To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. RESPONDERS TODAY THEY’LL GET THE MESSAGE. detailed information on not only which rooms in the fire are hottest but also whether anyone is trapped in the building and where they are in relation to the fire.” Finding the people Next-generation communication is also enabling first responders to transcend another traditional informational bottleneck that has cost lives: inefficiently slow systems of locating, notifying and deploying emergency personnel. Due to the high frequency of hurricanes and other natural disasters, Miami’s Urban Area Security Initiative, which covers a fourcounty region in southern Florida, often needs to mobilize thousands of emergency security personnel who are widely scattered geographically. This process, according to Captain Pete Gomez of the Miami Fire Department, often proved so cumbersome that neighborhoods were crucially understaffed during the early hours after a hurricane or other storm warning. “When you’re in a crisis mode, it’s a life and death matter to be able to line up resources quickly,” Gonzales explained. “Ten years ago, if you had a storm that took a surprise turn and hit an area hard, it might take you several hours to locate critically needed personnel, be they fire fighters, certified paramedics, EMS [emergency medical services] workers or ambulance drivers. You basically had to use a phone tree and line up volunteers one by one to see who was home and who was near enough to get on-site quickly. ” Using In Gov Alert, a new communication and notification system from San Diego, Calif.-based MIR3, the Miami Fire Department can now have responders in place in a fraction of the time, as well as automatically keep track of their emergency assets in real time. The system allows designated individuals to send a highspeed notification simultaneously to up to tens of thousands of users, delivered to each recipient’s primary communication device based on time of day and other factors. If a person doesn’t respond, the message is delivered to the recipient’s secondary device until a response is received. When received, the recipient can press one button to initiate actions, such as call into a conference line or indicate if he or she is available for immediate mobilization to an emergency site. “During Hurricane Ivan, we had 75 paramedics on call over a 90-mile zone,” Gonzales recalled. “We just put out a mass notification and said, ‘We need 25 paramedics within 90 minutes at X location and got instantaneous feedback. Once those 25 were identified, we were able to rapidly set up a conference call with all of them on the line simultaneously. Within an hour, they were all en route to where they were most needed. Using the white board feature of the system, every aspect of crisis communication was tracked, so we were all immediately aware where all our emergency personnel were and where any gaps were that hadn’t been addressed.” “In every subsequent emergency operation we’ve encountered,” Gonzales added, “we’ve dramatically improved response times. “You can never forget that communication bottlenecks can kill,” Gonzales observed. “Overcoming them is not only about achieving interoperable systems; it’s about overcoming the delays which have prevented the right information from getting shared by the right people to make the right decisions in time to save lives.” HST This month’s issue is now available online at… ALERT FM™ allows emergency managers to send critical information to targeted recipients like citizens, businesses and first responders in seconds. This personal alert and messaging system transmits messages using the data subcarrier of local FM stations. It’s Reliable. It’s Affordable. And it’s available right now. So don’t let another emergency strike before contacting us today to find out how you can better protect your citizens with ALERT FM. 1-866-869-5180 www.ALERTFM.com 12 April 2009 | www.HSToday.us