that report data using
computers and satellites.

6.3

8.8
The storm could have been handled better from an emergency
management standpoint, according to Peter LaPorte, who headed
emergency management for the district under former Mayor
Anthony Williams. “I would have run it out of the emergency
management agency,” he told The Washington Post.

6.9

7
.2

6.3

Jan. 3, 2010

Jan. 12

Feb. 27

Solomon Islands
Magnitude 7.1

Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Magnitude 7.0

Chile
Magnitude 8.8

Photo courtesy of Chief Mass
Commmunication Specialist James G.
Pinsky/U.S. Navy

Photo courtesy of Walter D. Mooney/
U.S. Geological Survey

12

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6.0

6
6.6

6.3

After the December 2009 snowstorm that hit Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., was declared a disaster, Obama made
Virginia eligible to recover some of the $49 million it requested for storm-related costs like snow removal. In February, the district’s
government oversaw the snow-removal operation that included 700 employees, 265 snowplows and trucks, 82 plow routes and
190 cameras monitoring intersections and roads. The district housed about 500 snowplow drivers in hotels to ensure that they
didn’t get snowed in at their homes, according to The Washington Post.

6.4

6.9

6.3

7.1

7 6.5
.7

April 4

April 6

April 11

April 13

Mexico
Magnitude 7.2

Sumatra, Indonesia
Magnitude 7.7

Spain
Magnitude 6.3

China
Magnitude 6.9

The snowstorm cut power
to at least 300,000 homes as
trees fell due to the snow’s
weight cutting power lines.
Blackouts also affected about
250,000 customers in Virginia,
New Jersey and New York,
according to The New York Times.

Photo courtesy of GeoEye

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EM Bulletin

High-Definition Cameras Help
California Assess Wildfires

PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDREA BOOHER/FEMA

IN THE LARGEST PROJECT OF ITS KIND in the
United States, the U.S. Forest Service and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal
Fire) are testing a program to spot and assess fires
using high-definition cameras mounted atop sometimes unstaffed communications towers. The goal? “To
size up a fire and be more effective in dispatching,” said
Bob Patton, the El Dorado National Forest fire chief.
Using the El Dorado National Forest as its pilot
location, three cameras allow Cal Fire dispatchers in
the Camino Interagency Command Center to view
forest land, better aiding dispatch communications
with firefighters.
“We have lookouts with human beings, and a lot
of time these lookouts do not have a lot of fire experience,” said Patton, adding the cameras act as a “second
eye” in detection efforts. “We can use the tool to save
money by not launching the aircraft, or by launching
and keeping [destroyed] acreage down.”

Read more at: www.emergencymgmt.com/firecamera

MORE THAN 300 MILLION U.S. RESIDENTS trust that their addresses are
accurate and emergency responders can find their houses when they dial 911. Yet
fire chiefs, 911 coordinators and GIS professionals say the addressing system that’s
the foundation of their jurisdictions’ call-routing systems contains potentially
dangerous errors and the ordinances that define how addresses are displayed are
insufficient or not enforced.
To help remedy this problem, in late January, a group led by the Urban and
Regional Information Systems Association and the National Emergency Number
Association submitted a new addressing standard to promote uniformity in how
addresses are assigned, stored and shared between city, county, state and federal
government agencies as well as the private sector.
Over the past five years, the group, formally known as the Address Standards
Working Group, collected input for the United States Thoroughfare, Landmark
and Postal Address Data Standard from more than 400 stakeholders on a public
wiki, and the draft standards were posted and commented on by the community.
In March, the Federal Geographic Data Committee Standards Working Group
approved public review of the standard’s draft in order “to resolve address data
modeling and geoprocessing and to create a comprehensive address data standard,
thereby helping to make our national spatial data infrastructure truly national,”
according to a statement. The committee is accepting comments through June 16.

Read more at: www.emergencymgmt.com/publicaddressing
14

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRYAN DAHLBERG/FEMA

Addressing Standard Could Boost
Emergency Response

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The suite of EDXL standards includes:
• Common Alerting Protocol — provides the ability to exchange all-hazards emergency
alerts, notifications and public warnings, which can be disseminated simultaneously
over multiple devices and warning systems.
• Distribution Element — provides a flexible message-distribution framework for data
sharing in emergency information systems. Messages may be distributed by specific
recipients, a geographic area or other codes such as agency type.
• Hospital Availability Exchange — specifies a document format
that allows communication of the hospital’s status, its services
and resources, including bed capacity and availability, emergency
department status and available service coverage. This assists hospital coordination and routing of patients to the right facilities for
care during emergencies.
• Resource Messaging — describes a suite of standard XML messages for data sharing among emergency and other information
systems that deal with requesting and providing emergency equipment, supplies, people and teams.
Capabilities include information sharing among emergency
responder agencies for purposes such as providing alerts and warnings, requesting and tracking resources, and sharing situational
awareness. The demonstration illustrated a method of information
sharing with multiple vendor systems sharing information.
Working with scenario details provided by the federal agencies,
the interoperability demonstrations showcased how standards can
be used for hazardous materials dispatch, Emergency Alert System
notices, weather radio alerts and transportation of injured firefighters to appropriately equipped hospitals.
PHOTO COURTESY OF JOCELYN AUGUSTINO/FEMA

