Virtual USA Gulf Coast Tour
While the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is endangering the livelihood of the environment and economy, the affected states are using Virtual USA, an information sharing tool. Joel Thomas is traveling in the Gulf, offering technical expertise and assisting with the emergency response efforts. He has been blogging about his experiences on the First Responder Communities of Practice blog:
Virtual USA Supports Gulf Oil Spill Response – Introduction
With the Gulf of Mexico oil spill threatening marine industries, wildlife and beaches, the southeastern states have banded together with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to share real-time information about the size and location of the oil slick as well as the actions being taken to respond to and recover from the spill.
DHS launched the Virtual USA pilot project in February 2009 to support the development of a regional capability for states in the Gulf to collaborate in an emergency. I will be going as part of a technical team to four affected states this week to assist with the oil spill response. We will travel to Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana to work with state homeland security, environmental, and emergency management officials to help the states share the critical data they need to deal with the oil spill. Some states already are using information made available on the vUSA prototype, a collaborative information sharing tool, to track the spread of the oil spill and monitor booming operations and cleanup efforts.
Our trip will take us to:
• Florida Division of Emergency Management State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) in Tallahassee.
• Unified Incident Command in Mobile, Alabama.
• Gulf Research Lab in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, where we will meet with the Mississippi Department of Homeland Security.
• Louisiana SEOC in Baton Rouge, where we will discuss the vUSA pilot with the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP).
• Unified Command in Houma, Louisiana, as well as the coastal Emergency Operations Center, where we will hold a second meeting with GOHSEP.Please watch this blog and the DHS Science and Technology Directorate Twitter feed for frequent updates about our team’s activities and the vUSA pilot participants’ response and recover efforts.
Virtual USA Gulf Coast Tour – Day One
Monday, June 07, 2010The Gulf of Mexico oil spill highlights the need for government officials to have a clear picture of how the disaster is unfolding and what actions can be taken to limit the damage. As a participant in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Virtual USA Southeast Regional Operations Platform Pilot (ROPP), Florida developed a platform to compile, in a geospatial context, the information state officials need to manage emergencies effectively and efficiently. The resulting technology, Geospatial Assessment Tool for Operations and Response (GATOR), is being used to monitor the trajectories of the spreading oil and make decisions about responding to the oil spill, as the DHS technical team learned firsthand during a visit to the Florida Division of Emergency Management State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) in Tallahassee.
Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael W. Sole studied one of GATOR’s maps of Florida’s waters on the SEOC’s large screen to determine how to handle the spreading oil. However, according to state officials they still need more detailed images of some areas. During our visit, Secretary Sole used GATOR to identify areas where better photographs should be taken to spot dense oil. Those coordinates were relayed to helicopters that will photograph the identified locations. The process would have been significantly more difficult and time-consuming without a tool like GATOR in place. The capability to have regional situational awareness is particularly important right now for Florida in the context of a disaster that transcends jurisdictional boundaries.
