Group launches system to link emergency agencies

A nonprofit coalition on Wednesday announced the launch of an initiative to establish a data-messaging system to link local, state and federal emergency agencies.

The National Emergency and Alerting Response System, or NEARS, would deploy emergency messaging by using national data standards. Instead of building a new infrastructure to transmit emergency data, the NEARS system will be able to build upon existing systems and implement new standards as required by the federal National Incident Management Systems (NIMS), a system for sharing emergency data communications across jurisdictions.

"Three and one-half years after [the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks], most emergency agencies are unable to send an emergency message to another agency," said David Aylward, director of ComCARE Alliance, a national membership organization for the emergency-response community, which is leading the initiative.

At the core of the system is the emergency provider access directory (EPAD), which will hold the names, addresses, e-mail addresses and contact information of emergency agencies, health departments, schools and hospitals. Notifications to public utilities, schools and eventually to private-sector entities, such as buildings, will be transmitted via the system.

"We are not looking at a brand-new black box to sit on the desk," Barry Luke, deputy chief of fire communications for the Orange County, Fla., fire and rescue department, said during a news briefing to announce the initiative. Instead, it will work on existing systems aimed at improving the efficiency of emergency operations.

Entities will be able to choose what information they want, and where and how they want to receive it, Luke said. Agencies can register to receive messages based on their locations, interests and agency types. Agencies will determine who will have access to the system and who will be able to send messages, he said.

While EPAD can be connected to existing systems, those with dial-up Internet access or volunteer agencies without an infrastructure will need to be updated or created, Aylward said.

Hospitals also will be part of the system. "We need the information to determine the appropriate response," said Dr. Robert Bass, executive director of the Maryland Institute for EMS Systems. Hospitals need to know whether there are hazardous materials to determine how to treat patients, he added.

Currently, some emergency calls are errantly routed to other counties or jurisdictions, Luke said. The EPAD database will help agencies quickly locate the appropriate personnel to respond to incidents.

Congress has appropriated $1.7 million to date, with a grant from the Justice Department, to develop EPAD. The group expects the total cost for full rollout of the NEARS system to hit $18 million. The rollout hinges on obtaining more funding from Congress, said Judith Woodhall, the managing director for the EPAD project. The project is expected to be completed a year after it receives the necessary funding.

A prototype was developed in 2003, and early versions have been tested in Montana and the Washington, D.C., area. An Alpha version of the system scheduled for release in January 2005 has experienced delays.