Disaster Preparedness | Emergency Response

Featured Videos

GSN 2012 Award Winners/Finalists/Sponsors: Dubhe Beinhorn, VP Public Sector, AtHoc, Inc

Dubhe Beinhorn describes AtHoc, Inc, winner of GSN’s 2012 award for “Best Mass Notification Solutions,” as a company that operates in one sector only: critical communications for crisis management....

GSN 2012 Award Winners/Finalists/Sponsors: Covia Labs, David Kahn, CEO

Covia Labs received the award for “Best Interoperable First Responder Communications” in the 2012 Awards Program for its “Alert & Respond” software platform and application that provides voice/...

GSN 2012 Award Winners/Finalists/Sponsors: Drew Morin, Chief Technology Officer, TeleCommunication Systems

TeleCommunication Systems (TCS), which entered its “Commercial Mobile Alerts System” in the 2012 Awards Program, was named a Finalist in the “Best Mass Notification Systems” category. Drew Morin, who...

GSN 2012 Award Winners/Finalists/Sponsors; Jim Montagnino, CEO/President, NC4

El Segundo, CA based NC4 specializes in situational awareness, emergency response and event planning, according to Jim Montagnino. Its crime fighting solution “Situational Awareness for Enforcement’s...

IACP Conference, 2012: Stephen Meer, Founder and Chief Technical Officer of Intrado, Inc,

Stephen Meer, one of the founders of Intrado, Inc of Denver, Colorado, indicates that his company provides services and products to the 9-1-1 infrastructure, which he says is a very complicated...

IACP Conference 2012: Mike Bostic, Director of Customer Advocacy, Security and Transportation Service, Raytheon

Mike Bostic of Raytheon points out that he spent 34 years as an Assistant Chief in the LAPD, where he worked about a third of that time in technology and communications. And one thing he...

IACP Conference 2012: Kevin P. Madden, Solutions Architect for Public Safety, Cisco Sytems

Kevin Madden discusses the nation’s first demonstrated multi-vendor interoperable Public Safety Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, which was deployed by a consortium of companies including Cisco and...

IACP Conference 2012: Dave Snyder, Spillman Technologies, Inc.

ASIS 2012: Paul Christin, Homeland Security Industy Manager, ESRI

ESRI is the innovator of GIS, or Geographic Information Systems, which Paul Christin describes as a way of managing information and understanding it geographically, or plotting information,...

GSN Awards Dinner Winners and Sponsors: Tony Wilder, Incident Commander, Southern Agency Type 1 Red Team

The Bastrop County, TX Unified Command was named Winner of GSN’s 2011 Award for “Most Notable Emergency Response – Federal, State or Local.”. Trophies were awarded to the Incident Commanders of...

GSN 2011 Awards Dinner Winners and Sponsors: Elizabeth Cavasso, Type 1 Planning Section Chief, US Forest Service, National Incident Management Organization (NIMO)

GSN 2011 Awards Dinner Winners and Sponsors: Mike Fisher, Emergency Management Coordinator, Bastrop County, TX

GSN 2011 Awards Dinner Winners and Sponsors: Dan Kleinman, Incident Commander, National Incident Management Organization (NIMO)

GSN 2011 Awards Dinner Winners and Sponsors Interviews: Bill Eckerd, Director of Sales for Strategic Account Group, Verint Video Solutions

Verint Video Solutions was a 2011 Winner of “Best Intelligent Video Surveillance Solution” for its Nextiva Physical Security Information Management System (PSIM). According to Bill Eckerd, the PSIM...

News

Relief funds for Sandy-stricken transit systems will lose more than half a billion dollars to sequestration

Fri, 2013-03-29 11:37 AM

Hurricane Sandy
crippled NJ Transit

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced on March 29 the allocation of $2 billion to transit systems in New York and New Jersey that were devastated by...

No increase in radioactivity after wild fires near Los Alamos

Fri, 2013-03-29 08:47 AM

Las Conchas fire

Nuclear security officials said there has been no increase in radioactivity on the grounds of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico since the massive 2011 Las Conchas wildfire swept through...

