New tools are enabling planners to test the consequences of events without having to endure the disruption.

In 2005, Hurricane Rita caused a natural gas distribution hub in southwest Louisiana to close for 10 days, an event felt from coast to coast.

“It impacted the price of natural gas across the nation for more than six months,” said Ramesh Kolluru, an assistant vice president for research at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Even non-Katrina-level storms can have an impact throughout the national supply chain and global markets. Although Hurricane Ike spared gasoline prices across the country, gasoline distribution in the American south was affected and some gas stations ran dry or saw lines reminiscent of the worst days of the 1970s oil shocks.

While he can’t stop a hurricane, a terrorist strike or other disasters, Kolluru hopes to alleviate the impact of such events through better modeling. It’s part of the charter of the National Incident Management Systems and Advanced Technologies (NIMSAT) Institute at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where Kolluru is an executive director. What NIMSAT is doing is information sharing before an emergency happens, a feat made possible thanks to some advanced computer technology from SGI of Sunnyvale, Calif.

That’s just one example of new solutions to the old problem of information sharing and interoperability, with the latter applied not only to radios but to any form of communication. Other answers include tools to better link those in the field with emergency operations centers and technologies that help responders smoothly move from initial alerts to full-blown response management operations.

Be alert

The last capability is an important one, said Fred LaMontagne, fire chief and director of the emergency management agency for the city of Portland, Maine. “The key to successful emergency management really is situational awareness.”

That means, he continued, awareness of factors that could bring about change in the local community or environment. The city accomplishes this through the use of E Team and ESA (External Situational Awareness), two offerings from NC4 of El Segundo, Calif. These work together to provide alerts and a framework for communicating information before, during and after an incident.

For example, cruise ships traveling from Canada regularly call on Portland. In case of a disease outbreak, some of those passengers might be sick or even need to be quarantined. Knowing that some action might be needed would lead to the prepositioning of medical staff prior to the boat docking, which in turn could result in better management of the emergency.

A storm is another example of an event that, like a cruise ship, arrives with some warning. With the right technology and procedures, that forewarning can be put to good use.

For instance, LaMontagne cited the Patriot’s Day Storm of April 16, 2007. According to the National Weather Service, the storm dumped more than five inches of rain on Portland that day, and during that span there was a nearly 60-mile-an-hour peak wind gust. At one time, as much as 70 percent of the city was without power.

That’s the type of situation in which a series of alerts and collaborative information sharing can prepare personnel for what’s coming. “They go through their pre-storm checklist for the event. They’re all up to speed. We haven’t expended a nickel and we’re not behind the 8-ball. We’re actually in good preparatory mode,” said LaMontagne.

When the storm eventually hits, he explained, adjustments can be made, with an emergency operations center opened if needed. He noted that the information sharing during such situations requires interoperability in the widest sense. That includes the basics, such as the reliable delivery of e-mail despite filters and firewalls. It also includes video and audio feeds, as well as connection by push-to-talk radios.