The video was shot in the lobby of the National Museum of Women In The Arts in Washington, D.C. before a screening of Katrina’s Children. To order a copy of the DVD click here. 

Laura Belsey, Director, Katrina’s Children

Thanks to disaster-simulation software inspired by videogames, David Friedman has a new family member: Jordan, a yellow Labrador retriever puppy. The software helped emergency workers in Louisiana rescue Jordan – and 15,000 other stranded pets – during Hurricane Gustav. ”Going by boat across a flooded field and parking lot, I saw this little yellow thing in a tree floating in the river,” Friedman said, a disaster-response coordinator with animal-rescue organization Muttshack. “It was this little yellow puppy.”

Volunteers like Friedman patched together an escape route for the animals using a disaster-preparedness simulator called Depiction. Friedman combined his amateur radio skills with simulations he had already created of the Baton Rouge area to map open roads, even without an internet connection. Volunteers picked up animals at 19 locations and coordinated 133 tractor trailers. It’s just one example of how disaster-modeling software can help responders create rescue plans in real time. During Katrina, some emergency workers used Google Earth Pro to map evacuation routes. Others have used MapPoint and XMap in crises. 

But according to emergency workers, Depiction is the cheapest ($90, compared to $1,000 and up for other systems) and easiest to customize with local logistical information. The software can integrate aerial images from Google Earth or other sources, spreadsheet data, infrastructure maps and river-depth charts. Depiction can be used to plan for disasters ahead of time, but it’s also useful for collecting and organizing data during a crisis. Citizens can e-mail reports from the field, and emergency workers can feed other data directly into the software to find alternative routes when downed power lines, flood waters or landslides block roads.

It’s no coincidence that the software’s birds-eye view sounds like something straight out of a computer-strategy game. Depiction founder Mike Geertsen hails from Microsoft’s games unit, where he was a product planner for Flight Simulator and later train sims.

When government agencies started asking to use Microsoft’s simulation platform to depict real-life situations, Geertsen saw a business opportunity. But getting the business plan approved within Microsoft was a bureaucratic challenge, so he set out on his own in 2005. He raised $1.5 million in angel funding and has gathered a staff of 14.

Geertsen has seen his platform technology used in a variety of ways, and has heard suggestions for more. Depiction has helped Red Cross volunteers evacuate victims and get supplies and rescue teams to rural areas. It has tracked flooding along the Snohomish River. A potential investor imagined it could simulate salmon runs in the San Francisco Bay Area, which are at their lowest level in decades.

In the video below, Depiction is used to predict the effect of rising sea levels on Manhattan:

Thanks to the American Red Cross of Greater New York’s News Blog where I saw this originally. Here is proper fire safety and business preparedness advice from the Red Cross.

Taking Chance is a beautiful, eloquent and compelling movie. The subject matter becomes even more timely with the announcement today that the Obama Administration is reversing a ban on news coverage of the return of war dead, allowing photographs of flag-covered caskets with the permission of the families.

Among the movie’s many highlights, what was particularly resonant to me is how it not only illustrates the disconnect between those who are fighting abroad and most civilians here at home but also the desire for many of those same civilians to connect and somehow contribute.

Kevin Bacon as Lt. Col. Michael Strobl in “Taking Chance”

That theme is underscored in one particularly powerful scene: Strobl and Phelps’ coffin are being driven from Dover Air Base to the Philadelphia airport by a college age man who tells the Colonel that he doesn’t think he could join the Marines because he’s in a band and would have to get a haircut. The man also tells Strobl he doesn’t understand why we’re fighting in Iraq but says that after a high school classmate was killed and another was badly injured in Iraq, he volunteered to drive the coffins of dead servicemen and women and their military escorts from Dover. As he tells Strobl, “I just wanted to do something.” I think that is a sentiment of many Americans who just want to do something to give back. The challenge is tapping that interest among the public. It is an objective that President Obama has spoken about often and is a goal of this blog. (And, I think emergency preparedness offers opportunities for average citizens.)

