The Logbook

Random Hacks of Kindness Philly

2011-06-09T10:19:00.000-05:00

Full speed ahead as always. Wanted to make a special post to talk about a pretty exciting event I was able to take part in this past weekend. It was called Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK), a project that started in 2009 to help build open source solutions to a variety of community problems to include disaster risk management and climate change. Every year, cities across the world host events where subject matter experts and programmers get together to help develop tools to solve hundreds of problems. I was fortunate enough to participate in this years event in Philadelphia at Drexel University.

Amos Scott and I made the trip to Philadelphia Saturday morning with no intention of producing any ideas for projects, simply to observe and learn something from the participants. During the breakout sessions to determine groups and projects, we noticed that there was a lack of ideas in the disaster management field. I provided an idea for a online tool for a person to enter their address into a app which would then poll a variety of open datasets and display the variety of hazards one may live near. Essentially they would see a map of all the historical tornadoes, hurricane tracks, nuclear plants, etc around the location they decided to search. Programmer Adam Hinz joined our group and would be the sole programmer on the team.

Obviously the first thing our team needed to do was come up with ideas and a rough idea on how the app would work. I was lucky to have come up with a decent project on the whim, especially since Amos and I didn't come with anything on our mind to the event. Adam decided to write the program with the programming language Ruby, a language he was very proficient with. We then had to find datasets.

Our team encountered numerous issues with the data we wanted to utilize. One of the first problems we encountered was inaccurate data. For example, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had a dataset of Nuclear Reactors with the incorrect coordinates. A dataset we couldn't use. Second, we needed to know how to interpret the data and convert it into a format that our program could understand. We had text files, shape files, KML files, and numerous other formats that we had to convert and parse. That took the most time of the weekend, and if we had just had simplified data that we didn't have to convert, we would have gotten much farther along.

One problem with the data that didn't really have anything to do with the actual format was how we would determine which sets would be useful and which would not. For example, how would we measure an area that was prone to major snowfall? Would we just provide pinpoints of historical major snow events? Would we just measure total amount of snow over the past xx years? Would we provide a risk map determined by NWS or some other government agency? We had to determine if we were going to just provide raw historical data to let the citizen decide the risk, or actually provide risk maps developed by agencies on the applicable hazard. Each had their advantages and disadvantages.

Adam programmed away and by the Sunday morning, we had a pretty decent looking mockup of our app. We rushed to complete a few sample modules on our program for Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Handlers of Hazardous Materials, Nuclear Facilities, Flood Plains, and Earthquakes. Each had to be developed differently and took a lot longer than I thought. Adam was able to complete the program by the judging period in which event facilitators looked at the complete projects by the six teams and chose the winners. I did a short briefing for them to give them a background on the project and our purpose.

Each team presented their project to the 50 or so people that attended the event. Judges made their decisions and surprisingly enough, our project "Disaster Mapper" was a winner. Not bad for a team in which two of the members didn't even plan on participating, and a team with only one programmer! We won a gift package of Amazon Gift Cards, cell phone solar chargers, Make Magazine subscriptions, and four bottles of Club-Mate (apparently the European Hacker beverage of choice).

The idea of RHoK is a brilliant one. Gather the interest of subject matter experts and programmers by putting them in one place with some problems to solve. We had great food throughout the entire event and the facility was great. Additionally, I believe our team (as well as the others) has the momentum to continue their projects and make them into viable products for the community. I've already demo'd Disaster Mapper to our Preparedness folks at DEMA and they love it. As our team continues to build out the features and decide how we will roll out the project, we will likely make the app a part of PrepareDE.org. Hopefully other emergency management agencies will follow suit. There are plenty of other features that I have in mind that I really would like to see implemented.

Interested in trying out Disaster Mapper? Type a Philadelphia address in to www.disastermapper.com. There are still a couple bugs, but I'm sure Adam is working on them!

Regards

Help Wanted

2011-04-18T17:06:00.000-05:00

Occasionally, something inside me remembers I have a blog, and that I haven't posted to it in a very long time. I'm not sure who reads this thing anymore, though I'm sure if one searches a variety of different keywords in Google, one of the posts will come up. Today was one of those days and I have the urge to give an update on where I stand in the world.

The last time I posted, I gave a bit of a review of my four years at college. I sat there in a chair outside of Station 9 watching the 2010 school year wind down and students go back home for the summer...or go back home for good. It was a time of reflection as well as a time to think about the potential options for the next stage in my life.

At that point I may have had a couple of job applications in to a variety of agencies, and I certainly know I placed many applications in after that summer. These ranged from lengthy processes in fire or law enforcement agencies around the Mid-Atlantic region, to jobs in emergency management agencies, to jobs in the private sector. All jobs that I wanted to start, put in time for the long haul, and have a career I could look back on. Unfortunately, all have come back unsuccessful.

Thankfully, they have not been because I am unqualified for the position of question. I have continued to get e-mails to the effect: "Due to loss of funding, we are currently unable to fill the position you applied for." With the current state of the economy, it is extremely difficult for government agencies to maintain staffing, especially within public safety departments. They simply can't justify positions that citizens don't want to pay for.

It's across the board. Fire departments are closing stations, police departments are cutting officers from the streets, emergency management organizations are simply closing. It has come to the point that citizens just don't care. Just as many feel with insurance, they feel they aren't at risk to justify the insurance of having a fully funded and staffed public safety department. "A fire truck will show up eventually, and the police officer will get here at some point...plus I've never had to call 911 before, why would that change in the future?"

As I stated in my last blog post, I questioned if I would have went to a different university if I had known I would be interested in the pubic safety field. Now I question if I would have went in to this field. It seems as if public safety is on its way out, even as major catastrophes in countries like Japan pan out and show how resource strapped any nation can be. Even the private sector jobs in the public safety sector are dwindling. Government agencies are contracting less consultants, and industry is shutting down fire brigades and safety departments. Where costs can be cut, costs are cut.

As I've done all my life, I try to incorporate long term planning in to all of my decisions. My career is certainly one of them. In a society where people spend about 4-5 years at a job and go somewhere new, I respect the values of a long term career at an agency. I've found in the people that I've worked with, that the ones with the most knowledge and respect towards their career are the ones that have worked at one place for 20-30 years and retired. I'd like to see myself in the same position one day. It is a trait that is difficult to convey during job interviews, especially as many of the people that interview me have only been there a few years after leaving their previous place of employment. Even at DEMA, I'm a veteran. I can compare the organizational chart from 2006 when I was hired out of high school with the chart from today. It's impressive to walk in the building and not know who many of the people that work there are.

There are reasons that I haven't gone in to high stress mode when it comes to my career. Thankfully, current healthcare legislation allows for me to remain on my parents insurance until I'm 26. That said, I'd like to hope that I'd have my own career (with benefits) by the time I'm 26. Let us hope our economy has at least gotten itself together to a certain degree by that point.

Second, my current employer and supervisor have made extensive attempts to keep me as employed as long as possible on my current contract. My boss, Bob George, has been a real blessing to work with over the past four years, and I'd hope that even if I were to get a job somewhere else, I could continue to work part time for the program that he has built from the ground over the past decade. Citizen preparedness has been a great initiative to work on in Delaware and it feels great to actually go out and "touch citizens" to explain the importance of preparing yourself for disaster. Certainly with the resource strapped agencies we deal with today, it's important for everyone to take a bit of responsibility for themselves.

So I'm still covered by insurance and still getting a paycheck. Things aren't so bad. Plus I still feel like the work I do is actually making a difference out there in the community, and that certainly is one of the better feelings out there. One aspect that I continue to think about is where are the rest of my college peers currently?

I look at them on Facebook and have found that many have decided to go on to Grad School or they're working at servers in a local restaurant in their hometowns. You went to school for four years and you work as a waiter at Ruby Tuesday's? It's a shame that many of these bright individuals can't find a job that they can't excel in. Grad School was certainly a logical decision for many, as they will obtain their Master's while the economy settles and hopefully recovers.

My job interviews continue and I'll remain optimistic. If anyone out there knows of something that I should be looking into or knows of a position (with benefits) that I should apply for, let me know. I'll certainly be grateful!

Regards

I'm still here.