THE U.S. DEPARTMENT of Homeland Security (DHS), FEMA
and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
teamed with Oasis — a nonprofit international consortium that
drives the development, convergence and adoption of open standards
— to demonstrate the interoperability of information-sharing
products enabled by the new Emergency Data Exchange Language
(EDXL) standards.
Oasis members used a simulated emergency situation to showcase the response capabilities of products utilizing these standards
and the value to the practitioner and ultimately the public.
“The creation of the EDXL suite of standards is a breakthrough
in standards development and capability,” said David Boyd, director of the DHS’ Command, Control and Interoperability (CCI)
Division. “They will improve the capabilities and success of emergency responders daily, and CCI is proud to have participated on
their development.”
The demonstrations exhibited the suite of EDXL standards in
alignment with the National Information Exchange Model Information Exchange Package Documentation. Open, nonproprietary
and available at no cost, EDXL standards create a new approach to
standards use and deployment. The standards make use of existing efforts and protocols, creating tools scalable from the local to
the federal level.


Interoperability Demonstrations
Showcase Emergency Data
Exchange Language Standards

Emergency Management 15

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911:

A

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BY ELAINE PITTMAN | ASSOCIATE EDITOR

R

:

ecordings of 911 calls gone awry
have been played repeatedly by
broadcast media and published
verbatim by print media. Sometimes blamed on outdated technology, other times
on the call-taker, these phone calls highlight two
of the common problems associated with 911.
Technology and call-taker standards and
training vary by state and locality, where counties
and cities, even those next to one another,
sometimes have varying requirements. To make
matters worse, the current fiscal environment,

created the Professional Communications
Human Resource Taskforce (PRO-CHRT) to
identify human resource issues related to public
safety communications professionals. PROCHRT wants to establish consistency nationwide for call-takers and is working to identify
how training standards vary at the state level.
“The overall goal for the task force is for public
safety communicators and dispatchers to be
recognized as a profession, to be taken seriously,” said Kimberly Burdick, a PRO-CHRT
subchair. “The type of work that dispatchers do

the same kind of training to be answering 911
calls,” he said. “It’s scary when you hear 911 calls
being played on the news where a call went bad,
and you hear fundamental things that if they
had received proper training, possibly that call
could have gone differently.”
This could be implemented all the way down
to how 911 calls are answered, Taylor added. If
there were a systematic set of questions asked
by call-takers nationwide, it would be easier to
educate the public about what questions will be
asked and why.

A NATIONAL PLIGHT?
SINCE 911 CALL-TAKERS AND TECHNOLOGY ARE THE FIRST
LINE OF RESPONSE WHEN CITIZENS HAVE AN EMERGENCY, IT’S
SURPRISING HOW STANDARDS VARY THROUGHOUT THE NATION.
where governments at all levels are feeling pain,
is forcing some states to raid surcharges collected to
pay for new 911 technologies in order to fund other
initiatives. Other states are stifled by companies
that provide emergency call center equipment
that doesn’t connect with other vendors, therefore
impeding the move toward next-generation 911.
From this two questions arise: Should
911 call-takers and technology be subject to
national standards? And how can the nation get
states to stop redirecting their 911 funds?

Nationwide Recognition
There are more than 6,180 public safety
answering points (PSAPs) in the United States
— the local centers that handle calls to 911. The
call-takers and technology working in them are
the first level of response when someone dials
those crucial three numbers to report an emergency. Because of the varying standards for
call-takers across state and local governments,
it’s nearly impossible to identify a specific, allencompassing issue or problem, but there is a
movement to identify best practices for the field.
In April 2009, the Association of PublicSafety Communications Officials (APCO)

is every bit as important as a nurse or doctor
except that there just isn’t the professional
recognition out there for dispatchers like there
is for other professions.”
Task force members sent a questionnaire
to each state requesting information about its
training, such as if the state has legislation that
requires call-taker certification. “But there are
many states that don’t have any requirements,
and then there are states that have volunteer
certification,” said Burdick, who is also the 911
communications manager for the Chouteau
County (Mont.) Sheriff ’s Office.
Standards can vary even more. North Carolina has a required certification model for calltakers who work under a sheriff, but those
working in the realms of emergency management, fire or police aren’t included. “That’s
one of the things that we want to change,” said
Richard Taylor, executive director of the North
Carolina 911 Board, who also said he’d like to
see these issues addressed nationally.
“One thing I would like to see is a certification process for all 911 call-takers that trains
them, so whether they’re in Los Angeles, New
York or Jones County, N.C., everybody has

The variance in call-taker standards also
has led some organizations, like APCO and
the National Emergency Number Association
(NENA), to support the creation of national
requirements. “If you think about it, would you
allow a police officer, firefighter or paramedic to
function in the field without at least a minimum
set of standardized training? You wouldn’t,” said
Craig Whittington, NENA president and the
911 and special projects coordinator for Guilford Metro 911 in Greensboro, N.C. “Then why
in the world would you let the first link in the
most critical part of the system — the contact
directly between the citizen and the field
responder — not have the same training?”
But it’s unclear who would enforce such standard. Ken Lowden, executive director of the
Indiana Wireless Enhanced 911 Advisory Board,
thinks that the federal government could identify
broad, minimum standards or specify areas that
require training, but that it should remain a local
issue. “I’ve been in government an awfully long
time and the one thing I don’t think government
does — and I don’t care where you are in government — we don’t do a very good job in very large
projects most of the time,” he said. Implementing

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Job-Driven

Standards
a federal requirement in the nation’s 6,000-plus
PSAPs would constitute a very large project.
Lowden added that sometimes projects must be
jump-started at the federal level, but it shouldn’t
set the final mandates.

