Quick and efficient disaster response

As most emergency responders will admit, one of the most important facets when dealing with any disaster is to quickly assess and try to deal with the situation. For that you need an adequate and functioning communication system. Put simply, without a decent communications system, dealing with even the smallest calamity can become an insurmountable task.

Insofaras disaster recovery goes - no communication means no disaster recovery. In this age of uncertainty that we live in, a full-functioning disaster recovery plan must be an integral component of any risk management system.

And according to Jeremy Sharp, managing director of Adtec Communications, there have been a number of recent examples where a good communication system would have actually saved lives.

In terms of the emergency services talking to each other, Sharp says, "the quicker the better. These first few hours can be the difference between life or death. If the NYPD had had our ALERTS system during 9/11 for example, they would have literally saved a lot more lives."

Sharp emphasises that senior management's leadership is "vital during a disaster. While events can vary dramatically, there are numerous guiding principles to effective disaster response and communication is critical to success. Typically the first thing is panic or disbelief, then trying to remember what happens next. Products such as ALERTS (Adtec Linked Emergency Response Telephone System) gives them the ability to react quickly and positively, without using too much effort."

Furthermore, he notes, "Usually ALERTS gets things started - then 'the plan' can be swung into action. ALERTS helps the organisation to get the plan into action a lot quicker."

It would be an understatement to say that in many disaster scenarios, communication difficulties are often hard to separate from coordination difficulties, and the greatest coordination difficulties are inter-organisational.

Therefore, many of the communications problems are those related to inter-agency information sharing. Frequently, the means for communication exists, but for a number of reasons, persons are hesitant to communicate with others outside their own organisation.

Inter-organisational communication is fostered by those factors which promote trust in other organisations and familiarity with how they function. These include: informal contacts, joint planning and training, preplanned agreements for the division of disaster responsibilities and the use of similar terminology, procedures and performance criteria. On a technological level, inter-organisational radio and comms networks, common mapping systems, and computer networks also contribute to an effective and seamless communications policy.

He notes that ALERTS has been specifically designed for any situation where users need to connect people and mobilise response teams including emergency services alerting, trauma team notification, events management, project management, disaster recovery, public transport, news coverage and airlines to name just a few areas.

Furthermore, it would be wrong not to acknowledge that the creation of a comprehensive disaster response plan calls for the involvement of senior management as well as communications professionals, which at one level or another will include communications technology such as ALERTS. Public scrutiny is now a fact of life for all institutions and management is learning that preparation can make the difference between success and failure in the perceived handling of a disaster.

This then flows heavily into the duty of care provisions that most, if not all, organisations now have to address. As Sharp points out, without products such as ALERTS, there can be no way of even coming close to addressing the provisions in duty of care legislation.

And, as he also notes, "any organisation that can benefit by having a first response team called out or notified can use ALERTS and it only takes a phone call to start it."

And to back up his theory, Sharp says that the ALERTS system is so robust and versatile, it is being used by a number of emergency services around the country such as NSW RFS, SA Metro and Country Fire Services, VIC SES, two NSW area health services and three Heartstart volunteer groups to name a few.