2010-05-29T18:31:00.000-05:00

I'm still here. A very early morning four Augusts ago, my mother, grandfather, and I traveled to the City of Newark with a truckload of Rubbermaid bins, microwaveable food, ridiculous colorful folding chairs, and kinds of electronic equipment. I was going to be moving into a dilapidated dorm (which has now been completely renovated) on the East side of the University of Delaware with no air conditioning, bare cement walls, and cold ceramic tiles. In this room, I'd live with another guy that I had never met, and had really no interest in ever meeting. Originally, I thought I had an idea of how the next four years of my life would end up, and I made every attempt possible towards the beginning to create a detailed plan of how I would stick to my life goals. I found that every bit of planning I did to try and create a life course went right out the window every minute that went by over the next four years. I learned in college that for the most part, long term planning doesn't always work out the way it's supposed to.

I don't know if I was just pissed off that morning because it was early or if I really was angry about being there at the University of Delaware. Looking back, I don't really know how I could have been that angry about the University at that point, maybe with the exception being that they placed me in a room with someone I didn't know, especially when I wanted to really move in with a high school friend of mine who was also attending the University. As I would find out, every year of the three years I lived in University housing in Newark, I ultimately ended up having dealings with UD Housing in either trying to get my roommate out of my room or me trying to move to another room. I learned in college that people are inconsiderate, will press their snooze button six times when you don't have to get up for class, throw all of their crap around the room, and that I had a hard time dealing with it.

Another defining moment of that first day was the fact that I had to leave my parents and really take care of myself for the first time in my life. I didn't really know how that one was going to work out. I had no idea how to cook anything for myself, how to do laundry efficiently, or clean on a daily basis. And I found that for myself within a few days of being there. The University added items to their "how can I piss Justin off list" by closing the dining halls on Memorial Day...which took place only a few days after I had arrived there. Because of that I couldn't use the meal plan or the dining hall that was near my dorm. I remember instead, I went to a place called Lettuce Feed You up off of Main Street, since I was looking for a sandwich or something. If you can't tell by the title, Lettuce Feed You sells salads, not really anything else. For some reason I was so angry, I just got some salad or something there (I hate salad) ate half of it, and threw the rest away. I learned in college that I probably shouldn't make irrational decisions, and go to a place that sells salad looking for sandwiches and then be angry about it.

And Mom was upset that I was leaving as well. She cried when she dropped me off that first day and she cried today at Graduation. I always like to tell the story on how ironic it was that she was so upset that I was leaving, yet I ended up coming home that next weekend. But, I understand it. Without my parents, I certainly wouldn't have went to college. I more than likely would have joined the military or done something else. Even to this day, I'm still not sure UD was right for me, or that the decisions I made here were right, but I do know that the direction my parents led me in, and the support they were able to provide were certainly better than anything I could have come up with myself. I learned in college that your family is absolutely critical to your success in the future.

And just like that first weekend that I went home to the place I was familiar with, I went home often. UD was convenient, that it allowed for me to get from Newark to Lewes within about an hour and a half. It got to the extent freshman year that I went home every single weekend. I wanted to get back to all of my friends from high school and the people I was familiar with. My negative attitude that freshman year kept me tied to the same people I had been tied to for the four years earlier. And when they went off and did different things, moved different places, and continued their lives, I was stuck in an era that no longer existed. I learned in college that you shouldn't judge every single person around you as someone you don't want to meet, especially when they make a considerable attempt to meet you.

But there was hope. I remember that first day in Newark, a friend from high school and a adjunct professor who I had known well from my professional career went to lunch at a restaurant on Elkton Rd. We sat there and talked about technology and a variety of other subjects, in a leisurely fashion over lunch. I thought to myself, this is really what college can be like. I'm going to be able to work on fun technical projects as an electrical engineer, and have intelligent conversations about things that interest me with people that have the same interests as me. I was wrong. The engineering candidates that I met that first year couldn't tell you what a capacitor was from a peanut and didn't have nearly any hands on experience with electronic equipment. However, they were very smart with math and science leading to why they graduated today from the College of Engineering. I learned in college that engineering doesn't have much to do with anything except math and science. And that it wasn't for me.

Crazy enough, I thought I could do it that first semester. I studied hard, worked my ass off, and really made an attempt to be an engineer. What made it tough was the fact that none of the classes that I found myself in had anything to do with engineering and I was doing absolutely horrible in them. And then add the fact that I had all of the additional useless activities that the UD Residence Life program wanted me to participate in (which thankfully don't exist anymore due to a lawsuit) I had just about enough of it. I felt like I was learning absolutely nothing, and that I was making no progress towards an engineering degree. I knew that I had to switch my major. I learned in college that the University has no incentive in helping you switch from one major to the other, and that it's probably a less painful to light yourself on fire than switch majors.

I figured since I liked what had done in my career at DEMA the summer prior to college, I would look into the emergency management profession. The University of Delaware had a program in the emergency management field through their Disaster Research Center that seemed to fit my interests. After hours and hours of aggravation working with the Academic Advisement Office, Dean's Office of both engineering and arts and sciences, the Registrar, and my advisors, I finally was able to switch to a new major. Looking back, I rather would have had a more in depth emergency management program involved in the degree, but I feel that I've learned most of what I know in this field through self-study and my employment over the past four years. I learned in college that experience is sometimes much more valuable than the education that's provided at a university.

It really started looking up. During spring semester of my freshman year, I was taking three political science courses which I really enjoyed, and found much more interesting than anything I took while in engineering. Two of the courses were in the 300 level (Junior), and I still found them much easier than the intro level math courses I was taking. There's still a D- in College Pre-calculus (a class which I never needed) on my transcript which completely screws up my GPA. I started really getting the hang of college and the process required to study for exams. Over the next four years, I learned what classes I actually needed to attend, and what ones were a waste of time. In some classes, buying the books were a complete waste of money, and I believe I saved quite a bit of money by refraining to purchase books in many cases. I learned in college to not waste time doing things that really don't have to be done, and not to waste money buying things that don't have to be bought.

I finished my first year of college with a new vision of where I was going. I felt like I was on the right track to a career in emergency management and that I probably would be able to keep up with the amount of school work required in the upcoming years. Sophomore year I would move into some of the brand new dorms on the north part of Newark with someone I knew. I really felt like I had a good handle on what was going on around me and I made the best attempt to have a positive outlook for the upcoming year. Unfortunately, that year held so much promise that I never was able to take advantage of. Sophomore year really brought out some hidden problems in my personal life that I continued to ignore up until that point. I learned valuable lessons about trust, friendship, and maturity. It's obvious when I observe the way I acted in the past, that I never really matured when I thought I did. I acted like a moron, in the way I treated people and the way I portrayed myself. I don't know if I wanted attention or if I was just completely clueless. I really found that those around me hadn't matured either. I questioned their morals and I questioned mine. I don't know if I have ever been as lost in my life. I learned in that trust, friendship, and maturity are something to cherish, and if lost may never be regained fully again.

I realized that I had made no effort to meet people, understand people, or even introduce myself. If there is one thing that a potential college student reads in this blog, this is by far the most important part. It is absolutely critical that you find something to do with your spare time while at college. This allows for you to relax and find new hobbies or interests, and also helps to act as an interface to meet new people. Whether it be going out to house parties every weekend, joining clubs, joining fraternities or sororities, or playing a sport, you need to find something to do with your extra time. Even as ridiculous as one might find the usefulness of drunken house parties to ones life, it's much better than sitting in your dorm room for hours on end playing guitar by yourself. Just do whatever you can to meet people and learn about them. You'll probably meet a lot of really good friends along the way. I learned in college that no matter how well you can play the blues on guitar, if you don't have someone else playing with you, you're just wasting your time.

Though I didn't react fast enough to the fact that I was wasting my free time in college, I did find something to spend a significant amount of time meeting people and helping the community at the same time. Months after I had joined the Lewes Fire Department down at home, I joined the Christiana Fire Company in New Castle County during my Junior year to both learn more about incident management and meet people who were interested in helping the community during an emergency. I started riding during the day at Station 3, then spending the night a lot at Station 3, and eventually ended up moving in there completely during the first half of my Senior year. The friends from high schooI that I had moved in with at the Christiana Towers during my Junior year never understood how I could spend so much time at a firehouse. I really feel like the fire department helped me keep my sanity the last two years I was at the University and I respect the people I've met at both Christiana and Aetna for keeping me involved and interested in the fire service.