Illegal alien convicted of ramming Border Patrol agents with truck

Fri, 2013-03-29 07:27 AM

A Ford F-250

A Mexican man living in southern Texas pleaded guilty to charges of using a pickup truck to assault U.S. Border Patrol agents as the man tried to evade capture for smuggling illegal aliens. Jose...

FBI doggedly tracked Somali pirate boss in Quest murders

Thu, 2013-03-28 08:15 AM

Mohammad Saaili Shibin

The man who was the chief negotiator for a group of Somali pirates who kidnapped and ultimately killed four U.S. citizens in attacks in the Gulf of Aden was tracked and finally arrested by members of...

FBI leads first exercise under new law to coordinate response to 'active shooters'

Wed, 2013-03-27 07:34 AM

El Paso, TX

The FBI has conducted what it said was the first training exercise under a new federal law aimed at coordinating federal and state response to “active shooter” situations.

U.S., Canada conduct cross-border emergency response exercise

Tue, 2013-03-26 11:29 AM

Calais, Maine
border crossing

U.S. and Canadian emergency management agencies recently conducted a cross-border drill aimed at coordinating and responding to separate, but dire, emergencies at border crossings. The agencies...

Vial of biological agent missing at Texas lab

Mon, 2013-03-25 08:04 AM

Galveston National
Laboratory

A vial of a potentially hazardous virus is missing from the research laboratory of a Texas medical research facility, but officials said there were no security breaches and the virus doesn’t pose a...

Four indicted in California under new federal law on laser strikes

Fri, 2013-03-22 07:29 AM

Laser glare

Four people in California face stiff prison terms and fines under a newly-enacted federal law against pointing laser devices at aircraft.

CBP wants a vendor to extract and decontaminate drugs smuggled inside hazmat trucks

Thu, 2013-03-21 05:26 PM

Is this Hazmat truck
smuggling narcotics?

CBP is so intent on finding narcotics being smuggled inside vehicles heading north from the U.S.-Mexico border through the state of Texas that it wants to hire a vendor to extract narcotics and other...

CBP provides emergency care to migrants battered by the sea

Thu, 2013-03-21 11:48 AM

Migrants on
Desecheo

An emergency medical technician with U.S. Customs and Border Protection worked intensely on March 8 to treat over 70 Haitian migrants stranded on a remote island near Puerto Rico as they tried to...

Oklahoma man pleads guilty to threatening Wyoming town

Thu, 2013-03-21 08:51 AM

Glenn Allen Kirkham

Glenn Allen Kirkham, 34, pled guilty on March 20 to threatening an attack on a Wyoming town in January, forcing it to lock down dozens of schools, and sound the alert to local hospitals and nursing...

Border agents come to the rescue in Texas, California

Wed, 2013-03-20 08:11 AM

BORSTAR unit

Within a week in mid-March, Border Patrol agents rescued three people suffering from dehydration and medical conditions from the rugged borderlands of Texas and southern California. On March 17,...

Company News

VidSys and Bridgeborn partner on PSIM with advanced 3D visualization

VidSys, a provider of Physical Security Information Management (PSIM) software that allows organizations to resolve business and security situations in real time, announced on March 26 a new partnership with Bridgeborn, an IT, operations, policy and research company.

Physical Optics gets HECAD emergency responder contract from HSARPA

Homeland security systems integrator Physical Optics Corp. received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award for Phase II of the Helmet Embedded Conformal Augmented Display (HECAD) system.

In collaboration with the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA), said the company, the HECAD Phase II award will provide two-year funding for continued work on an embedded "heads-up" display to increase personal situation awareness for emergency responder, said the company.

LRAD debuts its new LRAD 2000X acoustic hailing system

LRAD Corp. has announced that its new LRAD 2000X acoustic hailing system broadcasts highly intelligible voice communication that can be clearly heard and understood over five miles away.

ADMS-Airbase disaster response training unveiled by ETC Simulation

Environmental Tectonics Corp.’s simulation division recently unveiled ADMS -- Airbase, the newest product in the ADMS suite of simulation training systems, which was developed to specifically address the unique challenges of military-aided emergency and disaster response professionals.