Supporting Localities

The standards for 911 call-takers and dispatchers vary throughout
the nation, and some believe a federal standard should regulate
their certification.
state Emergency Communications Board’s
purview, and it set requirements modeled after
APCO’s public safety telecommunicator standards. Because training is a high priority for the
board, it recently started a $2 million program
to help districts pay for the training, said Lynn
Questell, executive director of the board. The
training includes at least 40 hours of supervised
on-the-job training and 40 hours of public safety
communications course work within the first six
months of employment.
“We feel it’s an extremely high priority and the
board does not like to do unfunded mandates,”
she said, “so the board dug deep and found some
funding for dispatcher training. We’re really
proud of that.”
Not all states offer monetary support for calltaker training. Montana requires new employees
to attend a 40-hour course at the law enforcement academy within the first 12 months of
work. However, Burdick said, local agencies must
foot the bill. She would like to see that developed
into an 80-hour course, but added that training
doesn’t usually end with the state-required
course. Chouteau County’s training period is

PHOTO COURTESY OF JASON PACK DHS/FEMA

In 2005, Tennessee’s General Assembly put
call-taker and dispatcher training under the

The Association of Public-Safety
Communications Officials (APCO) created
Project 33 (P33) in the ’90s, when the
industry lacked training standards for
telecommunicators and public safety
communications officers. Although many
people refer to P33 as the standard for 911
call-takers, it encompasses the minimum
training standards for all the positions
that can be found in public safety
communications, said Amanda Byrd,
special projects manager for APCO. And
the association is expanding its selection
of communications training standards
even further with its 2010 revision.
“Because there are so many agencies
out there that are consolidated or only
do law enforcement dispatch or do 911
call taking and dispatch the fire but not
law enforcement, the new version that’s
coming out actually addresses a section
for each of these functions,” Byrd said.
“So depending on how the agency is set
up, what kind of positions they have and
if their officers are cross-trained, then
they would need to meet the training
requirements for the call-taker and then
whatever services they provide. They
configure it to their needs.”
The deadline to have received P33
training certification for the 2007
standards was April 1, and going forward
states and localities must comply with
the 2010 standards.

640 hours and includes emergency medical
dispatcher (EMD) certification — another aspect
of 911 call-taking that varies by agency.
EMD training certifies the call-taker or
dispatcher to provide medical information and
prearrival instructions over the phone before first
responders arrive on the scene. “It’s not enough
that a communicator knows CPR. Just knowing
CPR doesn’t qualify you to give instructions,”
Whittington said. “Being an EMD and knowing
CPR is like champagne and water — totally
different ends of the spectrum.”
Taylor also said it should be a national standard
for call-takers to receive training to give medical
instructions over the phone, for example, to a
woman in labor or even someone with a gunshot
wound. “We need to have that capability globally
across the United States and not just in those 911
centers that have the privilege of having a few
extra dollars for that type of service,” he said.

Raiding the 911 Coffers
As with most government projects, funding
is the main barrier to implementing new technologies for 911 call centers and PSAPs. Every
state collects a monthly 911 surcharge from
wireless and landline phone customers, which
ranges from about 20 cents to $2.50, according
to a NENA report. The money is collected
to enhance 911 technologies at the PSAPs.
However, the recession has led some states to
raid their 911 coffers to fund other projects.
“The unfortunate thing is there is really no
firm stick that would ‘disincent’ a state from
raiding its 911 funds,” said Brian Josef, director
of regulatory affairs for CTIA-The Wireless
Association. “While they may lose some federal
funding [by raiding the coffers], often what
we’ve seen is a state raiding the 911 fund is
taking much more out of that fund than they
end up losing in federal grants. So in these
economic times, we understand the situation
that states may be facing, but they’re robbing
their constituents of effective 911 service.”
When jurisdictions use money from their
911 fund for other initiatives, the federal
government can withhold 911 funding. Some
are making changes to their funds to try to
avoid the penalty.
According to Dispatch Magazine, a Wisconsin
Legislature joint committee amended a bill to
change the name of the surcharge from “911
fee” to the “police and fire protection fee” in
June 2009 to avoid conflict with the federal
legislation. New York changed the description
of its surcharge from “911” to “public safety
communications,” The Buffalo News reported,
and it was raised from 70 cents to $1.20 in 2002.
The surcharge generated about $600 million
in 15 years, but only $84 million was distributed to municipalities that operate 911 centers,
according to the newspaper.
“We have states out there that are diverting
tens of millions of dollars from 911 funds to go
into other pots, such as buying vehicles, guns,
uniforms and equipment for first responders,”
said NENA’s Whittington. “The funds were
created to fund 911 centers; we have 911 centers
out there with woefully outdated equipment and
even the ones with the best equipment need to
be preparing for next-generation 911.”
As of press time, NENA was preparing a
letter for Congress asking for congressional
intervention to stop states from diverting 911

18

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A (Bri History of 911
(Brief)
February 1967

January 1968

Feb. 16, 1968

1972

1970s

Oct. 26, 1999

President Lyndon
Johnson’s
Johnson’ Commission
Enforcement
on Law E
Administration of
and Adm
Justice recommended a
nationwide
nationw single phone
number
numbe to reach police.