After four years, I realized Newark was changing around me. Through sophomore year into the time I graduated, I realized that the place I came to on my first day was evolving every second. Businesses were changing, new buildings were being built, others being torn down. Even the restaurant on Elkton Rd. that we went to that first day freshman year was torn down and replaced with stores and apartments. I really got to know Newark well and even as it changed I liked it. It's strange looking back at pictures from 2006 and looking at the landscape of a town that is completely different today. I learned in college that the environment around you may evolve faster than you evolve yourself.

And I'm not sure how much I evolved. They say in college, that you're brainwashed and made to think differently about your morals and political views by the college administration. I'd have to say, the students here at the University have changed my perspective on more things than the actual administration has. Really just seeing how these people operate in society has really shown me what goes on in real life, and what to expect in the real world. I never once had a professor who could change my opinion, but in many cases provided an extremely unique perspective on something. Though some professors didn't do a good job, I had a few that impressed me and will be getting good reviews from me on "ratemyprofessors.com". Weird that I waited four years to fill out reviews on that website? I learned in college that it's absolutely imperative to look at every possible outcome and variable to a situation or you might not really know the truth about it.

I failed at that in many cases. I never looked at the outcomes of the many decisions I made in college and how they would effect me and my long term plans. I made irrational decisions, some of which worked out, most of which didn't. And over the past four years I've had a lot of time to think about those decisions and what I would have done differently. Even my decision on major or what college I should have went to could be disputed. Should I just have went to DelTech for two years and got an associates for free with the STEM program? Should I have applied to transfer to a different school when I decided to get out of engineering? Should I have planned my major out better when I applied in high school? Should I have just joined the military and gotten an ROTC scholarship? I learned in college that hindsight is always 20/20.

When I arrived at the Russell B dorm on that first day, I severely miscalculated the outcome to having a negative attitude about the next four years. That negative attitude resulted in a catastrophic failure to enjoy any sense of a professional and social life here at the University. Just that simple fact that I was pissed off that morning created a chain reaction which drastically destroyed any potential recovery of my college experience. This has been a tough four years, with work, with friends, with family, and with school. The reason it's been tough has been due to the causal relationship between that first day and the next four years. I learned in college that one bad mistake can haunt you forever.

Regardless, I'm still here. Still here in Newark as 4,000 of my graduated peers have went home with memories and experiences that they will never be able to recreate. Off to start their lives, probably settle down, and move on. I've got a piece of paper that says I attended college. The key lesson I learned in college, is that the defining moment of any chapter in life is the start of it. For this next chapter, I'm going to make the best of it and not be pessimistic on what could potentially be the best chapter of my life.

Rejuvenating Interest

2009-08-14T12:40:00.000-05:00

The past two weeks I've spent in Bethany Beach at the National Guard's 193rd Regional Training Institute in the Emergency Operations Communications Course. The course went over a variety of things from operation of a variety of radios, interoperability gateways, and the theory behind radio communications. This past Thursday we included a trip to the Smyrna Readiness Center which houses the Joint C4 Coordination Center as well as DEMA, which I'm all too familiar with. I was the only civilian in the course which was pretty neat as I got to learn a lot from the Army and Air Force personnel who were my classmates. The 193rd RTI is the US military's school for interoperability and I was lucky to get a spot in the class.
During the course, I got to play with a lot of radios that most civilians have never heard of including the following:
Harris AN/PRC-150 HF ALE Radio

Harris AN/PRC-117F VHF/UHF Radio

Thales AN/PRC-148 VHF/UHF Radio

ITT SINGCARS VHF Radio

Harris RF-350 HF ALE Radio

Motorola Micom-2E HF ALE Radio

Motorola Micom-3R HF ALE Radio

Motorola XTL-5000 and XTS-5000 Radios

In addition to learning the operation of each of these radios, we were given instruction on patching the various systems together using the Raytheon ACU-1000 and the various components available including the Wide Area Interoperability System (WAIS) and NXU radio extensions. It was great getting some hands on time with the ACU software and programming since we rarely use it within the state. We also got some time to learn about the Joint Incident Site Communications Capability (JISCC) packages that both the Army and Air National Guards are able to deploy during a disaster which includes a satilite mobile data terminal, VOIP phones, laptops, LMR's, repeater, an ACU-1000 with various public safety radios, HF radio, and video teleconference equipment all in one trailer. It is quite an impressive setup. The 193rd has a specific course just for the JISCC which I plan to take next summer.
Working with some of these guys on the military side, I really got to see some of the major issues we are going to run into during a disaster. First, I don't think the National Guard realizes how crucial these JISCC packages, and the other assorted commo equipment will be during an incident. These packages rely on little infrastructure compared to civilian systems and are versatile to where they can be placed.

I also really was able to learn a lot about the requirements that the Guard needs at an incident site when it comes to a detailed plan about where communications links need to be placed. They could really care less about how you want them to do it, they just need to know where the links need to be made and they will do it. I gave them some info about how they can fit in to the incident command structure and that their go-to person would be the COML of the incident. Also it helped when I provided them copies of the ICS-205 communications plan, which they were very unfamiliar with. The military has their own forms and format as we all know, but it helps when they become familiar with the civilian side.

We took part of a couple of commo exercises during the two weeks. One where we set up an HF base station at our location, programmed the frequencies and callsigns for ALE, and then required five manpack HF kits to deploy around the installation while they programmed their radios via the keypad. Trust me, it's not easy trying to program one of those things from the keypad, it's much easier just hooking it up to a computer and using the software.

The class helped to rejuvenate my interest in RF. Unfortunately my job at Delaware State Police takes me away from the RF side of things that I'm familiar with and I don't get to play commo stuff that much. This class refreshed my memory and gave me a few "I remember that!" experiences as we were going through some of the material. I can say it gave me an insight to how military commo works and how I'm going to have to interface with them during a disaster.

This is all starting to get really interesting.

2009-07-09T01:44:00.000-05:00

First as I do in every blog post, let me apologize for the length of time since the last post...which in this case was multiple months ago. I'll be quite honest, blogging isn't really all that interesting anymore. I started "The Logbook" to provide more timely updates to my life that I was not able to do by updating my website. Unfortunately with the blog, I never really gained any dialog with anyone and it was never very interactive. Additionally I always had to put aside a lot of time to make a post that I really liked and that gave a good update to what I was doing.

I'm going to continue maintaining the blog with posts every month, but I suggest that you add me as a friend on Facebook if you are looking for even more up to date information. It's more interactive and I keep it more up to date. If I wouldn't know you and you are just a reader of the blog, just mention who you are and that you were a subscriber to my blog when you add me.

http://www.facebook.com/justinkates

And no, I don't use Twitter except to track when a disaster happens within Delaware which actually came quite in handy a week or so ago when we experienced a small earthquake in New Castle County. I found out about it an hour before the rest of DEMA did just using the tracking features on Twitter.

So what has happened since the last post? Some pretty big news was the fact that I finished my Junior year of college, which is fairly hard to believe. I remember just yesterday when it was my junior year of high school. This was also the first semester I graduated on Dean's List which I was pretty surprised with. This semester was really filled with a lot of disaster based sciences (Meteorology, Natural Hazards, Earthquakes & Volcanoes, etc) and was much different than previous semesters. I'm on track to take 12 credits next fall, and 12 credits in spring to graduate. I'm extremely excited to get out of college, yet also not thrilled with the fact that the job market has hit rock bottom. I have a few things in mind to hold me over if things don't work out.

Speaking of jobs, I have changed positions since the last post. I now work for Delaware State Police in a place called the Delaware Information Analysis Center. I can't really speak about what they do because it is a sensitive operation, but you can get the idea that it is a fusion center where intelligence information flows in and back out to various agencies after it has been vetted and confirmed. Since I have come from the response side of emergency services, it is interesting to see this perspective of trying to "find" the disaster before it happens and get the information out to the right people. Once again, similar to DEMA I'm a consultant working on special projects. Currently I'm working on a public alerting system which will allow for information received by the DIAC to be broadcast to various levels of users based on their security level.

