Showing posts with label USNG. Show all posts

Google's Crisis Map - Falling Short of the Mark

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For those with interest in Google's offering for the masses for Hurricane Irene, go here.

Comment: In many ways this is a very nice, simple way to make a dynamic emergency situation, visually understandable. However, as a geospatial tool being promoted by a "crisis response organization", it is sorely lacking in one very important feature, U.S. National Grid (USNG) capability - something that has been shown can be easily implemented within Google's mapping applications by much smaller organizations like the National Search and Rescue Committee and Florida's Division of Emergency Management. Unfortunately, this oversight by the 10 million pound gorilla in the common man's world of maps means Google is missing out on an excellent opportunity to help build national awareness about this use of geospatial technology for emergency preparedness and response (unlike ESRI), as well as awareness about U.S. geospatial standards for crisis response (see page 119 of this document). Google has done so many great things when it comes to bringing geospatial awareness to the world - for all our sakes, let's hope this is one area where they soon do the same.

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Google's Crisis Map - Falling Short of the Mark

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99 Cents Gets You the U.S. National Grid on Your iPhone

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GPS

NG 9-1-1

USNG

MilGPS Version 1.1

There are more than a few of these U.S. National Grid (USNG)/Military Gird Reference System (MGRS)applications out there floating around. Big pluses for this system:

SIMPLE - straightforward readout of your location in grid coordinates

Florida USNG Efforts - managed to get the developer to lean forward and anticipate a Next Generation 9-1-1 requirement. The app allows for the, "easy transfer of coordinate to any other application to include text messaging." Just think of the possibilities.....no requirement to tell a 911 call center an ADDRESS during the stress of an emergency - instead they could get a text message with precise USNG coordinates......... All for a mere 99 cents!

Go here to learn more.

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99 Cents Gets You the U.S. National Grid on Your iPhone

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The 9-1-1 Carnage Continues...

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Emergency Response

EMS

Fire Service

Law Enforcement

NG 9-1-1

USNG

To read the article as posted at the Kennebec Journal online, click on the link below:

WATERVILLE

Posted: August 20

Updated: Today at 8:13 PM

Another 911 address mix-up makes need to change obvious

By Scott Monroe mailto:smonroe@mainetoday.com

Staff Writer

Comment: I'm not counting, but there have been at least 10 high profile incidents in the past year where application of 9-1-1 technology has failed our nation (typically, with fatal results). Dispatchers typing in the wrong address, callers giving the wrong address, Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems unable to find an address, CAD systems auto-filling the wrong address, and so on. And the incidents have not been isolated - indeed they have been spread across the country: Atlanta, Maine, St Louis, Denver, Ohio, Florida, California, Tucson, and Pennsylvania - to name a few. The irony of the situation is that units of government will spend MILLIONS of dollars to install the latest and greatest CAD system in hopes of shaving seconds off response times, yet the "new" system will inherently have the same basic flaw as the old system - something that can cause errors in minutes - reliance on an ADDRESS driven exchange of information. There is a better way to communicate location for emergency response situations. One that is free and endorsed by FEMA, the National Search and Rescue Committee, and the Federal Geographic Data Committee - the U.S. National Grid (USNG). Sadly, within the emergency services sector, very few have embraced the approach. For example, a recent Needs Assessment by the National Fire Protection Association found that less than 2% of the nation's fire departments were using USNG in their operations.

Hopefully, the light bulb will finally come on for the 9-1-1/emergency services sector before the carnage goes much further. In that regard, Minnesota has made significant progress but still has a long way to go.

In Minnesota:

the USNG is an approved state cartographic standard,

USNG maps are available for the entire state,

numerous USNG outreach materials have been developed, and

at least one government services organization has been working to provide a variety of USNG based services.

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The 9-1-1 Carnage Continues...

