Flying pigs?

Well, it might not be avian influenza but the plans we made for 'bird flu' are now coming home to roost. Like many organisations, today we blew the dust off our pandemic plans and checked our resources in anticipation of Swine Flu. I'm glad to say that things seemed to be pretty well thought out and good to go.

The reassuring thing from my point of view is that there hasn't been a flap about what to do... we made plans and we are following them - without changing them on the fly. I'm sure that when this is all over, there will be a review of arrangements and procedures - that too is procedure!

Today, we set up a Groove workspace for Swine Flu, had a few calls with the District Health Board and communicated with our CDEM Group. We've also fired up all the computers (and updated their virus protection) and put arrangements in place for CODE RED. So... tomorrow's another day, let's see what it brings.

For the latest official updates, check out the Ministry of Health web site.

Hydro boys hard at work

We've reported a number of things on the blog that the hydro team have had a bit of input to. I spotted the guys browsing through some photos of the Tangiwai webcam installation this morning and thought it worth sharing with you.

The site is clearly in a rather hostile environment (not talking about the military maneuvers) and making the site robust is quite important. Remember its out there 24/7 and we expect it to work regardless of conditions.

The other thing that this photo brought home for me... was how much 'stuff' the hydro boys carry around. So much so, they can't fit it all inside and need roof pods. No wonder you get the big trucks guys! I know I keep promising it, but the Akitio cam is getting closer now - watch this space!!!

e-Bulletin

The latest edition of the e-Bulletin is available here.

More BGAN info

A few people have been asking me more about BGAN. Here's a link to the Inmarsat video page that has a couple of good promo videos. A word of warning though... don't try this with dial-up!

Techno pause

In the past few years, I've gained a bit of a reputation as someone who likes to take full advantage of technology. This comes with the usual Gadget Man, Wannabe Geek and Techie titles... and I've weathered those. Truth is, we've come to a point in our development where I think we now have the tools (not toys) available for us to do a professional job. There is still the GIS web portal project and the CDEM Group website to roll off the production line, but that will take a little while yet. It is my intention to now consolidate what we have and make sure the training is in place to take full advantage of the tools. Here is a brief summary of what we've introduced...

Groove - is the Microsoft collaboration software that allows us to synchronise information across organisations. Groove is used by the United Nations in the harshest environments and certainly suits our Group operations. Groove has day-to-day applicability too we can become familiar with it outside of emergencies. Full implementation of Groove across the CDEM Group members is yet to be achieved but we are getting there slowly. The Horizons team has this fully up and running now.

Skype - free voice over IP software - we get to make free telephone and video calls to other Skype users. Some IT people freak at the use of this software but we have restricted installation to the EM laptops.

Google - Google Earth, Gmail, Google sites, Google Reader, Google docs, iGoogle and the whole Google suite have become central to an EM capability if the Horizons servers drop off-line for some reason. HorizonsEM@gmail.com is now the generic address that subscribes to warnings from several agencies. This is a back-up to our internal addresses subscribing.

Mobile office - we have put together a capability to operate outside of the Horizons environment. This includes a kit with three laptops and a printer/scanner/fax with all the connectivity options. This is partnered with a second kit with a small business PABX for a fully functional office telephone system. The EM team members have also gone to laptops, rather than dumb terminals, configured the same as the mobile office laptops.

BGAN - with the introduction of the Broadband Global Area Network service provided by Inmarsat, we've purchased an Explorer 700 terminal. This will enable us to connect the mobile office to the internet and telephony if the normal terrestrial systems are either out of service or just out of range. The terminal is a high-end product that will allow fast and reliable transmission of all forms of data.

EOC laptops - with the increasing use of technology, we found we were using the mobile office in the EOC. As it wasn't intended for that, we've introduced nine eeePCs (small laptops) to work in the Horizons EOC. These are configured the same as the mobile office and can be used outside the EOC if required.