I've been involved in a variety of activities over the past few months including working with the Incident Management Team for the Dover International Speedway NASCAR races, participating in various fire school training during pretty much every weekend this year, and of course the constant flow of meetings I need to go to. As the motto says, "Securing the Homeland, One Meeting at a Time".

Today I made a response with the Lewes Fire Department to a working structure fire near Midway. I was officer on Engine 82-2. I try as much as possible not to be in the officer seat but with a volunteer service at a rural station, sometimes it's difficult to get more people with experience on the truck. As with every incident it got me thinking about the various things that make the fire service in Delaware interesting.

First would be the fact that Rehoboth's fire department beat us on scene from their Station 2...which is geographically closer to where the fire was from any of Lewes's stations. District lines sure are interesting. Kudos to Station 86 for making a quick response.

Another thing was staffing. I know on Engine 82-2 we had two cadet members in the back. Cadet members are volunteers that are under the age of 16 and are unable to attend Delaware State Fire School due to their age. Rescue 82 had three cadet members in the back. I believe there were cadet members from Station 1 on scene as well. Even with the lack of training these guys have, they make a significant difference on the fire scene helping out. They are by far some of the most active members in the fire department, and it's great to see a continuation of a younger generation in the volunteer fire service as volunteerism is down across the nation. Lewes is doing an excellent job on bringing junior members in and keeping them active.

One of the issues I had during this fire was literally trying to find the place. I had a familiarization as to the development that the fire was located in but none of the streets. Our fire department mapbook didn't have a page for this development, nor was the street name listed in the glossary. Thankfully we keep an ADC mapbook for Sussex County in the engine which allowed me to get a location of the street, but without street numbers. When we got to the street we had the choice to make a left or right. Of course with the luck of both the Driver and Officer we made the wrong turn ultimately requiring us to make another loop around the block. We didn't lose more than a minute of time but it definitely opened my eyes up for the need of up to date maps in the mapbook and how spoiled we are at Christiana with computer aided dispatch and computer mapping in all the trucks. As always I need to keep up with the new developments and make sure I'm familiar with the district.

I do believe after that incident I'm going to go through the map book and see if there are any developments that we haven't added yet. I believe I can use my GPS to make a waypoint map drawing out the streets to make new map pages. Then I just need to either look for hydrants or get the info from the water company to add them to the page. It shouldn't take too long but it will definitely allow for a more up to date mapbook. Just another thing for me to do.

I'm waiting on Google to transition the Google Page Creator system over to Google Sites. They have said it's going to happen for the past year now. When it happens I have some updates to do to the website and more additions. Keep an eye out for pictures and other things in the future.

A New FEMA Director

2009-03-04T18:28:00.005-05:00

First I should note that Dunkin Donuts coffee has saved the day again. Delicious and it woke me up.

President Obama has nominated Craig Fugate of the Florida Division of Emergency Management to be the new FEMA Administrator. Many in the homeland security/emergency management field have been questioning when Obama would come out with a decision and finally we see his choice. Fugate has a long experience in the emergency services field starting in the fire service like many emergency managers. Director Fugate has served as the State Coordinating Officer in 23 Declared State Emergencies, 11 of which were Presidential Declared Disasters. Pretty impressive if you ask me.

My personal opinion is that Obama couldn't have picked a better person. Anyone should know that Florida has an extremely large number of disasters and has gathered a large amount of knowledge when it comes to dealing with them. Florida is the 4th most populated state in the US which helps to cause even more challenges! I wouldn't mind spending a summer down in Florida working in the emergency management field just to actually get some experience seeing some real incidents. Many of you know that Delaware has been spared far too many times...

I have a similar viewpoint on many issues with Director Fugate. Below is a quote from the Associated Press article on Fugates nomination:

After Hurricane Katrina, Fugate said there was too much focus on blaming the federal government for the botched response. He said in a 2006 interview with The Associated Press that it was the state's responsibility to prepare for such disasters, and the state should only turn to the federal government for help when the disaster is larger than the state can handle on its own.

Agreed.

His experience at the State level will help him bridge the gap when it comes to the State/Federal relationship during emergency management response, as well as help him create a model plan for states across the US to follow in order to better prepare themselves and their response plans. I can say that I feel pretty good about the future of emergency management under his supervision.

He also has a personal website like me. Check it out:

http://www.disastersrus.org/

By the way, Governor Charlie Christ has nominated me as Craig's replacement in Florida. Just kidding, I'll keep that one in my dreams!

Also Obama nominated a new FEMA Chief of Staff. Look where he got his Masters Degree from!

Jason R. McNamara
Mr. McNamara serves as an Associate Vice President and Director of Emergency Management/Homeland Security in Dewberry’s Emergency Management, Disaster and Mitigation Services Group with a focus in emergency management and homeland security preparedness, planning, interagency and intergovernmental relations, and congressional relations on the local, state, and federal governmental levels. Mr. McNamara holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Psychology from the Johns Hopkins University, and a Master of Arts in Urban Affairs and Public Policy from the University of Delaware.

Regards

Delaware Online News Video: Fire hits Ogletown house

2009-02-24T21:24:00.001-05:00

I was there this morning for this alarm. More pictures available:

http://flickr.com/photos/disasterphotog/3307031601/ (scroll through)
http://flickr.com/photos/afirefighterscamara/sets/72157614389868002/

Surprise

2009-02-21T17:24:00.000-05:00

Well where do I start? Haven't posted to this blog in a while have I?

I've been doing a major shift in just about everything in my life over the past few months, and a lot that you see on this blog and website probably doesn't describe my daily activities any longer.

First of all, I'm about to adjust my position at DEMA. My contract to support the design and purchase of interoperable radio kits is coming to a close. That's right, the equipment that I've been waiting for since 2006 is finally being delivered to DEMA and will be distributed across the State in the next few weeks. I thought the day would never come but the processes required have been completed and the project is nearing completion. Along with the delivery of the radio equipment, we will start transferring the responsibility of coordination between volunteer communications groups back to the groups themselves.

Because of this change, I'll continue as a part time employee with the Citizen Corps program at DEMA maintaining their website and the development of media for citizen preparedness. Though I have an interest in citizen preparedness, I still enjoy the response and planning side of emergency management and will probably try and find some other opportunity to fill that gap. Anyone with opportunities is welcome to get in contact with me!

Now that this project is coming to a close, my activity in amateur radio will be coming to a close. I expect that I'll stay active with the WD3EMA (DEMA) and W3DSP (DSP) amateur radio stations in a support role as well as continue to support the Mobile Communications Unit.

The fire service has taken up most of my time over the past few months. I spend any possible time at Christiana Fire Station 3 while I'm up north taking advantage of the many opportunities to learn skills in this trade. While I'm down at home in Sussex County I respond to every call possible for Lewes and Rehoboth's fire departments. I can say that I've learned quite a bit since I started this past summer and will continue my training in the spring as fire school opens back up.

Spring semester at UD has started. I'm taking two online courses, as well as two Geology courses, and a Geography course. I'm trying to get these stupid breadth requirements completed for my major. I only have one more year of opportunities to get all of the classes I need in. Last semesters grades were pretty good so I'm looking forward to another successful semester.

Tonight, is Christiana Fire Company's annual banquet. I'm not going because I hate fire company events, and because everyone will be at the banquet, we have coverup crews from Odessa, Elsmere, and Clayton covering stations 3, 6, and 12. Of course that means I can't ride any fire trucks tonight. I've been hanging out at UD all day and realized that I have spent about no time here this school year. Because I've been out at the firehouse all of the time, I haven't been around the campus, and really was surprised to see how much has changed around here.

I need to figure how this blog will operate in the future. I also need to do some major updates on the website! I'll probably try to work on all of that as soon as possible.

Midtown Misfits Fire Rescue 2008

2009-01-04T17:17:00.001-05:00

Here is a video that we just made for Christiana Station 3, my fire local while at school.

Lewes Fire-Rescue Boat

2009-01-04T10:53:00.001-05:00

Out on new Lewes Fire-Rescue boat for training

2008-12-04T18:48:00.001-05:00

You can see me peering into the Jeep in this video!