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Next Quarterly Meeting of the EPC - September 8, 2011

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EPC

FBI

Information Sharing

Meetings

MnGeo

Training

USNG

Looking for something to do when the Minnesota State Fair is over, the kids are back in school - but the leaves are still somewhat attached to the trees? Well, I've got just the answer:

The next Quarterly Meeting of the MnGeo Emergency Preparedness Committee (EPC)!

Highlights of the September 8th event:

InfraGard P2CAT overview

U.S. National Grid location marker update

Twin Cities GECCo details

And much, much more

For event details, to include online participation information, go here.

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Next Quarterly Meeting of the EPC - September 8, 2011

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Man Questions 911 Dispatch Error

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NG 9-1-1

USNG

From UpNorthLive.com

by Lauren Amstutz

Posted: 06.08.2011 at 9:46 PM

"BENZIE CO. -- A Benzie County man is looking for answers tonight after an error by 911 dispatch. His wife died of an asthma attack and he says the ambulance didn't get there fast enough. The mistake was made when the dispatcher relayed the wrong address to EMS. Now family members are left wondering if their loved one would still be alive had crews arrived sooner." Read more.

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Man Questions 911 Dispatch Error

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Hwy. 10, Cty. Rd. 10 Tend To Get Confused

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USNG

From the Star Tribune:
July 10, 2011

"Motorists traveling certain reaches of the north metro sometimes come to the same sad conclusion: Two 10s is one too many. Confusion about the side-by-side County Road 10 and Hwy. 10, especially for those unfamiliar with the area, has been known to cause missed meetings, unintentional meanderings, frantic -- or annoyed -- calls from lost friends, relatives, customers and delivery truck drivers who had turned off Interstate 35W or Central Avenue onto the wrong 10." Read more.

Comment: Here's another clear cut example of why a street address isn't always the best idea when it comes dispatching emergency response vehicles. There is a better way: the U.S.National Grid.

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Hwy. 10, Cty. Rd. 10 Tend To Get Confused

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Confusing Dispatches Delay Responses in Ohio

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NG 9-1-1

USNG

The recent integration of Dayton fire into the dispatch center boosted the fire call load by more than double from 28,000 annually to an expected 60,000

By Doug Page
The Dayton Daily News
DAYTON, Ohio — Since moving to the Montgomery County Regional Dispatch Center last year, Dayton police, firefighters and medics complain they are sometimes sent to the wrong address, the wrong equipment is dispatched and updates on the dispatches are confusing.

In one instance, it took police 48 minutes to get to a man assaulted with a bat. He eventually walked to the medics who were standing by, waiting for police to secure the scene.

Read more. Don't miss the very last two sentences.

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Confusing Dispatches Delay Responses in Ohio

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Maine Cops Probe Response Delay in Murder-suicide

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NG 9-1-1

USNG

From Boston.com:
Maine cops probe response delay in murder-suicide
Date: June 14, 2011

"Police in Maine say they don't know if a six-minute delay in responding to a plea for help from a threatened Winslow woman contributed to her death. Police say the dispatcher who answered the 911 call on June 6 from 30-year-old Sarah Gordon mistook "Marie Street" for "Murray Street" and sent officers to the wrong address." Read more.

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Maine Cops Probe Response Delay in Murder-suicide

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NFPA completes Third Needs Assessment of the U.S. Fire Service

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Fire Service

USNG

Big thanks to Al Studt, Kennedy Space Center Fire Systems Engineer, and Lieutenant/EMT with Canaveral Fire Rescue.

Fighter, for the following heads up concerning the recently released Needs Assessment by the National Fire Protection Association. From pages 159 concerning geospatial capabilities:

"Table 6-3 indicates that roughly half of all fire departments have no map coordinate

system (48% of departments that said they knew whether they had a system), roughly

unchanged from 45% in 2001 and 50% in 2005. There are some indications that national

authorities are more supportive of the need for standardization in this area, particularly in

the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but there is no evidence of progress at the local level.

