Did you feel the earthquake here in Indiana the other day? Tuesday's 5.0 earthquake near Evansville prompted local TV stations to point out a study that showed that 2,000 Indianapolis residents would die in a 6.0 magnitude earthquake. Despite experiencing few earthquakes, the city's Emergency Management Agency is formulating a emergency plan.

Sadly, the Indianapolis Fire Department laid to rest Firefighter Paul Jolliff, who died last Friday during a dive training exercise in a local lake. His funeral included a "last call" radio broadcast from the IFD comm center.

When NENA says the meeting starts at 8 a.m., they mean it starts at 8:18 a.m.-- three days in a row.

Our congrats to conference chair Allison Kingsley, who delivered a baby daughter shortly after 5 a.m. today.

During the panel discussion, Lt. Col. Steven Boe asked who'd you'd call if you saw a Cruise missile fly overhead? Simple: my mother, to say good-by.

During Q&A, someone told Lt. Col. Boe that PSAPs could transfer callers directly to NORAD. He didn't sound entirely accepting of that possibility, likely because he said NORAD doesn't have the resources to field more than a handful of calls at once. It sounded like he wants PSAPs to screen out the riff-raff.

Dowd showed a tribute video that was narrated by James Earl Jones, and which honored the 27 NYPD officers who died in the line of duty. The tagline: "Always Heroes."

Dowd said that after the WTC attacks, one dispatcher showed up for work without being called. He had retired just the previous week.

NENA and music! After John Melcher was sworn in, they played the ending theme from the Carol Burnett show.

2002 Annual Conference
National Emergency Number Association (NENA)

Wednesday - Look To the Skies

That prospect was raised by a panelist during the general session on the conference's third day. Lt. Col. Steven Boe, representing the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) asked for the help of every PSAP in the country to help gather intelligence information from ordinary citizens, and funnel the information to the nearest air defense command for evaluation--and possible action.

Boe appeared on a panel moderated by NENA 1st vice-president John Melcher that focused on the future of 911. The panel consisted of (l. to r.) Paul Mason of FEMA, Lt. Arturo Perez of the U.S. Coast Guard and Lt. Col. Boe. Mason said he was attending the conference to observe, listen and gather information so he can become educated about how E911 works and what the PSAP community needs from the federal government.

Perez asked for help from NENA in receiving and forwarding wireless E911 to the appropriate Coast Guard group. He noted that a recent study found that 10 percent of the distress calls they receive are made from wireless phone, instead of via the nation's VHF maritime radio system. He said the Coast Guard want to become part of the existing E911 system, and to actively participate as agencies upgrade to Phase II location features. He noted that the Coast Guard already handles incidents using latitude and longitude, so receiving that information from an E911 call would be an excellent aid to their rescue efforts.

He noted that Coast Guard Group-San Francisco is already a secondary 911 PSAP for that region, and is "way ahead" of other such Coast Guard units around the country. Eventually, he hopes that all Coast Guard commands would have direct links to their local E911 system.

But it was Boe who gave a most ominous view of possible terrorist attacks, and an unusual request for PSAPs to become part of a nationwide network of spotters to report suspicious airway activity. He emphasized that his proposal would incur no local costs, require no procedure changes, yet would yield great benefits.

He explained there are three air defense commands corresponding to the west (Seattle), northeast (Rome, NY) and southeast (Fla.) regions of the continental U.S. The commands have directly links to airbases in the United States, and can have a fighter in the air within five minutes as part of its mission to protect the country's airspace from attack, terrorist or otherwise.

He recalled that prior to Sept. 11th NORAD looked only outward from the U.S. for threats. Now, they're tied in to the FAA and other radars to keep track of every plane over the United States. He admitted they were not entirely ready for what happened on Sept. 11, but promised now, "NORAD is ready for this type of threat." And you have the idea that he means what he says.

He also recalled a off-shore oil rig employee who dialed 911 in the weeks after Sept. 11th when he saw a "747" buzz the platform at 400 feet off the coast of New Orleans. He said it took 35 minutes for that report to reach the southeast air defense command via the Coast Guard--and that when President Bush was visiting in New Orleans. It turned out to be an Air Force refueling crew performing low-altitude hijinks, but the point was made-- PSAPs must know who and how to call to report suspicious activities in the sky.

Boe proposed that NORAD and NENA cooperate to create a standard set of questions to ask callers reporting strange aircraft or air activity. The PSAP would then notify their state-level warning center, who would in turn call the appropriate NORAD air defense command to give them the information.