The Busiest Time In My Life

2008-10-24T22:48:00.005-05:00

I've honestly gotten myself into so many things that I just don't have the time to blog. Right now, I should be doing something but since I had such a busy week I figured I would just relax and unwind by writing a blog.

August was the last time I blogged so lets start there. I didn't really do much in August other than ride fire trucks for Lewes Fire Department and work as much as I really could for DEMA before summer was over.

September was when things started getting extremely busy. Of course I started school. I'm living in Christiana Towers this year, home of an 800MHz repeater site, as well as the W3UD APRS node. It's most certainly the tallest structure in Newark which is more than likely the reason the State decided to use this as a site for their system.

It's set up in an apartment style with a kitchenette, bathroom, and living/dining room, and two bedrooms. I'm living with a random roommate this year which compared to other years has been great. The other two roommates in the other room are friends from down in Sussex County. This has been the best room arrangement that I've had since I've been at the University of Delaware. I'll take a picture of the room and post it up here on the blog at a later date. Because I've been so busy (and because I haven't been around much) I haven't been able to clean.

Classes have been sort of ridiculous. Because I've taken all of my mandatory classes freshman and sophomore years, I'm now taking all of the stupid classes to fill up my breadth requirements. This is by far one of the most pointless things I've experienced at the University of Delaware...the requirement to take classes about subjects I'm not interested in, that aren't related to my major, and that are quite honestly a huge waste of time. A great example is the History of Rock and Roll. Sound like Basketweaving 101? Well, it is. I decided to pick this class since I'm very knowledgeable in music history, and since it counts as one of my required breadth requirements. My junior and senior years will be filled with classes like this unfortunately.

The only class that I'm taking this semester that even relates to emergency management is Disaster and Politics 456. The class is just like every other emergency management class I've ever taken, all a bunch of information I already know. We go over things like the history of FEMA, and the differences between mitigation and preparedness. I'm sorry but after working in this field for even the little amount of time that I've been involved, I already know things like that. It doesn't help that I'm required to write a 2-3 page paper in this class every week on material that I already know. I guess that I'm supposed to make sure that the professor knows what I'm talking about.

So I'm taking a bunch of classes that I'm not really interested in during the day, and at night I spend my time at the firehouse. I was accepted into Christiana Fire Company and I ride out of Station 3 on Salem Church Road. I must say that this has been a great experience. Lewes was a lot of fun but I didn't really get to learn much down there due to the lack of fire calls. Surprisingly enough, Lewes is one of the busiest departments downstate. New Castle County is completely different, we are constantly running to accidents or fires. The more calls I go on, the more I learn.

Not only have the real calls been learning experiences but they have been very interested in training at Christiana. For example one of the days some of the members taught me how to hit hydrants, run the hydraulic rescue tools, and throw ladders. It seems at this company that people are just plain interested in bettering their skills and making sure everyone knows what they are doing. I haven't been part of a volunteer organization that has been this interested in getting me involved.

The training experiences have been great but the atmosphere is also very enjoyable. I've noticed in New Castle that people actually hang out at the firehouse, rather than respond when we have an alarm. The trucks get out a lot faster this way. We watch TV together, eat together, and hang out. The past few weeks I've actually been spending the night at the firehouse during the weekdays, something I never did at Lewes. We tend to get a few accident calls early in the morning before I go to my first class at UD. What an action packed way to wake up!

Also during September I participated in a press conference with one of the programs I work for, Delaware Citizen Corps. The press conference was put on to kick off the start of a new project to get our preparedness video out to the schools through the Delaware State Police school resource officers. My participation in this project was that I helped put the video online for schools, students, and parents to view. The conference attracted a lot of high level officials including Secretary of Safety and Homeland Security David Mitchell, Secretary of Education Valerie Woodruff.

My contract for DEMA was also renewed in September which allows me to finish a few of the projects that have been going on over the past few years. One of the major projects that thankfully should be completed within the next two months is the ACU-T interoperability project. Finally we've awarded a bid to a vendor and are waiting for delivery of equipment. I will say that I'm completely against the bidding process as we did not save any money using it, it did not make the market for those items any more fair, but instead took an extremely long amount of time to complete and included far too many different agencies and organizations to coordinate. Because of this, I believe many of those who were supposed to be supported by the equipment in this project became skeptical of what we really were trying to do. I guess this is a first hand lesson on the red tape involved with government. Hopefully as I progress up the ladder, I'll be able to help change some of these processes in order to speed up government. I have a dream.

This post has already grown large enough. I'll start talking about what October has brought into my life tomorrow.

73

The New Interoperability

2008-08-10T10:00:00.001-05:00

My favorite buzzword. And many vendors favorite buzzword as well. Interoperability. Many folks out there in the public safety communications field have a skewed vision of what interoperability really is, and those who rely on public safety communicators (firefighters, police officers, and politicians) have an even more skewed vision of this commonly misused term. Not only do they believe they need a "magic box" to solve all of their issues relating to why one radio can't communicate to another, they believe they need to use that "magic box" to tie EVERY radio on scene together. That isn't interoperability folks.

There are so many tools to our disposal when it comes to interoperability. Technology is obviously one of them, thanks to our "partners" (read: vendors & manufacturers) but what else do we have? You have standards, shared frequencies, and even the simple capability to hand someone with a "different hat" one of your radios. Each of those might be able to solve your interoperability problems, without the cost of one of these "solve all problems" interoperability gateways like the SyTech RIOS, Raytheon ACU, or CA-T ICRI. Don't get me wrong, these are excellent tools, but should not be your solution to every issue.

The start of interoperability planning really should be a critical look at the organizational structure, both formal and non-formal, of your incidents. Do you operate using Incident Command System or some crazy system where everybody just does whatever they want? Who really needs to talk to who? Just like the incident command system, your interoperability needs should be scalable. You should be able to add functionality and remove functionality as the incident expands or starts demobilizing.

I really learned during my Communications Unit Leader training this past week that it's important for the COML to be the one to take this critical look at the communications system in question, and to consult the leaders on the ground as to what they need to accomplish their goals. You can talk about communicators, but you can't talk without them! The key is the partnership and cooperation between these entities to decide how the final overall communications system will work.

The Department of Homeland Security Office of Emergency Communications has put together a great chart called the interoperability continuum which helps planners understand the many options they have to solve the interoperability challenges of today. The continuum shows the variety of methods that you can use to help various users communicate including the sharing of radios, creation of radio mode standards, and system interconnects using gateways. Unlike some documents that DHS has created, this one is actually a pretty clear and understandable one that puts interoperability in a good perspective. It also notes that all of these solutions are created equal, and that a technology product isn't always the answer. You will notice older versions of the chart which have an arrow stating minimal to optimum interoperability which has now been removed thanks to some smart thinking by officials at DHS.

The reason I'm writing this article today is because of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials Conference that just recently passed this week. Both Motorola and Harris showed off new multi-band radios that are able to put a new interoperability tool right in the hands of responders. Thales also showed off their Liberty handheld multi-band radio which I've written about here on the blog about a month or so ago.

The Harris Unity XG-100 and the Thales Liberty handhelds do VHF, UHF, 700MHz, and 800MHz analog, and digital including P25 trunking. They are both designed using software designed radio (SDR) architecture which enables them these wide transmit capabilities. It's important to note though that even though these radios have tons of capability, they still don't operate in the many proprietary systems that operate today including the M/A-Com OpenSky or Motorola Smartzone systems. For example, these radios would be useless in the State of Delaware because of our reliance on the 800MHz Motorola Smartzone system we operate in the State.

Motorola introduced two radios at this years APCO Conference which are a lot more appealing to me called the APX 7000 portable and APX 7500 mobile. These radios are capable of VHF, 700MHz, and 800MHz analog and P25 digital trunking operation as well as the proprietary Smartzone protocol. This is a lot more useful within Delaware when we can actually operate on the main system we've created in this state.

These radios offer you a whole new tool during an incident. Rather than worrying about trying to patch various systems together, an individual can access another agencies communication channel at his or her leisure with just the flick of a switch. It provides a unique opportunity for those who need direct communication with outside agencies on different systems.