ATT designated
911 as its universal
emergency number.

Alabama Speaker of
the House Rankin Fite
made the first 911 call
from the Haleyville
City Hall to U.S. Rep.
Tom Bevill at the city’s
police station.

The FCC
recommended
that 911 be
implemented
nationwide.

Alameda County,
Calif., tests the first
pilot project for
selective routing of
911 calls. The service
was operational in
July 1978.

President Bill
Clinton signed SB 800
designating 911 as
the nationwide
emergency telephone
number.

— Source: Dispatch Magazine

Ever-Evolving Technology

Workers at the 911
fire dispatch at the
Emergency Operations
Center in Pensacola,
Fla., with former
Homeland Security
Director Tom Ridge.
Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice recommended in 1967 that
there should be a single number for people to
call to reach police departments and that this
number should eventually be used nationwide.
In 1968, ATT designated 911 as its universal
emergency number, and the FCC recommended in 1972 that the number be used across
the U.S. In 1974, the federal Law Enforcement
Assistance Administration funded a program
to test the cost and benefits of an enhanced 911
(E911) program in Alameda County, Calif.,


The history of 911 is a long one, but to put
it in perspective, President Lyndon Johnson’s

which used selective routing — the capability
to route a call to a specific PSAP.
The proliferation of cell phones has created
the need for new technologies in 911 centers
because people assume that call-takers automatically know their phone number and location, which isn’t always true. As of December
2009, 285.6 million U.S. residents used cell
phones and 22.7 percent of U.S. households
were wireless only, meaning they lack a landline
telephone, which for decades was the main way
people called 911, according to the CTIA.
PSAPs and wireless network carriers have
been implementing E911 technology that will
provide call-takers with the wireless caller’s
phone number and estimated location. The
Wireless Communications and Public Safety
Act of 1999 required the implementation of
E911, to be executed in two phases.
Phase I required wireless carriers to provide
the PSAP with the telephone number of the
911 caller and the location of the cell site or
base station receiving the call. Phase II required
the carriers to provide Automatic Location
Identification, which identifies the address or
geographic location of the calling device within
300 meters; this was to be completed by the
end of 2005. Local call centers have upgraded
or are in the process of upgrading their technology to use the data provided by E911.
However, in February 2010 NENA found that
about 10 percent of the nation’s PSAPs hadn’t
installed the equipment to use that information.
The issue once again comes back to funding:
According to a U.S. General Accountability
Office report, “Not all states have implemented
a funding mechanism for wireless E911, and
of those that have, some have redirected E911
funds to unrelated uses.”
Consumer technology is pushing the evolution of 911 technology even further. Popular
technologies like text messaging, photos and
videos and the need to transfer calls and data
between PSAPs has led to the need for nextgeneration 911, which will run off statewide

20

public safety IP networks. According to the U.S.
Department of Transportation’s Research and
Innovative Technology Administration, “The
next-generation 911 initiative will establish
the foundation for public emergency services
in this wireless environment and enable an
enhanced 911 system compatible with any
communications device.”
Many consider Indiana a leader in the nextgeneration 911 initiative. It has a statewide IP
network that’s based on a redundant high-speed
fiber network. “We have an IP network that is
dedicated solely to 911,” Lowden said. “We have
all the counties that we can connected to it and
the ability to transfer both voice and data.”
Indiana’s PSAPs have been connected to the
IP network for about three years, except those
that are served by ATT. He said the ATT
counties aren’t connected because the company
does a straight lease of PSAP equipment to the
localities, which means it retains full control of
the equipment and it refused the Indiana Wireless Enhanced 911 Advisory Board connectivity to its equipment. Counties that work with
other vendors buy the equipment or do a lease


funds, he said. The CTIA, NENA and APCO
come together when they hear that a governor
might raid a state’s 911 fees. “In some cases
we’ve been successful at getting them to back
off, and I know that in Maryland the governor,
after announcing intentions to raid, has not
taken those funds,” Josef said. “But in other
states, they need the money and really there’s
nothing to sway them from that.”