He said the method would help screen out hoax and explainable incidents, require no local procedure changes, and would cost local agencies nothing. He called it a "simple" idea that would pay a big return. He said that NORAD could quickly resolve most reports of suspicious activity by checking its radar information displays. He noted that several procedural issues need to be worked out, including how to classify calls as requiring local, state or federal action. In any event, Boe said, NORAD wants to be in the immediate notification loop so they can evaluate all the reports that citizens make.

Boe's idea is definitely practical, and very much in line with other 911 trends that link up public safety communicators to many more users and agencies (the Coast Guard is NENA's newest institutional member). However, the idea that Americans will be scanning the skies with binoculars, and then dialing 911 is a little tough to envision-- particularly for anyone old enough to recall the air raid wardens of World War II. It's also interesting that the nation's air defender has asked PSAPs to help, in Boe's words, "add a sensor grid" of citizens to its enormous and sophisticated system of radars. It may be a sign of the times, but it's not a welcome sign.

Moving Tribute

John Melcher introduced Dep. Inspector Charles Dowd, who gave the audience a summary of public safety communications activities by the New York City Police Department on Sept. 11th. He said the terrorist attack caused the postponement of the National 911 Day ceremonies that were scheduled for 11 a.m. that day.

He explained that the police department's 911 center has 1,300 employees, of which about 1,153 are police calltakers. The center has 105 calltaking consoles, and he said they were all occupied within minutes of the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers. He said they deployed 30-40 administrative and training personnel to the floor immediately, and converted training consoles to allow taking live calls. They began to recall off-duty dispatchers, but so many showed up that they didn't have to finish making most of those calls. The World Trade Center towers were visible from the roof of the comm center, and Dowd showed two photos taken from that vantage point: one just after the first plane crash, and the second showing the moment just after the second crash, with the fireball clearly visible.

Dowd said they received the first 911 call about the incident at 8:38 a.m., and calltakers handled a staggering 3,000 telephone calls within the first 13 minutes. Over the first 24-hour period, they handled 55,000 calls, breaking the previous 24-hour record of 45,000 calls.

Fearing more attacks, the police department immediately deployed 50 officers to provide security for the comm center, and also commandeered a fleet of flatbed construction trucks loaded with concrete slabs. The trucks were circled up around the center to protect against. Later in the day, the city's public works department replaced those trucks with city dump trucks loaded with sand, and parked end to end around the building. The department also put the back-up center at police headquarter on alert, and staged several vehicles at the center in case an evacuation was required.

Dowd said he wanted to clarify that NYPD never lost radio communications capabilities-- several news reports said the radio system was knocked off the air. He did say that some primary radio gear was knocked out, but that back-up systems allowed continuous radio communications on all 35 channels serving the 76 police precincts. The police headquarters telephone system was knocked out after the attack. Now, they've arranged the HQ phone system to be served by two separated central offices, which are in two separate area codes and with the same extension.

The center's 911 system was operated off two different switches. However, against the prospect that the Manhattan phone service would fail (it did when the building housing it was damaged by the WTC collapse), they switched 911 service to the Brooklyn switch. He described 911 service as "rock solid" after the attacks.

Dowd said that NYPD offered stress counseling to all the 911 center employees after the incident, and employees were monitored for signs of stress. He the department established a 24-hour canteen where dispatchers could grab a drink or sandwich, and that it became a recruitment point for the counseling effort. Many of the calls dispatchers received that day were very tough to handle--both during and after the call. He said one dispatcher took a call from a woman trapped on the 104th floor, who asked

Lastly, Dowd showed photos of the presentation during April of NENA's first annual "September 11th Memorial Telecommunicators Award." He also showed photos of the wall where the comm center displayed the letters, cards and other items that were sent from comm centers and ordinary citizens all around the world. He thanked everyone for their good wishes and told the audience that they were very much appreciated.

Which Question?

Trainers Richard Behr and Dave Larton explained during an educational session what question to ask after, "Where's the smoke?" for a wildland fire. They suggest that after the first question, a calltaker might ask the location of the fire, the best access, the land owner and contact number, the caller's information, the size of the fire (compare it to a football field or something the caller knows), the speed and direction, any improvements on the property and the value, and the cause and weather conditions.

After dispatching the incident, Behr and Larton suggested determining the possible spread of the fire to other jurisdictions, and then notifying the adjacent agencies. They pointed out that several different groups may be affected by the fire, each with its own unique problems: the public, pets and livestock, police and EMS, fire crews, the initial attack commander and nearby comm centers.