It's important to remember that these radios are not interoperability, but a tool that can help you establish interoperability. If your responders need communications with someone with a different radio system without having to tie up or being loaned a radio, these might be the solutions for you. If you don't think you need that capability, it may be time for you to consider the many other options to solve your interoperability issues.

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My Third Trip To Kansas City

2008-08-09T20:20:00.000-05:00

Just got back from an elevator rescue. Once again another busy month without any updates here on the blog. I apologize for those of you who enjoy reading my ramblings, and I'm going to make it up to you with a commentary on the "new interoperability" that I'll be writing this evening and automatically posting tomorrow courtesy of the Blogger scheduled posting feature.

July was a lot of fun and I was able to get a lot of things done. Of course, I did my work for DEMA as always and got to be involved with a lot of really neat things. The start of the month included a disaster preparedness press conference with U.S. Representative Mike Castle at the Red Cross building in Seaford. I went there with my boss Bob George to listen to the Congressman and Red Cross representatives as well as to say a few words about preparedness on behalf of DEMA. My job was to take pictures!

I was able to help take part in Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Training this past month for the Division of Public Health. We had a variety of great instructors with plenty of experience when it comes to emergency preparedness. The students really enjoyed it. For those of you that haven't taken CERT training, it's definitely a great class, especially in Delaware!

I also spent a significant portion of this month continuing to work out issues with our interoperability grant that I've been dealing with since 2006. The amount of people that have had to be involved in this process was far too many, and the amount of checks and balances involved have been ridiculous. I'm all for a accountable government, but when it stops all activity that the government is responsible for, something is definitely wrong! The equipment should be advertised and bid on in the upcoming weeks and hopefully purchased soon after.

I also finished my the internship (which was working for DEMA) for a couple credits at UD. I had to complete a weekly journal, as well as a 10 page paper at the end of the internship on what I learned. After being there for about three years, I was at quite an advantage when doing this internship. At least its done and out of the way now! Soon enough I'll be back up to Newark taking REAL classes again.

One of my major projects currently is planning for the communications side of an upcoming FEMA exercise which will be testing emergency managements response to a prolonged power outage. I've been involved in the planning meetings and have gotten a good idea of what all of the players involved hope to accomplish during the exercise. Specifically for amateur radio we hope to test the equipment at the alternate EOC location, as well as a communication link between DEMA and MEMA in Maryland. Since this exercise will be the entire FEMA Region III (DE, PA, WV, VA, MD, DC), I hope to see some amateur radio involvement from the other states. I've started talks with our MARS, ARES, and RACES folks in Delaware to look at their goals as well.

Also this month I mailed in my application for Christiana Fire Company up in New Castle County. It's obvious I won't be able to respond to fire calls in Lewes while I'm at UD so I knew it would be important for me to join a company up north. I've heard a lot of good things about Stations 3, 6, and 12 which is the reason I joined. I should be hearing from them soon now that my background check is complete and being sent to them. Below is a shot of me and my fellow firefighters from Station 82 for a standby at Millville Fire Company Station 84.

Probably the most important thing that I was involved in since I last posted was my trip to Kansas City, MO to take part in the DHS Communications Unit Leader (COML) training as part of the APCO Conference. DEMA paid to have me sent out to be one of the first in the nation to have this certification. This course was probably one of the best I've been involved in. It went over a variety of issues facing emergency communications and interoperability. What was great was the amount of emergency communications specialists from all across the country involved. Interestingly enough about 70% of the class were hams that were involved with public safety communications as their career.

What ticks me off is how I still can't rent a car because I'm not 21 yet. I had to rely on taxi and bus transportation while I was in the city, which I'm not so fond of. Oh well, I survived and am back in Delaware.

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Month in Review

2008-07-06T21:44:00.001-05:00

I try to post more than monthly, but this month it didn't work out that way. I'll try and give you a recap of the major things that have been going on.

The majority of my days have been spent going on fire calls, and working for DEMA in the remainder of the time. I've been taking this whole fire thing pretty seriously and probably have only missed 2 or 3 days in the past month. It's kind of interesting to learn a new skill from scratch, and the past month has most certainly been a learning experience. We normally average about one fire call per day, and maybe 5 to 7 EMS calls. I don't go on any EMS calls and really have no desire to.

I've been to everything from water rescues to structures fires to wires arching to motor vehicle accidents. Each range a different set of skills needed, and I learn something during each incident. This July 4th we did a cover up for Rehoboth Station 86 which was fun. Rehoboth set a piece of apparatus on nearly every street in town in order to provide better service with the increased traffic volume during the holiday weekend. We had two calls on our street including a transformer fire and ambulance transport. This morning I was up in Newark so I missed the five fire calls we had within a two hour period because of the storm that passed through. I guess I can't catch them all!

The majority of my time when not spent at the firehouse is doing my work for DEMA. I'm working on doing some major changes on the Delaware Citizen Corps website, www.delawarecitizencorps.org in adding more preparedness information for a variety of hazards. I'm also still doing all of the communications related stuff. My major project over the past few weeks has been moving along our communications interoperability grant. The grant process has been one of the most slow and painstaking things I've ever done, and the amount of people involved makes it very difficult to manage. If I was doing it all myself I suppose I could have had it done by now, but that just isn't the case.

I found out this past week that I'll be going to Kansas City, MO to take place in the first Communications Unit Leader training in the United States. This will be taking place on August 1st through 3rd. I'm pretty excited to be a part of this special class that will eventually be rolled out across the US. I wanted to take this class now for my Incident Management Team training in order to have it done and over with before school starts back up.

Tomorrow I'll be at a press conference with U.S. Representative Mike Castle on Disaster Preparedness in Seaford, DE. This is similar to the one we did on Lewes Beach about a year ago. I'll take pictures and let you all know how it went.

73

Delaware Mobile Command Post Exercise

2008-06-05T15:27:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I participated in an exercise at the Summit Airport in Middletown, DE to test interoperability between the Delaware State Police, Kent County, and New Castle County Mobile Command Posts. During this exercise we hooked up the phone and video systems between all three command posts, as well as did radio checks on 800MHz between all three vehicles. Additionally I worked with Ed Aragon N3YDN to get the amateur radio equipment up and running on board the DSP Command Center to demonstrate the capability to the two counties.

Also during this exercise, we tested video downlink from the Delaware State Police Aviation Section helicopters. This is the first time I've seen this system in person and I was very impressed. The video from the copters is extremely clear even from quite a distance. I also got to see the new Bell 412 that DSP has purchased in action. It's much larger than the Bell 407's that DSP owns! Above are some videos and pictures of the event throughout the day.

73

Busy Week

2008-05-31T20:26:00.005-05:00

This past week has been extremely busy. This has been final exam week for school so I've been busy studying and getting my stuff packed for the ride home. I've only gotten two final grades back so far which is Emergency Management (A) and my Spanish III class (B). Needless to say I was pretty happy with the grades.

Thursday afternoon I packed my truck up and was on my way to College Park, MD. Amos Scott and I planned on spending the night at the College Park Volunteer Fire Department the night before the Command & Communications Vehicle Rally. The Chief of CPVFD, Ty Dickerson, is on the Delaware IMT and is a really sharp guy. I thank him and the rest of his team for the hospitality Thursday night.

College Park runs a really cool program at their fire department called the Sackroom. Since the station is so close to the University of Maryland, they have a live-in program for students who are interested in riding with the fire department. They literally have a separate wing in the building which is dorm rooms for students. And let me tell you, these rooms are just like the new dorm rooms that UD is building...very spacious and with bathrooms! What's great is they are at the firehouse all the time, and can get to calls a lot quicker than being on campus. I was VERY impressed by their program!

We planned on going on calls with the fire department throughout the night but they never got any except two medic calls. We woke up the next morning and made the trek to Chantilly, VA for the Command, Control, & Communications Vehicle Rally. Arriving at about 8am, we didn't leave until 3pm. There were tons of command posts there to look through, at least twenty more than last year. What was nuts was how some of the command posts from last year weren't even there, yet they still had more!

