On 21/01/12 11:20 PM, George Bonser wrote:
This is what disaster simulations are for, to suss out these problems
before a disaster and put in systems to avoid the mess.
In the real world, while a city might keep the digital documents "in
the cloud" they would also (always) have paper copies, because in a big
emergency their computers (local mail/file servers or internet access
to the cloud) are likely to be unavailable, power or internet access is
likely to be disrupted.
Nope, no paper copies.
I personally know Lynn Brown, OES (Office of Emergency Services)
Coordinator for the City of Mountain View, CA[1]. I asked Lynn about the
status of the maps the MV EOC (Emergency Operations Center) uses. Here
is the reply:
While we rely on electronic and digital information a lot more these days, the
City of Mountain View still has printed maps on hand. I just updated the
master map in our EOC, in fact.
The computerized maps are great but we also plan for the worst case scenario
with no access to them.
I don't think paper will ever go away completely.
Lynn Brown
OES Coordinator
Mountain View Fire Department
650-903-6825
lynn(dot)brown(at)mountainview(dot)gov
If you believe that this is not the norm for EOCs across the country, I suggest
you personally ask the OES Coordinator for whatever city you think is putting
everything in the computer and no longer keeping any paper copies. You may be
surprised to learn how well they have indeed thought this thru, and that they
do maintain paper maps in the EOC, just as Mountain View does.
jc
[1] Given that Google has wired MV with free public WiFi, if there were
ever a city that would be in a good position to use and rely on Google's
cloud services for data storage, Mountain View would be it.
