https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookie Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

Urgent Matters


Commentary

Some things you can’t prepare for — but you have to try (with related video)

Some things you can’t prepare for — but you have to try (with related video)

Jasper County (Mo.) Emergency Services Board representatives offered some advice based on what they learned from the devastating F5 tornado that ripped through Joplin and Southwest Missouri in May 2011.
  • Written by
  • 21st August 2012

In May of last year, a devastating tornado ripped through Southwest Missouri, flattening the city of Joplin and destroying much of the surrounding region. Two representatives of the Jasper County Emergency Services Board — Executive Director April Tarrant and Training Coordinator Kima Montgomery — spoke at the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) conference this week in Minneapolis. During their session, they offered some advice based on what they learned from this event. Amazingly, the advice didn't include, "Live somewhere else if you have the chance."

The region is prone to tornadoes, but this one was something else. It started as an F1 tornado. It seems silly to write those words, because any tornado is an incredibly dangerous event. But in this case, an F1 pales in comparison to what the Joplin region experienced. According to Tarrant, three separate vortexes combined in a perfect storm scenario to create an F5 monster.

At its peak, the tornado was a mile wide — think about that for a second. Its winds peaked at 220 miles per hour — or 65 miles greater than a category 5 hurricane, which is considered catastrophic. Its track was 22 miles long. It destroyed or severely damaged 2,000 businesses. It moved a hospital — the whole thing — off its foundation by six inches. It not only lifted houses off their foundations, it tore the foundations out of the ground. It killed 116 people. It caused seasoned storm trackers to openly weep in its aftermath, Tarrant said.

Response obviously was difficult. Some people who were trapped or injured in some areas of the county had to wait hours — even days — to be rescued, oddly because the first responders that were flocking to the area did what their instincts told them to do, Montgomery said.

"There were many people trapped, but we couldn't give them pre-arrival instructions until someone was with them, and we didn't know when someone was going to be with them." Montgomery said. "It could be hours, and for some it was days. That's because, as some of the responders traveled through the path of destruction … they stopped where they first saw patients. They set up posts right at the first people that they found."

Clearly, there is nothing one can do to prepare for an event of this magnitude. Nevertheless, Tarrant and Montgomery shared what they learned from this event this week. Lesson number one: Make sure that you can read a map.

"How many of you are so hung up on electronics that you forget how to read a map," Tarrant said. "We now are taking our trainees physically out to the field with a map, so that they can learn to navigate. … When there are no landmarks, road signs or street signs for first responders to reference to, you have to be able to read a map, and an electronic map isn't always the best way to do that. An electronic will have those landmarks, but if they no longer exist, you have to be able to visualize them in your head."

Jasper County 911 also has made it a point to make sure that each of its employees has reviewed its "system failure book," which, as its name implies, lists every system employed by the center and contains instructions on what to do when they fail.

"I'll be honest — not everyone had used that systems failure book until after the tornado," Tarrant said. "We had it, and we were aware of where it was — it's a big red book — but not everyone had been able to have the opportunity to touch everything systems-wise. Making sure that you have that available to all of your staff is so important. You have to know what to do when your CAD system fails."

Documenting everything also is critically important, according to Tarrant.

"Have you ever dealt with FEMA for reimbursement? Nothing against FEMA, but the paperwork trail is enormous," Tarrant said. "If you're not paying attention to what's going on and keeping track of it, you will forget." To that end, Tarrant recommended that 911 center managers invest in digital audio recorders that they can use to dictate notes.

There was a lot more discussed in this session, and I will share it in an upcoming column.

What do you think? Tell us in the comment box below.

Tags: Disaster Response PSAP PSAP Telecommunicators Commentary Public Safety Training Urgent Matters Commentary

Most Recent


  • Verizon
    Verizon, Axon demonstrate benefits of 5G network slicing to support public-safety video
    Verizon and Axon Enterprises this week announced a successful demonstration of 5G network slicing that allowed its network to sustain connectivity performance levels for mission-critical video through Axon Fleet 3 and Axon Respond services. Network slicing is one of the most-anticipated features of the 5G standard for the critical-communications industry, because it allows a network […]
  • Cyberattack closes emergency rooms in three states
    Ardent Health says it was the target of a cyberattack over Thanksgiving, in an incident that shut down the hospital operator’s emergency rooms in three states. The hospital operator, which oversees 30 hospitals in the U.S., said the attack was detected on the morning of Nov. 23 and was identified as a ransomware attack impacting […]
  • General Electric, DARPA hack claims raise national-security concerns
    General Electric and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have reportedly been breached, according to claims on the Dark Web that the organizations’ highly sensitive stolen data is up for sale. A screen capture from the Dark Web ad shows a threat actor named IntelBroker selling access credentials, DARPA-related military information, SQL files, and more. GE confirmed to […]
  • More 2G and 3G shutdowns loom in the U.S.
    UScellular and Cellcom recently set dates to shutter their aging wireless networks. The smaller network operators are following in the footsteps of their bigger, nationwide rivals, which are making similar moves. On its website, UScellular said it would shutter its 3G CDMA network on January 14, 2024. “Major wireless carriers have already shut down their […]

Related Content

  • New Orleans-area 911 center inks multiyear APEX deal with Carbyne to replace call-handling system

Commentary


Land mobile radio (LMR) systems are just as vulnerable to cyberattacks as any other networks used in the public-safety sector. Here’s what to do about it.

  • 1
7th November 2023

September 3GPP Plenary meetings feature Release 18 progress, Release 19 beginnings

13th October 2023

Better technology can help solve the public-safety staffing crisis

26th June 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.