The great thing about this command post rally is that you get a close up view of the newest technologies, and you get to see them in use. James Wadsworth and James Grant of the Fairfax County, VA Radio Services Center put this show together every year to bring out the command posts from the National Capital Region in order for them to get together and meet each other. Throughout the rally, they do interoperability testing on radio, as well as collaboration software like WebEOC, and also live video streaming to the command posts from the Fairfax County Police Helicopter.

I enjoy going out and getting ideas that I can bring back home. There are always some unique ideas that some of the agencies put together that we could use in Delaware. Hopefully for next year's event, we can get a Delaware vehicle out there!

Today, I drove to the Dover International Speedway to work with the Incident Management Team for the NASCAR Series race there this weekend. We developed the Incident Action Plan for the Sunday Sprint Cup Race, as well as for the Saturday Busch Race. Our new travel trailer for the IMT was located next to the Dover International Speedway Joint Operations Center which is a facility built to help coordinate all of the agencies responsible for emergency operations at the track. This includes everyone from DelDOT, DSP, Dover Police Department, Dover Fire Department, FBI, ATF, Kent County 911 Center, DSP KENTCOM, Public Health, and the list goes on. They use the building as an EOC and it brings them all in one place in order to effectively manage an incident.

The trailer is really intended for IMT members to sleep in use for logistical purposes like cooking and a bathroom. We were able to use it for actual operations though, and it kept us out of the commotion inside the JOC. The trailer was spacious and suited us well. Of course with this being our initial shakedown run, we have things to improve upon for next time.

In addition I got to see the FBI's communications trailer out of the Baltimore office which was parked next to our trailer. Onboard they had a whole suite of radios on VHF, UHF, and 800MHz as well as an JPS ACU-1000 and were able to patch their onboard VHF P25 repeater to our State 800MHz system. This is the first time I've ever been involved in an incident that has included something other than our State 800MHz or amateur radio so it was important to note this when I was completing the ICS 205 form (Incident Communications Radio Plan) for the agencies. The FBI guys definitely had the equipment to do the job!

Time for me to relax now. I've just had too much fun the past few days!

73

Fire Department Picnic, REP Exercise, and Exams

2008-05-24T14:06:00.003-05:00

On the 17th I attended the Lewes/Rehoboth Beach Fire Picnic at Station 3 right near my house. It was my first event for the fire department so it was a good opportunity to meet the members and check out the station. I also got a close up view of the apparatus out of that station while I was there.

Later in the week, I participated in the FEMA/NRC graded Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program Exercise at DEMA. These REP drills give us a good idea of areas that we need to improve in for response if the Salem/Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Stations across the Delaware River ever had an incident. Because this was a graded exercise, representatives from various agencies across the State participated at the State EOC, and in addition the New Castle and Kent EOC's participated. We additionally had the Emergency News Center in New Jersey staffed, and communications with those participating at the New Jersey State EOC.

I participated in communications during this exercise, also working with the amateur radio operators involved. The amateurs were successful in maintaining simplex communications with both Kent and New Castle EOC's. They spent a considerable amount of time passing traffic between the locations in order to get some practice on the air.

These exercises also prove to be an important time for agency rep's to get in one place, at the same time to meet at get to know each other. I find that we have plenty of mitigation and planning meetings in this trade, but we don't nearly enough practice in how we will meet and work together during the response side. These exercises are a great opportunity for us to do that.

This is exam week so I'll be busy. On Friday I'll be headed to Virginia to check out the 2008 Communications and Command Post Rally. It's one of my favorite days of the year! Getting to see all of the newest in command post technology is definitely a great time. Shoot me off an e-mail if any of you plan on attending.

73

More stuff

2008-05-12T16:03:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted in a while so I'll give an update on what I've been up to. First of all, over the past few weeks I've been continuing to help with construction of the Mobile Communications Unit. I haven't been down there for a week and they've continued to make progress so check out the most recent pictures on John Scoggin's website, www.armymars.net

Also, I participated in a State Communications Seminar at DEMA to talk about the path forward in planning for a communications exercise. We had a lot of great presenters including Delaware State Police Comm, Division of Communications, Delaware National Guard Comm, Department of Technology and Information (DTI), and our program, Communication Corps. Each presenter gave a brief history of their communications system, it's current status, and their path forward. It gave each of us a great opportunity to ask questions about system integration, and also how we can request their resources. My presentation is below:

Along those same lines, it was important for DTI to be at this meeting, specifically because of the increasing role that internet based systems have on emergency communications. Ironically the night of the meeting, I needed to finish a term paper for Issues in Emergency Management 324, which was entitled "Benefits and Risks of Information Technology Use During Disaster Response". In the paper I talked specifically about the convergence of internet and radios and where it's going to take us. You can read the entire paper here:

http://www.kb3juv.com/BenefitsandRisks.pdf

Also, I wanted to mention briefly about a cell outage we had with Verizon Wireless this past Friday night. A little after 12am, my cell phone just stopped working. No service whatsoever. Now, you'd think with the way the media portrays cell phone companies with all of the dropped calls and everything that I would not be surprised. I was though, and I was pissed. I was out trying to find one of my friends and without any sort of communication device, I had no way to get in contact with them. I tried both voice, and text messaging. Neither worked.

It gave me a quick reminder of what it's like to not have communications during a time of need. Imagine that on a much larger scale during disaster...

73

Not much time to post right now.

2008-05-12T12:46:00.004-05:00

But later I will be posting about the cell phone outage this past weekend, the Communications Seminar at DEMA, as well as a few other odds and ends.

Right now I want to divert your attention to the storms that have been bashing Delaware for the past 20 or so hours. You can get a good idea of where the major incidents are by checking out the following:

DelDOT's interactive traffic map:

http://deldot.gov/public.ejs?command=PublicLocatableMap

Delaware Environmental Observing System (DEOS) stream levels:

http://www.deos.udel.edu/geobrowser.html

Delaware State Police Online Scanner:

http://dsp.delaware.gov/ and click 911 scanner on the left hand menu

Also check out the Sussex County Fire Scanner on any of the Sussex County fire department websites.

73

What can you do with your life?

2008-04-28T21:42:00.006-05:00

First, I'd like you to read the following obituary. I'll comment after:

John Patrick Mulhern, Jr. “Sean”

Sean, 66, died on Tuesday April 15, 2008 surrounded by family and friends in the Christiana Hospital.

Our Beloved Husband and Father lost his two-year courageous battle with Leukemia. Sean was the ultimate family man. His family was his first priority at all times. The love, compassion and care he had for his wife and two daughters was boundless. His wife and daughters loved, respected and cared deeply for him. Colleen, Felicia, and Victoria are deeply saddened by his loss. We will never forget all he has done for us and our extended family.

Sean graduated from St. Ann’s Elementary School, Salesianum High School ‘60, and Valley Forge Military Academy ‘62. He was the recipient of the esteemed V.F.M. McCloskey Award. As an adult, still attended military parades and served on many school boards.

He began Brandywine Valley Fire and Safety in the 1960’s, which is still in operation. Sean was a member of the National Guard from 1963 to 1970 rising from Private to Staff Sergeant as a full-time member. During the summer of 1968, he worked in Wilmington during the civil unrest and received the Medal of Service in Aid of Civil Authority.

Sean’s firefighter career began with Wilmington Fire Department in 1971. He rose through the ranks from entry Firefighter all the way to Chief. He never lost any firefighters on the scene, which was his first priority. Chief Mulhern added to the department the following: Annual Fire Muster, restructured the rescue squad and developed a new design which is now Rescue #1, and by writing grants he was allowed to find funding during severe city budget cuts for fire protection inventory including fire equipment to costly fire trucks. The most innovative improvement from a large grant was to establish the first Marine Unit in Wilmington. The grants obtained the first fire boat and later upgraded to a larger boat and outfitted this to be utilized as a firefighting boat for the City Riverfront. This lowered the cost of insurance to incoming business on the Riverfront. Many years later, this contribution helped to assure new investors that their properties’ building fires would be fought from two sides, land and water. This fire boat’s refitting was carried out by many loyal Wilmington Firefighters in their off-duty hours, and they rebuilt the boats at no cost to the City or fire department budget. It was a voluntary effort of many loyal and talented firefighters who all enjoyed offering free services to improve the fire department’s inventory of large firefighting equipment. Chief Mulhern saw computers as the future and computerized the Wilmington Fire Department. He began a program to promote fire prevention and investigations which helped to reduce fires, life, and property losses; and increase prosecution of people who intended to create fires. This education lowered deaths to city residents, fire personnel, and property losses. Chief Mulhern actively fought all losses of fire personnel’s jobs, and he was able to ward off any layoffs of personnel. He was the co-coordinator in the construction of the newly built McLaughlin Public Safety Building. Sean was an honorary member of many volunteer fire organizations. Chief Mulhern and Ronald Ayres had begun the archiving and planning for the Wilmington Fire Museum. They have collected many historical artifacts. The Chief has donated his lifelong extensive collection of Wilmington Fire Memorabilia. The two have spent immeasurable off-duty hours working on the construction and organization of this museum.