“Taking Chance” can be seen on HBO at these dates and times.

I also wanted to recommend an equally striking documentary which is where I first learned about the story of Chance Phelps and Michael Strobl. PBS’ “Operation Homecoming”,  produced by The Documentary Group in 2007, explores the firsthand accounts of American troops through their written words, and offers a profound window into the human side of the war being fought in Iraq. The film evolved out of a National Endowment for the Arts project that gathered the writing of soldiers and their families who have participated in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Chance Phipps segment with Col. Strobl is narrated by actor Robert Duvall. It can be purchased here. For more information on Chance Phelps, you can go to the Chance Phelps Foundation at ChancePhelps.com.

I wanted to comment on the second criticism, because I believe it gets at a fundamental issue about how the government communicates its activities to the public. In fact, I think the frustration some critics have had with the show’s lack of terrorism stories is related to the frustration that former DHS Secretary Chertoff expressed in a recent exit interview with ABC News about the difficulty in explaining what he believes is the scope of the terrorist threat to the American public. 

ABC has been promoting “Homeland Security USA” by promising that:

“…The series takes cameras into situations never before seen on television, with each episode covering eight or more locations on the “front lines” where the officers and agents work each day…The Department’s missions include everything from vetting adoption papers and checking visitors’ passports to intercepting undocumented immigrants, drugs and other contraband, and stopping potential terrorists trying to cross our borders.”

But through the first three episodes, there have been no examples of potential terrorists being stopped trying to cross our borders. Most every story shows customs and border security personnel doing the border security that we all are used to — ie. “intercepting undocumented immigrants, drugs and other contraband”.  

Now, those responsibilities are very important, but it is not the full picture of Homeland Security USA. There is almost nothing on terrorism activities which Americans have been told is DHS’s raison d’etre. And almost eight years after 9/11, if viewers don’t see any examples of potential terrorists trying to enter the country on a show called “Homeland Security USA” then a lot of them will get the message that maybe there aren’t any terrorists trying to do so anymore. Understandably, people become skeptical about the threats if they never read or see anything specific about any of them. 

That only makes the job of law enforcement officials more difficult. In the interview with ABC News, Chertoff tried to emphasize that terrorists are still regularly attempting to get into the United States. According to the ABC.com story on the interview:

“Every month, I get a report from our border authorities about people who are stopped” as they attempt to enter, he [Chertoff] said. Though it’s somewhat rare, he said some are stopped “based on what they have in their laptop or what they have in their luggage or based on what we know about them, people who are dangerous, who are coming in either with a plan or a recipe to build an improvised explosive device, or people who we know have affiliations with terrorist groups. ”Fortunately, we have stopped them at the border and that’s what protects this country,” he added. Though he wouldn’t say how many individuals are stopped for such reasons, he said, “it’s certainly a number that would concern me if we stopped doing what we are doing.”

But I think that the American public should be told a little more about these “individuals” who are of concern. I would recommend that going forward government officials need to be more forthcoming with specific information about who is being stopped and why. Obviously, there are limitations with sharing that type of info; top secret sources and methods often cannot be given away. But I believe there is need to address the skepticism from public and media about the threat, because it is a major problem if the government does not have citizen support and trust. Further, getting more information would also allow civilians to be more helpful to law enforcement which officials say they would like and in fact need to make their anti-terrorism efforts as effective as possible.

A U.S. border security officer in ABC-TV’s “Homeland Security USA”

By focusing almost solely on immigration cases, “Homeland Security USA” adds to the public perception that the threat may not be there. The title of the show , though dramatic and eye catching,  just underscores that disconnect. It probably should have been called Border Security USA. In fact, this show has been modeled after a program from Australia, “Border Security: Australian Frontline”. (By the way, I enjoy the show and find informative as well as entertaining. Despite its shortcomings detailed above, it does provide interesting behind the scenes access to immigration operations and can often be quite colorful in depicting some of things people do to get into the U.S. illegally.) 

