When natural disasters strike, our first instincts are to phone or text loved ones; check news and social media sites; and go online to lend support. These connections become our lifelines. In the process, mobile devices become paramount in connecting people to people and people to data.
That’s why the Internet of Everything (IoE) is so critical. In the moments immediately following a disaster popular social media networks, like Facebook and Twitter, serve as quick ways to locate loved ones. At the same time, social media allows those affected to inform multiple people at once that they are okay, with a simple tweet or post.
In a recent Forbes article titled “Everything Changes with the Internet of Everything,” Kevin Maney discusses how the Internet of Everything changes the way we respond in time of crisis. For example, the Google Person Finder (launched during the 2010 earthquake in Haiti) shows how the Internet can make a big difference during emergencies. People can access the site via mobile device or computer and enter into one of two portals to exchange information: “I’m looking for someone” or “I have information about someone.”
Similarly, a networked power grid can pinpoint outages, enabling faster trouble shooting and allowing fellow citizens to lend support (or even power strips, as seen during Superstorm Sandy) where needed. These connections bring communities back together.
We often talk about the power of IoE to connect the unconnected. For disaster recovery, that power is amplified. Through the Internet of Everything we can help expedite recovery and create a more efficient disaster-response effort by connecting processes, data, things and, most importantly, people. When that happens, we’re able to improve the human experience.
In November 2012, Cisco Bangalore-based employee Aravind Sitaraman (President – Inclusive Growth) received the prestigious Rajyotsava award for his leadership of Cisco’s Project Samudaya, which helped rebuild 5 villages in the Indian state of Karnataka after catastrophic flooding in 2009. This honor is the highest conferred to civilians by Karnataka’s state government. The award reflects Sitaraman’s deep personal commitment to the well-being of communities in India, as well as his strong alignment with Cisco’s unique method of sincere yet strategic social investment.
Cisco’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts are defined by a simple equation: you + networks = impact multiplied. When the right person meets the right technology, it’s easy to do the math. Indeed, many of Cisco’s CSR efforts begin with grassroots enthusiasm like Aravind’s, which, when combined with Cisco solutions and best practices, can yield an outcome like Project Samudaya: an employee’s authentic, locally attuned passion for change is exponentially multiplied by the company’s resources and expertise.
Aravind Sitaraman receives the prestigious Rajyotsava Award from India’s government.
Near the epicenter of the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti, less than three months after it occurred, Clif Guy of Church of the Resurrection (COR) encountered a unique challenge: how to build a communications infrastructure so what was happening on the ground could be conveyed to incoming relief teams and others who had invested themselves in the Petit Goave community.
As director of IT at COR, Guy was used to technical challenges – but not of this scale. Spotty electricity and lack of Internet access in an area that had just suffered its worst natural disaster presented issues like never before. (Read how Clif used Google Earth to engineer a network to connect Haiti’s most needed areas.) Read More »
I moved down to D’Iberville, MS February of 2005. A quaint up and coming starter community just North of Biloxi, MS. I remember, while working for the State Police, taking my lunch to the end of a pier that was near by our office, sitting on the edge and looking out over the water. I enjoyed the peace, especially since it wasn’t even two years ago before that I was in Afghanistan looking forward to holding my 6 month old daughter that I spent 5 days with before deploying. I found this pretty little 4/2 split plan home less than a mile “as the crow flies” from the beach that August. It was humble, but I knew it would be a good place to start my life over. I remember watching and listening about some storm that month out in the middle of no where, thinking to myself, “I better hurry and close on that house otherwise I will not be able to get Home Owners Insurance.” Well, my house luckily enough was not in a flood zone, it was the suckers across the street, so I didn’t need to pay the extra insurance at closing. I closed August 25, 2005. Looking back, it’s funny to think how I was barely able to get all of my belongings moved into the house before I had to board up and head for higher ground. Little did I know at the time that the one night I spent in the house would be the last night. I packed an over night bag, locked the door, and left.
Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005 on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. She bolstered swells upwards of 30ft and reeked havoc throughout the Mississippi Coast Line with her devastation physically noticed over 160 miles inland to the heart of Mississippi, Jackson. She claimed nearly 1900 lives, displaced more than 700,000 people (more than the Dust Bowl Migration of the Great Depression) and cost our country nearly $125 Billion Dollars in property damage and insurance pay outs. To this day, there are still nearly 700 missing persons from that infamous day 7 years ago.
In Mississippi alone, over 200 lives were taken, 67 missing persons, and 5 still yet to be identified. Over 65,000 homes were destroyed, including one that sat at 10229 Cottage Court Cove, D’Iberville, MS 39540, my home. My neighborhood went under 15ft of water with about 7ft sitting inside my home before residing. I remember looking through the portal of the front door, seeing the damage, the water line, the mud, everything. I didn’t even unlock the door. I did what I knew to do: Report for duty.
I reported to the Emergency Operation Center in Gulfport, MS, linked up with the Director of the Mississippi Crime Laboratory, Sam Howell, and conducted Search and Recovery efforts with the Harrison County Coroner’s Office. Search and Rescue teams would identify remains and our team would recover those remains and transport them back to the “Reefer Trucks” (Refrigerated Tractor Trailers) parked outside one of the funeral homes in Gulfport, MS. We had recovery teams mobilized throughout the Gulf Coast. My area of responsibility was Biloxi, MS.
Conditions were terrible. I slept on a slab the first night across from the EOC. Our communications were non-existent, the only service provider available was Cell South, now called C-Spire. Our collaboration across the board with mobilized agency’s from law enforcement volunteers to the MS National Guard was decayed. It was analogue and archaic. There were next to no communications capabilities while we were deployed to our AOs. Each team had to be internally self sufficient, bringing everything we needed with us that morning. Response was slow, the people were restless, and resources were coming close to depleting. We weren’t ready.
Biloxi, MS
Now it’s 2012. On the eve of the Anniversary of one of the most catastrophic natural disasters of our time, Hurricane Isaac will eerily make landfall on this momentous day 7 years later. At this point, as I listen to the News from the other room, Isaac has increased to a Category I. The Army National Guard has already mobilized, the Joint Information Center (JIC) was deployed two days ago and is set up for distribution D+1. The stage is set for one of the quickest responses that the state of Mississippi has to offer with every available hand poised and ready. I myself, a Nationally Registered EMT-B, am also ready to provide assistance if need be. Now, we are ready.
In the short time I have worked for Cisco, I have been part of an amazing team that has relentlessly worked to bring attention to Cisco’s technology in order to aid and assist First Responders so that they may seamlessly do what they do best: Serve. With Cisco’s TacOps team and NERV mobile command center those who respond will have at their finger tips what they need to provide assistance to the public.
Today, we are ready.
This was difficult for me to write and share. As you finish reading this, please give a moment of silence for those that Hurricane Katrina claimed and their families.
In the military, we have a phrase: “Shoot, Move, and Communicate”. However, it should really be “Communicate, Move, then Shoot”… because you can’t do either two without communicating first. However, I’m sure the first adage just sounds cooler… What’s that mean? In any great organization, one of the essential components of any plan is, “How are we going to talk to each other”, whether that be by a simple phone on the desk or a hi-tech secure data/voice/video capability. In order to have proper Command and Control (C2) over the battlefield and mass, organize, and develop precision maneuver, a plan has to be created that’s efficient, effective, and reliable… most importantly, it has to be REDUNDANT! Read More »
By Neelley Hicks, Guest Columnist
