Virtual USA In Action

How many real-life examples does it take to prove an initiative’s value?  Some would say one.  And some would pontificate for years to try to determine this number.  I like the former answer, because it means you actually get out there and start working toward that one tangible proof-of-concept.  In the following blog, I will share with you multiple stories of real-world applications of Virtual USA (vUSA) information sharing capabilities that have had tangible implications in the emergency preparedness and response community over the last year.  These successes were largely the result of a collaboration established in February 2009 known as the Regional Operations Platform Pilot (ROPP), a true partnership between the Department of Homeland Security and eight states in the Southeastern United States to improve regional — and ultimately national — information sharing.

During the floods of 2009 that hit Atlanta, Georgia, the state emergency management agency utilized VIPER, Virginia’s common operations platform, to help manage the response and recovery efforts.  Virginia uses VIPER on a daily basis in its emergency operations center (EOC); some noteworthy real-world applications of the platform include the April 2008 tornado outbreak, the 2009 Presidential inauguration, and “snowmageddon” of February 2010.  Meanwhile, just four days after Florida demonstrated that its new information sharing platform, GATOR, was technically interoperable with its ROPP partners on November 4, 2009, it used GATOR to help manage Hurricane Ida.  In neighboring Louisiana, the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) is busy developing rich applications that are interoperable with its platform, Virtual Louisiana, in order to help its EOC better fulfill its mission.  The GOHSEP team built a dashboard tool, which is a business objects application that compiles data from WebEOC to help with recovery efforts, specifically in determining requirements for FEMA public assistance.  Louisiana decided to make this tool open source so that others could benefit from their technological discovery, which Virginia sought to leverage immediately (among others).  Over in Mississippi, on January 19, 2010, the state operationalized its platform known as Discover Mississippi in a life-saving mission to recover a lost hunter in the countryside.

These examples of Virtual USA in action prove that collaboration is a great means to expanding the horizon on the art of the possible and helping state and local practitioners better manage emergencies and incidents in real-time.  One year ago, most of these information sharing capabilities were still just a discussion; today, they are an operational reality and part of a ground-breaking history that is serving as a model for other states and regions across the nation.  Ongoing efforts include a second phase of the ROPP and a new regional information sharing pilot with five states in the Pacific Northwest, which will write the next chapter of Virtual USA’s history.  Stay tuned.