Table 6-4 indicates that the vast majority of departments with a map coordinate system

have only a local system, which means the system they have is unlikely to be usable with

global positioning systems (GPS) or familiar to, or easily used by, non-local emergency

response partners, such as Urban Search and Rescue Teams, the National Guard, and

state or national response forces. Moreover, interoperability of spatial-based plans,

information systems, equipment, and procedures will likely be rendered impossible

beyond the local community under these circumstances. This reliance almost exclusively

on local systems exists across-the-board, in all sizes of communities.

The U. S. National Grid (USNG-NAD83) standard, based on the grid system used by

U.S. military units and National Guard forces around the world, was adopted as the

system best suited for eventual national standardization. Nearly all departments (99%)

indicated no use of the U.S. National Grid (called Military Grid in the survey and Table

6-4). (http://www.fgdc.gov/usng/index.html)

Only 1% of departments reported no 911 or similar system in the latest survey,

down from 6% in 2001 and unchanged from 1% in 2005. (See Table 6-5.)

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NFPA completes Third Needs Assessment of the U.S. Fire Service

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Universal Geocoding from NAC Assigns Unique Codes to Every Location on Earth

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USNG

I personally view this article as a great disservice to the geospatial community in that it gives the purveyor of a proprietary coordinate system a forum in which to hawk a product that runs directly counter to U.S. national policy as embodied in formal decisions of the FGDC, National Search and Rescue Committee and others (implementation of the U.S. National Grid). Talbot Brooks was much nicer in saying the same thing. Go here for the article:
http://www10.giscafe.com/nbc/articles/view_weekly.php?articleid=963753

The next thing you know, somebody will try trademarking a name like "Seal Team Six".

Huh? What do you mean Disney already tried that? You're kidding me, right?

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Universal Geocoding from NAC Assigns Unique Codes to Every Location on Earth

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Wrong Street Suffix, Woman Dies

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Emergency Response

NG 9-1-1

USNG

From Dispatch Magazine On-Line:

"Wrong Street Suffix, Woman Dies

June 3, 2011 at 8:14 pm

Quite simply, the difference between “Daniel Street” and “Daniel Avenue” in Atlanta (Geo.) may have proved fatal to a woman who was accidentally crushed in the demolition of a house. The 51 year-old homeless woman was inside a home slated for demolition when the work crew showed up and began work. When workers discovered the woman had been injured, they dialed 911 and correctly gave the street address of 68 Daniel Street. The unnamed male Atlanta 911 calltaker repeated the correct address. However, when emergency units were dispatched, they were sent to 68 Daniel Avenue, about five miles away. A second 911 caller nine minutes later said no emergency units had arrived, but both the 911 dispatcher and an EMS dispatcher assured the caller that units were enroute. Apparently neither re-confirmed the address with the caller. A few minutes later the 911 and EMS dispatchers conferred on the telephone and discovered the location mistake. An ambulance arrived 18 minutes after the first 911 call. The patient was transported but did not survive. Read more and listen to the 911 calls here."

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Wrong Street Suffix, Woman Dies

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Trainee Mistakes Address, Fire Destroys Homes

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Emergency Response

NG 9-1-1

USNG

From Dispatch Magazine On-Line

"Trainee Mistakes Address, Fire Destroys Homes

May 11, 2011 at 2:19 pm

A miscommunication between a 911 caller and a York County (Penn.) dispatcher in training led to an eight-minute response delay, and resulted in three row homes being destroyed by fire. Fire officials believe the fire could have been confined to the kitchen of the original caller if her call had been promptly handled, and if the calltaker had correctly verified the woman’s address. Instead, Gloria Diaz properly gave her address as “622 Wallace Street” in York. But the unnamed dispatcher believed she said, “622 Water St.,” which is in Wrightsville. The calltaker asked Diaz if she lived in York City or York Township, and Diaz only answered only, “Yes.” After other questions, the calltaker asked Diaz if she lived in Wrightsville, and she said, “Yes.” Fire units were then dispatched to the Wrightsville location. Within two minutes neighbors pulled a fire alarm box outside the actual location of the fire, and fire units were then dispatched to the correct Wallace St. address. County officials said Diaz was using an older cellular phone, so there was no location information displayed to the calltaker. Read more about the mix-up here."