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purchase on it, so they control any changes
made to it.
Lowden said calls can be transferred to the
ATT counties, but they must pass through the
company’s router, which causes them to lose the
digital advantage. “If there’s a Verizon county
next door, they can’t transfer the call out of the
ATT network into a Verizon territory,” he
said. “Once the call is inside the ATT network
it has to stay there.” This can impede public
safety because additional information, like the
caller’s location and phone number, won’t be
transferred to a PSAP operating on another
vendor’s equipment — just the person’s voice
— therefore eliminating the benefits of E911.
Indiana isn’t the only state to run into
provider-related hurdles. “In North Carolina,
we have three major telephone companies
that are 911 service providers: CenturyLink,
ATT and Verizon,” Taylor said. “And just in
the county that I’m sitting in right now, Wake
County, all three of those companies operate.
We cannot transfer voice and data from the
centers in Wake County to another center
because one operates under ATT, one under
CenturyLink and one under Verizon.”
He said the companies lack interconnection
agreements to exchange information, which is
fundamental in next-generation 911. However,
similar to the situation in Indiana, North Carolina has found ATT to be the most challenging to work with, Taylor said. “Companies
like ATT will absolutely refuse to allow us to
have those interconnections agreements,” he
said. “In fact, they have gone through all kinds
of lawsuits and not just in our state, but in other
states, trying to keep other companies from
being able to connect into their system.”
“ATT is committed to doing our part to
make next-generation 911 available across the
country,” said an ATT spokesperson. “We
work closely with public safety answering
points to ensure that customers are provided
with the most advanced and reliable emergency
communications services. In addition, we
continue to engage in the timely resolution of
interconnection negotiations for the provision
of competitive 911 service.”
Regulations from the FCC would help alleviate this vendor-driven problem for sharing
calls and data across PSAPs that operate on
different systems. Lowden said national requirements about technology are nice to think about

Developing

Consistency
The Association of Public-Safety
Communications Officials created the
Professional Communications Human
Resource Taskforce (PRO-CHRT) to identify
human resource issues that affect public
safety communicators and dispatchers.
Kimberly Burdick, a PRO-CHRT subchair,
said states recognize 911 call-takers
differently. In Montana they fall under the
statute for public safety communications
officers, but some states consider them
to be first responders. “There’s a lot of
deviation across the board and what we’re
trying to do is get some consistency for all
dispatchers in all states,” Burdick said.
In Montana, she is the 911
communications manager for the Chouteau
County Sheriff’s Office, and got involved
in human resource issues when she
and Susan Bomstad tried to get 20-year
retirement legislation for dispatchers
during the 2009 Legislature. The legislation
didn’t pass, but their work will help the task
force, which hopes to develop a wealth of
information where states can go to find
information on different initiatives.
“We would like to compile information
from all the states to have a clearinghouse
where people from other states and
agencies can say this is how they did it,
this gives me a great idea and these are
the steps that we’re going to take to pursue
that type of legislation,” Burdick said.

but he doesn’t think it would work from a practical standpoint. “I think 911 should be a local,
interstate issue,” he said.
It will be interesting to see how 911 standards and possibly federally mandated regulations change in the future. Taylor summed up
the future of public safety communications
this way: “911 is no longer local; even though
response is local, the ability to access is no
longer local and is very much global. And for
everyone working on the 911 issue, whether
you’ve been doing it for one year or 25 years, we
have to come up with a totally new look at what
we’re doing each and every day. … We’ve got to
focus on the future and not on the past.” k

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SOME PEOPLE FEEL THEY
ARE PREDESTINED TO
ACCOMPLISH CERTAIN GOALS IN
LIFE. JACQUELINE McBRIDE
SAYS IT’S HER CALLING TO
WORK WITH COMMUNITIES
DURING DISASTERS.

SPIRIT
FOR
SERVICE
BY EL AINE PIT TMAN | A SSOCIATE EDITOR

J

acqueline McBride’s life has been defined by disasters.
When she was a baby, neck-high waters forced her
father to carry her over his head while evacuating during
a devastating flash flood. Then in May 1963 as a preteen,
McBride lost her father, a commercial fisherman, to the
Delaware Bay.

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PHOTO COURTE SY OF LARRY LERNER/FEMA
PHOTO COU
O COURTESY OF LA RRY LERNER/F EMA
URTESY
URTE S
LERNER/F
ER/FEMA

CE
Jacqueline McBride
coordinated ﬁeld
personnel during the
response to 9/11.


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PHOTO COURTESY OF JACQUELINE MCBRIDE

Jacqueline McBride is a disaster assistance employee
for FEMA Region II. In this photo she is with FEMA
Region II Deputy Director Michael Moriarty.

Fast-forward to the future: While working
for FEMA as a liaison to faith- and community-based organizations during the response
to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, McBride came
to a realization. “When I was an infant with my
father carrying me out and holding me above
the water, it was sort of like a dedication to what
my life would be,” she said. “Of course, I didn’t
realize it at that age, but it wasn’t until then that
I was given that epiphany — aha, wow! — to be
blessed enough to come here with a purpose.”
Her realization in 2005 came after more than
20 years of devotion to emergency management that began professionally in 1983 when
she became the deputy director/coordinator of
New Jersey’s Atlantic City Office of Emergency
Management.
That position didn’t exist in civil service at
the time, however, so she didn’t get the typical
benefits package of a public servant. But
McBride urged that the job be elevated into the
public sector, even if it meant reassigning the
job to another candidate based on test scores.
Her supervisor contacted the New Jersey Civil
Service Commission, which created a test for
the position. She ranked the highest out of the
applicants and worked in the office for 15 years.
That’s how McBride sees challenges — as
opportunities to use her knowledge and skills.
Her experience and grit served her well
as acting deputy director/coordinator of the
Atlantic County Office of Emergency Management and facilitated her selection in 1995 to
join FEMA. McBride served in FEMA’s External
Affairs and Individual Assistance cadres and is

currently a disaster assistance employee (DAE)
for FEMA Region II.
“Without the women’s movement, the civil
rights movement and social justice movement,
a lot of us wouldn’t be at the place in time we are
now in terms of the roles and positions we hold,”
McBride said. “I stand on the shoulders of the
people who have gone before me, and having
parents who encouraged and demanded that we
become educated and serve our community.”