Honeywell’s Notifier debuts demo site for its emergency communications systems

NOTIFIER by Honeywell announced on Dec. 5 the launch of a micro-site to educate users on effective deployments of integrated fire alarm and emergency communications systems through virtual demonstrations of emergency scenarios.

DeTect debuts its HARRIER Visual Warning System (VWS) to safeguard windfarms

In response to the dark skies initiative and wind industry demand, DeTect has developed its HARRIER VWS.

The system provides continuous 360-degree surveillance of the airspace around a windfarm from the ground level to above aircraft flight altitudes, automatically activating obstruction lighting when aircraft are detected at a defined outer perimeter.

RAM Mounts and GammaTech offer mountings for in-vehicle Durabook computers

RAM Mounts and GammaTech Computer Corp. announced on Oct. 18 that they have teamed up to provide vehicle mounts to securely hold a variety of Durabook units in patrol cars and other police vehicles.

RAM’s Tough-Tray universal laptop tray perfectly adapts to GammaTech Durabook’s rugged convertible U12C models, rugged S15C and D14RM, and fully rugged convertible R13S.

Gamewell-FCI expands its emergency communications offerings

Gamewell-FCI by Honeywell has expanded its fire alarm and emergency communications (aka mass notification) systems offerings through the integration of audible and visual notification devices and IP network command software from Alertus Technologies.

Commentary and Opinions

Disaster Preparedness 2011: Two modern challenges for disaster management

Today, more than half of the world’s populations live in cities, and that figure is expected to reach 60 percent by 2030.

Large, modern cities function thanks to a complexity of infrastructure systems that deliver and manage energy, water, food, traffic, healthcare, mass transit, sanitation, environmental monitoring, etc. Working together, these systems make it possible for businesses and citizens to go about their daily activities.

Disaster Preparedness 2011 -- Agencies, first responders and the public can benefit today from Next-Generation 9-1-1

A woman in Black Hawk County, Iowa was alone upstairs when her former boyfriend -- who had a history of domestic violence -- entered her home. Afraid that the sound of her voice would reveal her location, she used her cell phone to send a text message to 9-1-1. A few minutes later, police officers arrived at the scene and arrested the ex-boyfriend for violating a court order requiring him to stay away from the woman.

Disaster Preparedness 2011 -- Lessons Learned

Whether an incident occurs locally or overseas, the response to a disaster can become its own storm, pulling people in from their normal daily duties and placing them squarely in the middle of crisis response.

HHS readiness to respond to a biological or other emergency

By Nicole Lurie, MD

[Editor’s note: Nicole Lurie, M.D., M.S.P.H., Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, U.S. Public Health Service, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), delivered on Oct. 18, 2011 the following testimony to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, entitled, “Safeguarding our Nation: HHS Readiness to Respond to a Biological or Other Emergency.”]

Ten years after 9/11 and the anthrax attacks

[Editor’s note: Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs and Chief Medical Officer Alexander G. Garza, MD, MPH, of the Department of Homeland Security, testified before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, on Oct. 18, 2011, and submitted the following statement, entitled, “Ten Years After 9/11 and the Anthrax Attacks: Protecting Against Biological Threats?”]

By Alexander G. Garza, MD

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Recent Disaster Preparedness Videos

IACP Conference, 2012: Stephen Meer, Founder and Chief Technical Officer of Intrado, Inc,

Stephen Meer, one of the founders of Intrado, Inc of Denver, Colorado, indicates that his company provides services and products to the 9-1-1 infrastructure, which he says is a very complicated ecosystem with lots of different constituent groups. The 9-1-1 infrastructure is like an iceberg, he says, with a little piece that delivers services to the public that is above the water line, and a massive infrastructure under the water line that supports it in operating seamlessly, continuously, dealing with all the regulations and issues in the world of public safety communications.

IACP Conference 2012: Mike Bostic, Director of Customer Advocacy, Security and Transportation Service, Raytheon

Mike Bostic of Raytheon points out that he spent 34 years as an Assistant Chief in the LAPD, where he worked about a third of that time in technology and communications. And one thing he learned from his LAPD experience is that everything the military needs, so does public safety. But Raytheon is in the business of solving operational problems rather than selling boxes and devices, he says, and as a systems integrator the company sells solutions to specific sets of problems.

