Business911 International, Inc.

Visualized: How the insane amount of rain in Texas could turn Rhode Island into a lake

It's hard to overstate the magnitude of the flooding that's hit Texas recently. The Memorial Day weekend of heavy rain has capped off a month where some areas of the state have seen more than 20 inches of rain fall. More rain is in the forecast.

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/05/27/the-insane-amount-of-rain-thats-fallen-in-texas-visualized/?postshare=5631432953827239

Drone footage - Buffalo Bayou Park flood 5-26-2015, Houston, TX

 

Allen Parkway at Taft Flooding 5-26-15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnD3D-4fA9c

Public Alerts now on Google Maps

Yesterday Google launched the new Google Crisis Response project: Google Public Alerts, a platform designed to bring you relevant emergency alerts when and where you’re searching for them. 

See full article: http://blog.google.org/2012/01/public-alerts-now-on-google-maps.html

Galveston Island experiencing remnants from Hermine

Picture from Galveston Island a few moments ago.

Courtesy K Janusaitis Galveston, TX

 

Downtown Houston Emergency Response Plan

The downtown district has revised its Emergency Operations Plan for downtown businesses.  The plan describes the role of each party during an emergency.  Each organization within the downtown area, and elsewhere within the city should acquaint itself with the plan prior to an actual event.

A copy of the plan is available at: http://www.downtownhouston.org/site_media/uploads/attachments/2010-05-26/Downtown_Emergency_Response_Plan_2010.pdf

New Ambulance Strike Team Leader training - creating order in EMS response

New trainiing program at Texas Engineering Extenstion (TEEX) provides enhanced capability for a Mass Casualty Incident (MCI).  The new training program includes considerations from lessons learned in the 9/11 attacks, Katrina, and Rita incidents.  Additional information is available at: http://teexblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-ambulance-strike-team-leader.html

Is social media really that big a deal?

You, or people you know are actively using social media.  I'm often asked why I believe those in infra-structure protection, IT security, and people in general should even be using the technology.  I simply respond it's just one more tool in the toobox, but you should have in the box, and ready to go.

Unless you've been living under a rock, there is no deying the power of such tools.  As we saw in Iran, and we are seeing in Haiti, the use of this technology brings critical information to the airwaves from eye witnesses on the scene.  We have heard stories of applications like Twitter being used to locate hostages, find people trapped in rubble, and we now use Twitter to provide on the ground observations of seismic activity (the USGS TED system).

I'm not saying that there aren't risks of using social media, but they are managable.  Just like I wouldn't put my utility knive back in the tool box with the blade exposed, I shouldn't take unessarry risks using social media.

Ask any Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) person the difficulty of locating people who may be trapped or injured, by "searching" with limited technology and dogs, and compare it to knowing where someone is specifically trapped and the job becomes more rescue than search.

Understanding not eveyone will have cell phones, nor will cellular/texting services always be available we should encourage our public sector agencies to adopt a means to communciate with the citizens during a mass casualty event, in order to reduce the "search" timeline and provide more time for rescue.

Here is link to a blog that describes "Social Media’s True Impact on Haiti, China, and the World"

Winter Storm Warning in Effect

http://www.accuweather.com/watches-warnings.asp?partner=vista2&traveler=1&zipChg=1&zipcode=77001&metric=0&zone=TXZ213&county=TXC201

Crisis Counseling Certification training

The Faith-Based Counselor Training Institute, Inc. is holding training sessions on Crisis Counseling.  Since the passage of House Bill 2481 the Texas legislature opened the doors for the "faith community" to be able to acquire a State recognized counselor certification through accreditation by a well-credentialed, private sector religious training entity. REfer to the website for additional information.  http://www.faithbasedcounseling.com/

FEMA Reaches Milestone with Integrated Public Alert Warning System

Article discloses slow progress on federal govenrment direction to provide comprehensive platform for notifying citizens in emergencies.  http://cms.firehouse.com/content/article/article.jsp?sectionId=50&id=66401

For information on the spec go to: http://docs.oasis-open.org/emergency/cap/v1.2/CAP-v1.2.html