Diversifying Emergency
Management
McBride has been promoting diversity in
the emergency management field since the
’80s. In 1984, the White House held a conference on women in fire services and emergency
management, and she was in awe of the 100
or so women from across the country who
convened to discuss issues related to their roles.
The conference was one driver that pushed her
to write a position paper to FEMA’s Office of
Equal Rights 25 years ago. “My real purpose was
to encourage recruitment and representation of
women, persons with disabilities and, in particular, people of color as emergency managers,”
she said. “And to make recommendations of
how we could go about doing that with FEMA
serving as the lead agency.”
Included in her recommendations were that
FEMA build a relationship with the nation’s
historically black colleges and universities
(HBCUs) and set up mentoring programs to
encourage students to enter the emergency
management field. Since submitting the letter,

McBride said some of her recommendations
have materialized. While responding to four
consecutive storms on the Atlantic Coast in
2004, McBride met Vincent Brown, a senior
program specialist in FEMA’s Risk Analysis
Division and the FEMA liaison to the White
House HBCU Initiative.
After the storm season was over, Brown
developed a project at FEMA headquarters
to work with HBCUs and inform them about
emergency management and mitigation.
McBride joined the planning team and participated in the third workshop, which took place
at Southern University. “That was another
epiphany moment for me,” she said, “something
that I had dreamed of and advocated for, and I
was able to see it come to fruition.”
In continuing her quest for knowledge,
McBride worked toward a doctorate in public
administration in 1987 — but she wanted more.
There weren’t any degree programs in emergency management at the time, so she got her
public administration doctorate with a specialization in emergency management.
In 1990, McBride researched (by surveying
members of the International Association of
Emergency Managers) and completed the first
emergency managers and leadership dissertation in the United States. “It focused on the
leadership and the use of power that local emergency managers perceive that they have — and
their roles in relationship to media, public officials, and administrative and litigation issues,”
she said.

Of a Mind to Serve

Roles
• Deputy director/coordinator of the
Atlantic City Ofﬁce of Emergency
Management in New Jersey
• Acting deputy director/coordinator
of the Atlantic County Ofﬁce
of Emergency Management
• Disaster assistance employee
of FEMA’s Region II
• Former president of the International
Association of Emergency Managers
Region II
• Served on the FEMA National
Credentialing Committee since 1999
• Instructor at the Center for Domestic
Preparedness

McBride has been involved in response efforts
to large-scale disasters still fresh in the public’s
mind. In 1998, she responded to Hurricane
Georges in Puerto Rico, which killed 206 people
and caused $6 billion in damages. In 2001, she
was part of the response to 9/11, which was “an
experience no one will ever forget.” Because
there was no available transportation, McBride
drove with a group to New York City from New
Jersey, and as they arrived in the city, they were
met by empty streets and highways.
“I remember staying in north New Jersey
overnight, and then the next day, driving and
just saying, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my
God.’” She was FEMA’s deputy coordinator and
the field communications chief who coordinated field personnel.

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H
Hurricane Georges,
P
Puerto Rico

2001

2002

2003

2004

Super Typhoon
S
P
Pongsona, Guam

2005

2006

2007

PHOTO COURTESY OF CALVIN TOLL
TOLLESON/FEMA
LESON/FEMA

2008

Hurricanes
H
Katrina and Rita
K

PHOTO COURTESY OF GREG HENSHALL/FEMA

2000

California Wildﬁres
Ca

PHOTO COURT ESY OF ROBERT KAUFMANN/FEMA
COURTESY
T

1999

9/11
9


1998

PHOTO COURT ESY OF DAVE GATLEY/FEMA
COURTESY
T

1997

PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHAEL RA PHAEL/FEMA
RAPHAEL/FEMA

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRI RODRIGUEZ/FEMA
RODRIGUEZ/FEMA

PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHAEL RIEGER/FEMA
RIE
EGER/FEMA

M
Midwest Floods

Midwest Floods
ds

Hurricanes
s
ke
Gustav and Ike

Curriculum Vitae
During Katrina in 2005, McBride worked as
the lead of community relations at a shelter in
Kentucky run by the state and the American Red
Cross. “What was rewarding about that experience was helping those people remain calm and
giving them a sense of hope that this soon will
be over and they will be able to return home.”
During the response, she took on any role
necessary to help, whether that meant sweeping
the floors or wheel chairing someone to the

must have a pulse on their community —
knowing where the diverse populations are
located. Then they must start building relationships with community leaders and look
beyond the mainstream organizations that
likely have ties to national organizations. “We
need to look at the grass-roots organizations
because those persons from vulnerable populations do have barriers,” she said. “Some of it
could be a disability in terms of preparing for,

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE THE LEAD, YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE SITTING
BEHIND A DESK — SOMETIMES THE BEST SERVICE RENDERED IS
WHEN YOU CAN WORK ONE-ON-ONE WITH PEOPLE TO GIVE THEM
ENCOURAGEMENT AND HOPE.
staging area to be transported home. “Just
doing whatever needed to be done to make
people’s lives comfortable away from home
— that is what I call the servant attitude,” she
said. “You don’t have to be the lead, you don’t
have to be sitting behind a desk — sometimes
the best service rendered is when you can work
one-on-one with people to give them encouragement and hope.”
When representatives from FEMA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., descend on a
disaster, they often work under the reign of
DAEs, like McBride. “They’re the ones who
make it happen out there,” Brown said, later
adding, “She is maybe the most capable DAE
I’ve ever come across.”