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Trainee Mistakes Address, Fire Destroys Homes

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The Role of Social Media in the Aftermath of Disasters, Help or Hindrance?

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USNG

Recently, FEMA Administrator Fugate recommended on Twitter that his followers read an Executive Summary for the Federal Geographic Data Committee’s U.S. National Grid (USNG) standard. The USNG “provides a nationally consistent language of location that has been optimized for local applications.”

Without yet understanding the importance of this standard, the current collection of social media interfaces presents in times of crisis one means of communicating needs, organizing locally and requesting help from responders coming from many miles away but is still lacking. Social media can be of great help but have the potential of also becoming something of a impediment to any response enterprise while at the same time greatly expanding the expectations of a population who have come to believe that because something has been tweeted, therefore it is.

It isn’t.

In early 2006, just a few months after Hurricane Katrina crashed into the Gulf Coast of the USA, Mr. Scott Simon of National Public Radio introduced an excellent report which illustrates a persistent problem and the solution: “How would you tell a stranger right now exactly where you are in the world? What if your life or somebody's life depends on the directions you give? When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, search and rescue teams discovered that they lacked a common language for explaining where they were or where people needed help. There are mapping systems that can make rescue and response easier if Americans are willing to use them.” (New Kind of Map Could Help Emergency Response, by Dan Charles)

As we’ve seen in the case of the recent revolution in Egypt, initiated and to some extent coordinated via Facebook, Twitter, and Google, there is a great inherent power to social media technologies. However, that “power” can become somewhat feckless and ineffective when potentially many tens of thousands of messages an hour are sent in a disaster response scenario, especially if the messaging is lacking even the basics of standardized content. If one were to pick just one critical element of information to normalize, it should be for the locations of people, places, and things.

Unlike the situation in Egypt, those needing help in a disaster scenario who are tweeting their needs actually want the government to see, comprehend, and act with accuracy, speed, and precision on the information provided in order to help disaster survivors when, where, and with whatever is needed.

After a catastrophic disaster strikes, “the Army” will be looked upon in most countries as a force of extreme good by the average citizen and become one of their best hopes for help and protection when many other forms of a government’s residual capabilities to respond, provision, and protect are lessened or eliminated entirely.

There are many excellent reasons learned through the years why the United States military, all NATO forces, plus Japan and other nations utilize a standard grid reference language of location when it comes to those working on the ground, the Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) which is similar to and interoperable with USNG.

In a USA context, although certainly the same issue exists everywhere, if all search and rescue teams, the Coast Guard, National Guard, and other response assets coming to help you and your Facebook family are utilizing USNG, would it not be advantageous for Facebook to do so as well?

If a message for help does include a USNG geoaddress, in this case a ten meter precision and earth unique position of “18S UJ 0044 9732” that is both easy to communicate by voice and transcribe for use in planning on-the-ground operations, what help is it for that geoaddress to be turned by Google into one of the several difficult to communicate and keep straight variants of latitude and longitude: “39.70242141676143,-77.32767916127594?”

According to Twitter, it “is, without a doubt, the best way to share and discover what is happening right now.” That may in part well be true. In the long-run, however, for both every day uses and in the aftermath of an emergency or disaster when time counts and minutes lost can be the balance between life and death, Twitter and all other Social Media interfaces and mapping portals alike, could be much better.

Courtsey of:

Mark A. Whitney

Emmitsburg, MD

USNG: 18SUJ00449732

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The Role of Social Media in the Aftermath of Disasters, Help or Hindrance?

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FEMA Director Craig Fugate and Staff Comment on the Importance of the U.S. National Grid

Labels:

FEMA

USNG

The Great Mapping Debate: In an interesting FEMA Blog post by FEMA Assistant Administrator, Response, Bob Fenton, FEMA's backing of nation-wide U.S. National Grid implementation is explained. Go here: http://blog.fema.gov/2011/02/great-mapping-debate.html.