EMC100  Floods and Changes 1/4 
To:   Emergency Communications Units - Information Bulletin
To:   Emergency Management Agencies via Internet and Radio
By:   Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) of the
      California Governor's Office of Emergency Services  

EMC100              For release

Floods and Changes 1/4 For release 10/6/96

During the catastrophic northern CA floods in early 1997 it
became apparent that mighty changes were taking place. Not
only was nature changing the face of California -- an area
the size of 30 smaller states was impacted -- but the need
to handle an avalanche of information literally deluged the
many affected jurisdictions. Vast quantities of information
was communicated in order to handle the problems created as
levee break after break inundated thousands of homes,
businesses, farms and ranches.

Interestingly, 12/1/96 was the implementation date of a new
law that mandated a standardized emergency management system
passed by the state legislature several years before. By
reason of that law the State Office of Emergency Services
determined to put-in-place a computer system to accelerate
the flow of information between governments. The deadline
for the completion was January l997.

In addition, the FCC mandated a replacement of the EBS
(Emergency Broadcast System). The implementation was
1/1/97 for a new Emergency Alert System. Would it function?
How well? No one knew.

When the rains began in late December and then flowed
through in waves in January, it was like Mother Nature
said: "Okay, lets see if your systems work!"

Did they work? Did they get overwhelmed and have to be
discarded? Did they need back up? What happened?

They worked!!  The Emergency Alert System stumbled into
duty within hours after the New Year started. Yes, there
were problems, as would be expected in a newly installed
system; but it provided better public service than the old
EBS system.  Out of the experiences of the '97 floods, new
and better ways of using it were being implemented as this
article was written. 

Continues next week

                                  ---
ACS Web page: http://acs.oes.ca.gov       FTP archive:
ftp.ucsd.edu/hamradio/packet/tcpip/incoming for new
bulletins and ftp.ucsd.edu/hamradio/races for earlier ones
Landline BBS: 916-262-0856 (graphical & standard interface)
OES ACS staff manager Stan Harter :Stanly_Harter@oes.ca.gov 
State Chief ACS Officer       Cary_Mangum@oes.ca.gov

EOM EMC100