GPS camera - the GPS enabled camera allows us to take photos in the field and transmit them back to the office in near-real time.

Data-over-radio - for the cost of a cable and a little bit of re-programming, we've set up our CDEM Group radios to be able to transmit packets of text. This is a real backup to the backup but will save time reading long sitreps out over the air.

WebSMS - I recently posted about this and the service is working out well.

SmarTrak - the ability to track many of the Council vehicles using cellular GPS services.

SPOT - satellite personal trackers were introduced when the old 243MHz personal locator beacons went off-line. These have a day-to-day functionality the the old beacons didn't have. You can confirm that you are OK and where you are. The system sends an SMS and e-mail to people you pre-select. If you need help there's that option too... if you need emergency assistance, there's a 911 button - this goes to the Rescue Co-ordination Centre.

Spidertracks - similar to SmarTrak but we only have a single unit. This unit can be moved around vehicles and is ideally suited to extended operations in areas where these is no cellphone coverage. Spidertracks is a satellite based GPS tracking system.

Webcams - we've introduced a few new webcams in the region... Whanganui River Mouth, Tangiwai, Opiki and one still to come at Akitio (really soon hopefully). The coastal cams are for storm surge observations, the Tangiwai cam for lahar and river height obs, Opiki is the floodway across SH 56. The Whanganui cam had nearly 1000 unique hits over Easter weekend alone.

Freeview - with a couple of Freeview decoders introduced into the EOC, we can now monitor news items on monitors in the EOC and adjoining office. This will help us gain intelligence that media are gathering. There's nothing like a bit of news footage to put things into context.

Green RIG - the Council's education vehicle is also fitted out for alternative EOC functions. Aerials have been fitted to the RIG and we've tested the mobile office equipment in the RIG to ensure everything works.

So... that's what we've been up to - and you thought we were twiddling our thumbs! Oh.. let's not forget the really cool blog we've started!

GIS web portal developments

In recent days, we've set up a website for collaboration on the development of the EMNet GIS web portal. Unfortunately this is not a pubically available site at this time and is really intended for participants to work openly together in developing our individual requirements and considering how the portal might work.

This Friday, we have a meeting of the Lifelines Advisory Group to work through some of the fundamental issues. So far we've worked on the business rules that run behind the scenes as well as expectations. Last week however we had a rather sudden development with the interface and the ESRI interface is looking pretty promising.

Here is a link to a demo site for New Zealand. Although there are only a few layers of information available, this certainly proves the basics of GeoRSS feeds from existing data sources - the earthquake info comes from GeoNet and state highways from NZTA real-time data. We've asked Eagle to include some regional level data from Horizons to make it locally interesting as we develop our requirements.

Oil spill exercise

Well, its been a while since the last posting on the site... but we've been keeping busy. One of the activities of interest recently has been participation in the national marine oil spill exercise. This time held in Dunedin, the national response team responded to a simulated collision between two vessels. This was the first outing for the Maritime New Zealand information management system developed in WebEOC. Still in development, the team identified a number of refinements the package will need to have to make it fully effective. Having said that though, the team responded to this exercise faster than ever before and had a better plan for implementation the next morning.

The crew from our region included Ian Lowe and me as well as Kerri Morgan and Helen McConnell from Massey University Wildlife Health Centre.

Oh well... hopefully nothing more until next years exercise (ready to go in an hour though!!)

Improved SMS service

After changes to our current SMS provider, the new and improved 'service' no longer meets our needs. Following a search for a suitable provider we've settled on Melbourne based company message-media.

We've just started migrating the data from our system and the Horowhenua system to integrate them and building in the requirements for Manawatu and Rangitikei. We've done an initial test with good delivery times and the ability for recipients to acknowledge the message.

Over the coming weeks we will be conducting a few tests to get it right and over the next few months be building the database to cover a number of 'canned' messages for predictable events. Members of the CDEM Group will be hearing more from us.