Embrace Your Community
McBride’s passion is to include faith- and
community-based organizations in emergency
management. She said emergency managers

responding to, recovering from, and mitigating
and preventing disasters.”
McBride recommended setting up training
programs to inform the organizations how they
can work with community volunteers. Adding
a state, local or county official who serves as
a liaison between the faith- and communitybased organizations is another viable step.
“Let’s look at Haiti: Your first responders are
faith- and community-based organizations,”
she said. “So it’s essential for us to educate,
equip and empower these organizations so
they can help the survivors in all phases of
emergency management.”
She’s also worked with United Way in various
capacities through the years, most recently
to bring the faith-based communities into
Atlantic County’s Voluntary Organizations
Active in Disaster (VOAD), said Fran Wise,
director of community investment and partnerships for United Way of Atlantic County.

Jacqueline McBride has held management and leadership
positions during the response to the above large-scale
disasters.

“We have a strong VOAD that brings together
a lot of different entities in the community,”
Wise said. “Sometimes people would reach out
to their church looking for assistance after a
disaster, so it’s a really great resource.”
Whether it’s in her everyday life or while
working in the field, McBride said she wants
to help develop the people around her. When
working in a key position during disaster
response, she tries to have someone else work
her role for a day — allowing that person to get
training during a disaster.
And for people interested in getting
involved in emergency management, McBride
recommended they find a mentor. Seek out
all available training and learn everything
about the trade, like enrolling in a qualifying
degree program.
To work in the field also requires a spirit for
service. McBride said there are situations that
can cause a person’s heart to break, like loss of
life or property, and people will look to the DAE
for hope. Disaster response requires someone
who is sincere and passionate. “We’re talking
about people whose lives have been totally
disrupted,” she said. “When you can walk up
to someone and you can see and feel the pain
from loss, whether it be of a loved one or all
their personal possessions, and when you can
take a tear or a frown and turn it into a smile,
it’s all worth it.”
Friends and family members frequently ask
why she does this line of work. “It’s because it’s
my calling; it is my calling.” k

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Since Katrina, the
private sector has
joined hands with
the public sector
during disasters.

W

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Working
Together
DAVID R ATHS | CON T RIBU TING W RIT E R

PHOTO COURTESY OF WAL-MART

T

he October 2007 Southern California
wildfires were a severe test of the state’s
emergency management capabilities.
While 1,500 homes were destroyed and
more than 500,000 acres of land burned, almost
half a million people were evacuated from their
homes. The devastating fires were also a test of
the state’s new emphasis on public-private partnerships in disaster response.
As the fires began burning across Southern
California on Oct. 20, Peter Ohtaki, executive
director of the California Resiliency Alliance, and
Jill Rulon, senior vice president of the California
Grocers Association, made their way to the State
Operations Center (SOC) in Sacramento, Calif.,
to serve as liaisons between the state emergency
management team and their member business
organizations.
As representatives of the business community,
Ohtaki and Rulon were given access to situation
reports twice a day and distributed the highlights
to partner business organizations and companies
via e-mail. They also relayed requests for
information from partners.

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The California Emergency Management Agency has signed memorandums
of understanding with organizations like the California Grocers Association,
the California Utilities Emergency Association and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.


“There was lots of media attention on Qualcomm Stadium, so many organizations just sent
relief aid there, but actually there were many
other shelters that needed aid directed to them,”
Ohtaki said. “What went wrong during Katrina
went right during those wildfires. People generously donating food and supplies were much
better directed.”

The Change After Katrina

“One bank requested the evacuation areas
by ZIP code so they could assess the impact
on employees and customers to put mortgage
payment forgiveness in place,” Ohtaki said. “So
we were able to put that information together
for them.” There were many questions about
the impact on utilities in San Diego County,
and representatives of the California Utilities
Emergency Association also were in the SOC
to share information on the power grid’s status.
Rulon worked with suppliers to send food
and 300,000 bottles of water to the shelters that
needed them most.

If 9/11 was a cruel awakening to the fact that
the United States needed to beef up its domestic
security, Hurricane Katrina was the watershed moment when people realized that emergency management officials couldn’t respond
adequately to major disasters without better
coordinating efforts with the private sector. And
during Katrina, corporations such as Wal-Mart
and other large retailers used their sophisticated
logistics infrastructure to help communities
bounce back.
“Katrina was a wake-up call to governments
that they couldn’t handle the response themselves,” said Lynne Kidder, senior vice president
for public-private partnerships at the Business Executives for National Security (BENS).
“There were a lot of ‘Aha!’ moments during
Katrina — for nongovernmental organizations,
private businesses and civic leadership.”

