Nebraska EMA Strengthens Storm Response with Powerful Software Tool
Omaha, Nebraska – April 19, 2007 – Every night, while most Nebraska residents sleep peacefully, a three-member team from the state’s Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) maintains a nightly vigil, watching for signs of storms that would require local and state first responders to spring into action to prevent property damage and casualties.
This year, NEMA officials are armed with a new, powerful information management technology that will facilitate a fast, efficient and effective response when floods, tornadoes or other springtime incidents occur throughout the state.
ESS Crisis™ is an integrated information management system that gives state officials the ability to quickly mobilize response teams and support incident commanders’ need to quickly deploy response teams, manage incident scenes and assist with post-event recovery operations. The software also helps NEMA officials conduct effective planning and field exercises before an event happens.
Crisis management experts say that it’s important to be prepared when disaster strikes.
“ESS Crisis enables us to respond to an incident anywhere in the state of Nebraska and establish our incident logging operations from any point where we can access a browser,” said Al Berndt, NEMA’s Assistant Director. “We can tie together multiple response locations without having to worry about infrastructure,” he said. “That lets us concentrate on our mission.”
NEMA utilizes a Duty Officer system to maintain a 24-hour-a-day response capability. The Duty Officer and Backup Duty Officer can access the system from home or other remote locations and log incident information without relocating to the Emergency Operations Center. NEMA uses ESS Crisis to coordinate incident logging and information sharing on a wide-area basis without the need for a dedicated network.
As a result, NEMA officials are better prepared to prepare for and respond to any kind of emergency incident, thanks to its new information management tools.
About ESS
ESS is the leading provider of software for Environmental, Health & Safety (EH&S) and Crisis Management. The company has provided global and local solutions to more than 17,000 businesses, government agencies and other organizations worldwide.