Behr and Larton also discussed the role and responsibilities of an extended dispatch center and incident dispatch teams (IDT). They noted that IDT reduces the incident commander's communications workload to work on tactics and plans, and helps the comm center keep in contact with the command post.

The trainers mentioned the challenges facing fire dispatchers, including new technology from the Internet, mapping and GIS, automatic vehicle location systems, pagers and mobile data terminals. Fire dispatchers now handle new threats, including an increasing list of hazardous materials, infrastructure terrorism, and everything "from bees to botulism."

The fire service also faces new responsibilities, including more integration with EMS, HAZMAT incidents, urban search and rescue, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. On the dispatch side, they said that staffing hasn't kept pace with the increase in telephone calls, and that dispatchers must learn new procedures (ICS, rapid intervention company, personnel accountability report) and new terms.

911 As an NXX

Tony Busam of RCC Consultants Inc. presented an interesting session that explored the future of 911...as a regular phone number. Well, almost.

The technical and data demands on 911 have increased since it was first conceived, and the future holds even more such requirements. The system must accept calls from many more call originators (call centers and devices, airphones, IP telephony), transport more types of data (ACN, locations, etc.), and deliver the calls/data to many more incident handlers (Coast Guard, NORAD, etc.). To handle this level of flexibility will require a 911 system built upon advanced intelligent networking.

Busam presented diagrams of the current and proposed 911 systems, showing how voice and data would flow between the endpoints, and among the components. One element of this future network will be the reservation of 911 as a so-called "Nxx" on the nation's telephone network. That is, phone numbers with the prefix 911 would be reserved for PSAPs (for example, 911-0258) within each area code. This technique would allow the link-up of any PSAP to any PSAP, and enable an entirely new list of advanced features.

The most obvious benefit, perhaps, is that a PSAP in Iowa could contact the appropriate agency in Seattle when an emergency is reported by long distance ("I was just on the phone with my uncle in Seattle, and he suddenly dropped the phone...). It also provides a simplified method of linking third-party call centers (OnStar, ATX, Cross County) to PSAPs to route highway emergency information.

This concept would require a private, secure network, and the registration of every PSAP in the country--not insubstantial tasks. It would also require setting data standards and very close cooperation from the nation's telecommunications providers. Some telephone companies have already reserved the 911-xxxx numbers for special purposes, and they would have to reassign them. There are also a host of administrative and coordination challenges among hundreds or even thousands of agencies, associations and companies before such a network could begin transporting 911 calls. But despite these hurdles, this will be the future of 911.

Closing Banquet

A large crowd filled the Sagamore Ballroom for the closing banquet of the conference and the swearing in of the new board members.

Sharon Counterman addressed the membership as president for the last time, and thanked everyone for their hard work, especially the NENA board and headquarters staff members. She said that within the past few months, "We have witnessed the worst," but she added, "We have been inspired by heroism."

She listed the association's accomplishments during the past year, including the Department of Transportation project, the partnership with Intrado to create a PSAP registry, the wireless E911 certification and testing program in conjunction with RCC Consulting, working with the FCC on Phase II, and the many projects of the Technical and Operations Committees.

NENA honored James McCausland for his many years of service to the association by awarding him a Lifetime Achievement Award. Barb Thornburg received the annual William E. Stanton Award and seemed quite surprised at the honor.

Counterman then introduced the incoming board members, who were then sworn in. New NENA president John Melcher began his speech on-stage, but quickly moved into the audience and spoke among the dining tables in the ballroom.

He said that the story of NENA is one of where it's been and where it's going. He likened the conference itself to NENA's' history: the welcome reception focused on the past, and there were educational sessions on the present and future. "It's not so much about the vision," Melcher said, "as it is about the people." He said it's not just standards, "but it's about action."

He told the crowd that public safety communications, NENA and 911 no longer stand alone, but have become a global endeavor. He said, ""We need to add to the motto, 'One Nation, One Number.' The motto is now, 'Every call, from every device, from every citizen, every where." He explained that 911 must be developed to handle emerging and future technologies that will require more data to be moved to more PSAPs. He said to do that, NENA must, "build the right coalitions" and educate the masses. But he added that NENA must also learn to educate the politicians.

After urging NENA members to work hard on 911 projects, he also encouraged them not to forget their families, and to spend time building those relationships.

He assured the members they were up to the task of improving 911. "I can't pump you up more than you already are. I can't teach you more than you already know." He finished dramatically with, "God bless your efforts. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America."

The dinner finished up with music by Phil Dirt and the Dozers.

Check our photo album.