Other fire related project memberships, affiliations and associations were Civil Defense Firefighter, Member of the Eastern Division of Fire Chiefs’ Association, New Castle County Fire Chiefs’ Association, Delaware Valley Fire Chiefs, International Association of Arson Investigators, National Fire Protection Association, Honorary Member of the Union Historical Fire Society

After retiring from the Wilmington Fire Department, in 1993 he joined the State of Delaware as Director of the Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA). The DEMA operations were moved to a central location in Smyrna. Mr. Mulhern was involved in the planning of a new state-of-the-art building for DEMA operations. This building has attracted national and international attention as a facility for our times and the future. At DEMA, he developed a partnership between DEMA and DelDOT, which helped Delawareans to streamline communications during emergencies. Mr. Mulhern directed many serious managed responses in devastating weather related conditions, and planned simulated disaster scenarios for personnel in the State to keep communications and rescue operations current. He was in charge of the State’s emergency preparations and operations during 911 and created post planning for terrorism attacks.

In 2001, Mr. Mulhern joined MBNA Bank as a Vice President in Security. He was Vice President responsible for covering national and international MBNA personnel and properties after 911. He was an emergency planner, emergency disaster trainer, and leader of evacuation drills and developed and directed post 911 education policies and programs. His anti-terrorism expertise, emergency management skills, knowledge of hazardous materials and weapons of mass destruction, and exceptional fire background, Sean was prepared for post 911 prevention strategies and planning for MBNA personnel and properties.

Sean’s many interests included Irish History; Firefighting History; Valley Forge Military Academy; Military History; Antiques; Ireland travels; family vacations; and his cigars. He was a technical advisor for educational videos for Fire House Magazine, in a People Magazine article for the Baker Life Chute and contributed to articles in the National and International fire magazines. Sean taught a course at Harvard University on Emergency Management for Terrorism Events.

Mulhern and Tattan family deeply loved and respected our Sean. He is survived by his wife, Colleen Pope Mulhern; children, Felicia M. Pope and Victoria L. Pope; Sean’s sister and brother-in-law, Kathleen and William C. Tattan, Sr. of Worcester, MA; nephews, William C. Tattan, Jr., of Rome Italy; John Tattan and wife Ann Marie, of North Andover, MA; niece, Susan Greene and husband, P.J. Greene, of Hingham, MA; 2 grand nieces; 2 grand nephews; brother-in-law, Richard H. Pope Jr. and his mother-in-law, Gretta Pope, both of Wilmington.

I think we can all agree that Sean has accomplished quite a bit over his lifetime. I never met Sean but I've heard many stories from those in the Delaware emergency management community about him. What really took effect in me though after reading this is how much one person was able to accomplish, and experience in his lifetime. Sean passed young in my opinion, and who knows what else he may have been able to do during his time.

Sean had experience in a variety of fields which made him quite an asset in the emergency management community in Delaware. His experience as a firefighter with Wilmington helped him to understand what first responders go through and need during an incident from small to large. He eventually ended up at MBNA in a position that most of us with job in the State would only dream of. I would only assume that those who hired him there were impressed with his line of experience.

I hope as I continue to progress in this field, I'm able to bring various pieces of my travels into my repertoire. If I'm able to accomplish half of what Sean had, I'll be happy to leave this earth. I'm impressed greatly by it all.

Because of the relation to Sean's firefighting experience, this post is probably a good one to announce that I've applied to join the Lewes Fire Department about a week ago. This doesn't mean that I'll make it, as I still am awaiting my background check and health exam. But if I do, I'm sure I'll be busy with that, DEMA, and my amateur radio stuff all summer.

It was only a matter of time before I joined, and I'm surprised I held out this long. My interest in the fire department started in middle school when a few of my classmates had joined their local departments as junior members. Around the start of my freshman year in high school, Lewes and Rehoboth Beach built a joint station very close to my home in Lewes. Close enough that I'd be able to bike there and beat most of the crew to the engine.

About 1500 feet between my house and the station

I found amateur radio and it became my involvement in the emergency response of Delaware. With all of my time dedicated to it, I had no time to join a fire company. Additionally as I joined DEMA, and started looking into a lifetime in this profession, I moved away from the idea of joining because I was afraid of being another "firefighter turned emergency manager". The FEMA Higher Education Project suggests that the majority of emergency managers across the United States are former firefighters, police officers, or military officials who have retired from their "first jobs" to become emergency managers.

I've always been the type to try and deviate from that path, working to get involved in this profession as a educated specifically in emergency management. I found that I can do both though, and gain experience in the fire and police communities while getting a college education in emergency management and public administration.

I'll keep you posted on my progress. This is only the start.

73

Sussex County Hamfest 2008

2008-04-12T21:46:00.006-05:00

Four years ago, with the help of a very talented team, I helped to create the Sussex Tech Hamfest. At the time, it was a huge success and started a process to build upon for years to come. Since then, the Sussex Tech Amateur Radio Club and other ham clubs in the county have continued to put on a great hamfest that tons of people attend every year.

Today I spent the first half of the day in Georgetown attending this years event. The team down there once again put on a heck of a show.

One major difference this year was the addition of two keynote speakers which I found very interesting to talk with. First, was my colleague Dr. Peter Hartsock who is also a Captain in the US Public Health Service. I first met him back at the CWID exercise this past summer in Dahlgren, VA and additionally had worked with him during the Dewey Beach ICS exercise that happened towards the end of the summer. He always manages to explain emergency response so gracefully. Today he spoke that all of the agencies that participated today are just solar systems that are part of the galaxy of emergency response. They work well alone, but work better together.

The other keynote speaker today was Rear Admiral (Ret.) Robert Duncan from the United States Coast Guard 8th District. Admiral Duncan was responsible for the Coast Guard response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as well as testified to the US Congress about the Coast Guard's success. Between sessions I had an excellent conversation with him about communications, emergency response, and his experience during Katrina. Being able to talk shop with this guy was priceless, especially after just talking about this stuff in my "Issues in Emergency Management" class.

Captain Hartsock is known for his mini cannon that he brings to various events. It probably would be one of the most random things to have at any sort of event, but if any of you out there are familiar with hamfests, I'm sure you know that you can never expect what you will find! Never a dull moment in the life of Justin Kates...

73

Emergency Supply Caches to be Given to UC Berkeley Students - Government Technology

2008-04-08T23:06:00.000-05:00

Emergency Supply Caches to be Given to UC Berkeley Students - Government Technology

Good idea!

Hello from Daytona Beach, FL

2008-04-03T20:40:00.003-05:00

I'm down in Daytona Beach for Spring Break. The weather is beautiful...a lot better than the rain that's going on in Delaware right now.

The interesting reading for tonight comes from IBM which has developed some complex algorithms to help manage limited resources during disaster. All of us in the emergency management field know that we DON'T have nearly the amount of police offers, dump trucks, and non-perishable foods stored up when the next Katrina hits. It's not because of government negligence, but instead because it's not feasible to have six different back up plans for everything.

Government does have the responsibility to manage the limited resources that it has though. IBM believes it can do this using complex algorithms which use social statistics and hazard mapping to figure out which communities are most at risk. Makes sense to me...now lets get some widescale adoption!

Read more here: http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/26605

73

Justin playing blues at Genelle's Wilmington, DE

2008-03-30T15:22:00.001-05:00