By improving communications with government agencies, private utilities can speed the
repair of power, water and other services. An
association of grocers can access its network to
provide food, water and other supplies to emergency responders and evacuation centers.
Since 2002, BENS has been working to help
establish partnerships between emergency
management teams and businesspeople with
an interest in the community’s resilience. It
has established organizations in New Jersey,
Georgia, Kansas, California, Iowa and Colorado.
“Before Katrina, this was really a hard sell,”
Kidder said. “The business people would say
it wasn’t their job, and the government leaders
would say they’ve got this under control. That
all really changed after Katrina.”
The drive to improve communications with
the private sector has been under way in California for several years.
Legislation that passed in 2005 directed
government agencies to set up a voluntary
program to integrate private businesses and
nonprofit organizations into governmental
disaster planning programs. In 2006, Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Executive
Order S-04-06, which called on the California
Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA)
to formally make the private sector part of the


During the response to Hurricane Katrina, Wal-Mart provided
trucks and drivers to support relief operations.

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Wal-Mart. With huge truckloads of supplies
being sent to Qualcomm Stadium, Wal-Mart
volunteered logistical staff to unload and
distribute goods.
“Wal-Mart is good at supply-chain issues,”
said David Henry, the company’s emergency
preparedness and planning manager. “We get the
right product to the right place at the right time.”
The company has an emergency management
department with positions that mirror those in
public-sector emergency management hierarchies. It also has a 40-seat Emergency Operations Center (EOC). “We have subject-matter
experts focused on potential disruptions, such
as interstate closures or snowstorms, every day,”
Henry explained. “Our emergency management
department is good at rallying those experts in
transportation, logistics and store operations,
and making sure they have up-to-date situational awareness to make decisions.”
In 2008, the company played an active role in
Texas during Hurricane Ike. In response to the
storm, which damaged 79 stores and impacted
more than 60,000 Wal-Mart employees, the

state’s disaster response system. Cal EMA has
signed memorandums of understanding with
groups like the California Grocers Association,
the California Utilities Emergency Association,
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp.
The effort has two main goals, said Tina Curry,
assistant secretary of Cal EMA’s Planning, Protection and Preparedness Division. One is to help
businesses that have a statewide presence get more
situational awareness; the other is to improve
resource sharing. Many statewide businesses
have sophisticated infrastructure for dealing with
disasters and a lot to offer, she said. “The name of
the game is becoming more efficient and prompt
at prioritizing which things are needed urgently
and which can wait. That’s why we have developed a Business and Utilities Operations Center
in our Emergency Operations Center,” Curry said.
“Every disaster is different and a dynamic situation. We need that ongoing dialog.”

Wal-Mart’s Role
One private-sector player that contributed
during the wildfire response was retail giant

retailer donated $2.5 million in cash and
merchandise, and provided trucks and drivers
to support relief operations.
Just as important, Henry said, was its effort
to get stores reopened as quickly as possible to
return communities to a sense of normalcy.
“We had a map in our EOC of the southern
part of Texas,” he said. “In the immediate
aftermath of the storm, we gave the state GIS
folks the location of all open stores in the state,
and they plotted those along with the current
points of emergency supply distribution.
Anywhere they were within five miles of each
other, they realized they could close a point of
distribution. That’s the kind of coordination
that can really help.”

BENS Nurtures Partnerships
Ohtaki’s group, the California Resiliency
Alliance (CRA), started as the Bay Area BENS
chapter and recently became a stand-alone
nonprofit organization. A sister organization,
the Homeland Security Advisory Council, plays
a similar role in Southern California.

FEMA/BARRY BAHLER

Aidmatrix: A Matchmaking Portal

32

Perhaps one of the best and most successful examples of applying private-sector
expertise and agility to disaster response is the Aidmatrix Foundation. Established
in 2000 with technology created by supply chain management software company i2
Technologies, Aidmatrix uses a Web portal to conduct matchmaking between donors and
relief organizations involving the tracking, warehousing, transportation and distribution
of products and services.
Aidmatrix, which has already been used in 20 major U.S. disasters, developed partnerships
with FEMA and 46 states. For instance, during the Iowa flooding, a carpet manufacturer in
California was going to dispose of some remnant material in a landfill, but then he realized
he could offer to donate it through Iowa’s Aidmatrix portal. Habitat for Humanity responded
online that it could use those remnants in its efforts to help house people. Representatives
from UPS could see the donation made online and volunteer to donate the transportation
costs. “This all occurs almost instantaneously,” said Scott McCallum, president and CEO of
Aidmatrix and former governor of Wisconsin.
The matchmaking activity ensures that supplies get to where they are most needed, he
said. “One problem is that many of the things people try to offer in the immediate aftermath
of a disaster are really secondary,” McCallum said. “The perfect example is that in response
to Sept. 11, people sent warehouses’ worth of material that were not needed or used.” And
huge numbers of people wanted to go to Haiti to help following the January earthquake,
even though they didn’t have an affiliation or needed skill. “So the upside is how generous
people can be,” he said, “but the downside is that no matter how well intentioned, they can
sometimes be ineffective or get in the way.”
Adding private-sector strategies to disaster management can benefit companies and
those managing the disaster recovery. “We can apply this supply-chain technology used
every day in the private sector,” he said. “We have the expertise and training to reconfigure it
to each specific disaster in a short amount of time.”

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