IACP Conference 2012: Kevin P. Madden, Solutions Architect for Public Safety, Cisco Sytems

IACP Conference 2012: Dave Snyder, Spillman Technologies, Inc.

Spillman Technologies is a vendor of public safety software used by law enforcement, fire and emergency management agencies, according to Dave Snyder. The company provides an integrated solution and specializes in multi-jurisdictional assignments involving agencies that want to collaborate with other agencies with information systems in large geographic areas. Snyder points out that the company has been in business for almost 30 years and has an extraordinary degree of stability, and its customers can count on major upgrades each year at no cost.

ASIS 2012: Paul Christin, Homeland Security Industy Manager, ESRI

ESRI is the innovator of GIS, or Geographic Information Systems, which Paul Christin describes as a way of managing information and understanding it geographically, or plotting information, visualizing the data, and analyzing the dots to make sense out of the data. The company sells to 40 verticals, one of which is homeland security. Christin describes how GIS technology is used for planning major events, such as political conventions or the recent NATO conference in Chicago.

Upcoming Events

Event Details	Dates of Event
SANS Austin 2013	May 19 - 24
DoD VA Healthcare Training Forum	May 20 - 23
Transport and Logistics of Hazardous Material	May 27 - 28
Southwest Microwave Seminar	May 28 - 28
Border Management Southwest Summit	May 29 - 31
Cyber Security Conference & Expo	May 30 - 30
Mobile Device Security Summit 2013	May 30 - Jun 6
Security Analytics Summit 2013	May 30 - Jun 6
Cyber Security Conference & Expo	May 30 - 30
Southwest Microwave Seminar	May 30 - 30
SANS Malaysia @ MCMC 2013	Jun 3 - 8
2013 SIA Government Summit	Jun 4 - 5
Southwest Microwave Seminar	Jun 4 - 4
NCT: CBRNe Israel, 4 - 6 June 2013, Tel Aviv	Jun 4 - 6
SEL Modern Solutions Power Systems Conference	Jun 5 - 7
Mission Command	Jun 10 - 12
Cyber Securty Brainstorm	Jun 11 - 11
EDGE Summit 2013	Jun 11 - 11
IPv6 Summit 2013	Jun 14 - 16
SANSFIRE 2013	Jun 15 - 22
Oak Ridge National Laboratory's 2nd Biosurveillance Symposium	Jun 17
Biodetection Technologies 2013	Jun 18 - 19
Southwest Microwave Seminar	Jun 18 - 18
Cyber Defense and Network Security Summit	Jun 24 - 26
Vanguard Security & Compliance 2013	Jun 24 - 27
SANS Canberra 2013	Jul 1 - 13
Border Management & Technologies Summit	Jul 2 - 5
SANS Rocky Mountain 2013	Jul 15 - 20
SANS Mumbai 2013	Jul 22 - 27
SANS San Francisco 2013	Jul 29 - Aug 3
SANS Boston 2013	Aug 5 - 10
Cyber Security for Government	Aug 12 - 14
SANS Thailand 2013	Aug 19 - 31
SANS Virginia Beach 2013	Aug 19 - 30
Maritime Security 2013 West	Aug 19 - 21
930gov: Strategic Buying at Year-End Showcase	Aug 21 - 21

New Products

IDenta says explosives ID kits identify underwear bomber’s PETN

Add Jerusalem-based Identa Corp. to the handful of companies that issued statements in the wake of the failed...

Introducing the ‘In Case of Emergency’ iPhone app

Legalzoom.com, an online legal service, and Donate Life America (DLA), a non-profit organization, have created and are offering ICE App, intended to help users input the compreh...

MetaCarta releases version 4.5 of geographic search software

Cambridge, MA-based MetaCarta, Inc., a provider of geographic search solutions, has announced the launch...

Magnasphere rolls out high-security sensor

Waukesha, WI-based Magnasphere reports that its new high-security sensor, HSS, has completed its UL inspections and is r...

ICx introduces ClearPoint bottled liquid screener

Arlington, VA-based ICx T...

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