According to Chertoff and many law enforcement officials I have interviewed, there remains a significant ongoing terror threat. But as time passes since 9/11, there is a need to remind the public of the situation — in a calm, reasoned and accurate way. I would suggest that new DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and other national security officials aim to be more open with the public and the media. I think this can be done without compromising security, sensationalizing it or scaring the public.

The movie is directed by Laura Belsey and produced by Belsey, Babs Johnson and Richard C. Colton, and it is definitely worth seeing if it comes to your part of the country. Check the website at www.katrinaschildren for the schedule (There is a screening in New Orleans this Sunday.) The documentary is also available for sale to individuals for $24 at www.katrinaschildren.com/SFNT.html.

It is a compelling and wrenching movie which brings the viewer back to the events of 9/11, and then to the days, weeks and years afterwards. There are interviews with many of the key participants like family members like Mary and Frank, 9/11 Commission members, witnesses, and other experts. It is co-narrated by Kevin Costner and Hilary Swank. The movie is very informative and is dramatic without being sensationalistic. I recommend it to anyone interested in the topic.

But the thing that I found most striking — and relevant for this blog — about the film is the way it shows how the persistent actions of average citizens — in this case people like Mary and Frank Fetchet and other family members making sure there was a 9/11 Commission —  can make a difference and move the levers of government. It is a lesson that every school child — and a lot of adults — should see.

The episode is wonderful – informative, funny, inspiring, frank, and beautifully shot. There are many interesting moments throughout the show (as a father of two young daughters, I was particularly taken by the stories of the women serving in so many capacities on the ship). But for the purposes of the blog, I want to highlight one theme that comes through right from the start that I think is very much applicable to citizen preparedness back here at home.

The first episode opens with a stirring three-and-a-half minute video overture accompanied by a song from one of my favorites, The Killers, called ”All The Things That I’ve Done”. (You can view the segment at pbs.org/weta/carrier/full_episodes.htm). Towards the end of the opening montage, a senior fighter pilot tells the interviewer about the ship’s prevailing team-oriented, management philosophy:

“All the departments are vital to make a jet fly off a carrier to put a piece of precision ordinance onto a target…without one department, without religious ministries, without the legal department, without the reactor department, without supply department, without hot water cold water and steam for the catapults none of it works.”

During the show, that ethic comes through repeatedly from the top levels of the ship, and it filters down throughout the Nimitz — that an aircraft carrier is only as strong as its weakest link and the enterprise will be strongest when everyone is doing their job all down the line. Further, and maybe even more importantly that objective can be compromised by anyone at any level. We need to bring that same approach in communicating with the public about our homeland security

, t 

The deck of the Nimitz from Carrier

I have had the opportunity to interview many political leaders, homeland security and emergency management officials, as well as first responders. And almost all of them tell me how important the public is to preparing, preventing and then responding to emergencies.

If they really believe it (and I think they do) then the first step is for them to more actively tell us how and why we are important. In fact, I would argue that should be a priority of the next President to tell us exactly that – both encouraging and challenging us to take on that responsibility. Understandably, people aren’t going to take on responsibility if you don’t tell them why and how they should.

Obviously, a kitchen dishwasher is not as vital as a Navy top-gun airman to the ultimate objectives of the carrier. Nor is the average citizen as crucial as a first responder to preparing and responding to emergencies. However, as we see over and over, most recently during the recent floods, the public is a key element in dealing with disasters. And we also have the ability to hamper that process as well. It may well be partially propaganda but you get a clear sense in Carrier that even the lowest ranking person on the Nimitz still feels part of a team.

Obviously, we have military — and uniformed responders – that are on the so-called point of the spear. But the rest of us have a role too and right now our talents, energy and spirits are not being tapped fully. Our leaders need to tell us how and why we are important in order to foster the same team mentality at home that, at least according to Carrier, the leaders of the Nimitz have successfully done on the water.