I just read two surprisingly different accounts of the Strong Angel III disaster preparedness drill in California last weekend. Strong Angel III is the brainchild of Dr. Eric Rasmussen, Navy surgeon and lately the go-to guy for relief efforts. From the Strong Angel III site:
Strong Angel III is particularly designed to explore techniques and technologies that support the principle of resilience within a community that finds itself isolated and vulnerable. In the demonstration the citizens of a community are deprived of power, cell phones, and Internet access, and are beyond the immediate reach of federal assistance. One key objective of this project is to effectively tap the expertise and creativity within an affected community, including through public-private partnerships. A second overarching objective is the development of social tools and techniques that encourage collaborative cooperation between responders and the population they serve during post-disaster reconstruction.
The NYTimes coverage of the drill is quite good, emphasizing cooperation, social networks, ad-hoc communications and tech solutions.
IW: And what have your experiences taught you about how to respond to such situations?
ER: One thing we’ve learned is that data flow and information are almost of secondary importance. The root issue is power. If I have power, there are a great number of different modalities that I can use. Without it, there’s little I can do for very long. Batteries run out. So we have lots of crank stuff, hand-wound stuff.
So now when I hear people say that IT is no longer an application, but a utility, I’ll consider that a compliment.
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