Community Corner

Red Cross Unveils New State-of-the-Art Disaster Operations Center

Real-time maps loaded with information are kept on the "cloud." Data can be sent directly to agencies and volunteers in the field.

It looks a bit like NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Rows of desks, with computers and phones, facing large screens in a huge, darkened room. One can only imagine the buzz of activity that would fill this place if a major disaster hits San Diego County again.

It has been four years since the Witch Creek, Guejito and Rice Canyon fires stormed through San Diego County, creating havoc, jamming freeways, scorching over 200,000 acres and killing two people. Since then, responding agencies have been determined to improve planning, operations and communication to prepare for the next “big one.”

On Thursday night, the Red Cross unveiled its new state-of-the-art Disaster Operations Center near Ruffin Road in San Diego.

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“This is a milestone,” a spokesman said.

The organization provides humanitarian relief, working in conjunction with first responders and the County Office of Emergency Services. In the event of an emergency, staff here would review the disaster location, establish nearby shelters, assign volunteers and arrange for the delivery of food. All of that could be done in about an hour, according to a demonstration given by staff. Up to nine staff could operate the center with as many as 70 volunteers, with another 80 or so volunteers responding in the field.

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All this would be accomplished with the aid of large screens displaying all of the needed information in real time. The demo showed how a map of San Diego County can be overlaid with icons showing where all the trained Red Cross volunteers and supplies are located. Another overlay can show where all the possible shelters can be found. Freeways can be displayed with color coding to indicate which ones are backed up and which are flowing freely. Restaurants that have agreed to provide food can also be shown.

With the click of a cursor on a location, a drop-down menu offers further information on the subject.

If staff needs to see a more detailed look at a shelter location, the software can pull up an aerial view, provided by Google. Then, staff can trace designated areas, such as parking, over the aerial, in yellow, on the big screen. In one of the photos attached to this story, an aerial of Del Mar Fairgrounds is shown, with the yellow outline of the parking area and actual shelter location on the property.

All this information is stored in the Internet “cloud” and can be transferred to any agency or volunteer in the field who is using a laptop or smart screen device.

“Being strong as individuals isn’t enough any more,” said Jerry Francisco, the head of humanitarian efforts for the Red Cross, who is visiting from Washington, D.C. “We live in an integrated world now.”

The Disaster Operations Center is on Calle Fortunada, near the County Complex on Ruffin Road. It houses $350,000 worth of electronics and the building came with a $400,000 price tag. The design has been under way for two years and the center was built within the past three months, said Rick Hinrichs, managing director of Disaster Services.

One of the dignitaries present on Thursday night was San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, who was chairman of the San Diego/Imperial Counties Chapter Red Cross board during the 2003 Cedar Fire.

“We’ve come a long way since then,” Sanders told the group of agency representatives. “Back then, we had yellow sticky notes on sheets of paper.”

As for keeping the building itself safe, Hinrichs said it’s not on an earthquake fault.

“It sits on reinforced concrete 18" deep, which is on top of granite,” he said.

In case of a power outage, the center is equipped with a seven-day capacity generator.

“We have agreements with Verizon to bring in a mobile communications center if we need it,” Hinrichs said. “We also have a satellite system to back up the Internet, phones and radio frequencies we use. All computers are equipped with VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), so we always have phones if we have Internet.”

The disaster center would be staffed just with Red Cross personnel and volunteers, Hinrichs said. Other agency representatives are welcome to visit and they could be housed in the conference and board rooms in the building.

Hinrichs said the disaster center could also be used to connect with corporations as well as first responders and other agencies.

“The big corporations all have hundreds of people that they need to be able to get to work. We can connect with them via the Internet about food and safety issues, like which routes are open,” he said.

A small room in the building houses TV screens so staff can watch news coverage.

The disaster center was funded by Red Cross money and private donations.

“The fund raising is ongoing,” Hinrichs said.

The center’s virtual workspace will be used for multi-partner training exercises.

“It’s important for the Red Cross and other disaster response agencies to modernize response efforts to reflect today’s technology,” said Joe Craver, CEO of the San Diego/Imperial Counties Chapter of the American Red Cross. “The redesigned online resources are huge steps in that direction and towards making San Diego America's most prepared community.”


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