Homeland Security: Emergency Communications Ineffective

Five years after 9/11, we continue to turn a deaf ear to gaps in interoperable communications" -- Senator Charles Schumer, (D New York)

I know a thing or two about this. I live in a city where the emergency radios may have literally cost the lives of emergency personnel. I've been on the trauma team and had the ambulance show up with a patient that took four to the chest and their radios went dead and we had no warning a level I trauma was on the way.

I have also been on the other side of it - the paramedic arriving unannounced with a GSW that needs 4 units and a cardio-thoracic surgeon. Scariest of all, I've been on a chopper that was landing on a heli-pad only to bump heads with another chopper because the radios weren't compatible, and neither knew that the other was on approach, so no one diverted to the next nearest facility.

I took part in one last Mass Casualty Drill last spring, before leaving the hospital for academia, and it was fraught with missteps - because the communications broke down. We were using our private cell phones by the mid-way point because the radios weren't communicating properly. Mass Casualty Drills among emergency response personnel are the equivalent of war games for the military. You mobilize your resources to reveal the weaknesses so you are prepared should the unthinkable happen. It is our job to think of the unthinkable and protect the citizenry not just from the event, but from themselves and panic.

I know first-hand that interoperable communications are screwed up royally. Many FDNY personnel probably lost their lives on September 11, 2001 because they didn't hear warnings to get out of the World Trade Center that the Police radios broadcast; warnings that the buildings were crumbling.

The chaos and tragedy that can be compounded by faulty communications equipment and lack of a standard was illustrated again when Hurricane Katrina and the resulting flooding crippled New Orleans in 2005.

No one has asked me, and I am no longer a department coordinator on a trauma team and I no longer have to write mass casualty reports; but I have a couple of ideas the new congress should consider...

First of all, mandate a standard for emergency communications. This is one area where market forces are costing lives. Adopt a standard of parameters and mandate all equipment operate within those brackets. That this equipment should operate on a restricted and dedicated frequency is a given. As soon as a standard is decided on, the clock starts ticking and every emergency response organization in America has five years to get with the program, and offer incentives for prompt compliance.

Second: Cross-profession outreach. Cops need to know what the Fire Department, the ambulance crews and the ER staff actually do. If we have floated over and know something of the job our fellow responders are charged with, we can more effectively work together.

I keep hearing the right say that "9/11 Changed Everything" when on the ground, working in emergency response, I haven't seen a damned thing change for the better. In fact, if anything it has gotten worse and more layers have been added, that provide no end-use service.

We have had five years to get our collective act together, and instead of stepping up, we have been dithering around. Yeah, "9/11 changed everything" alright. It took a system that was already in need of overhaul out back and put two behind it's ear.

UPDATE: I can't get the permalinks to work in "new and improved" Blogger, but if I could I would link to Andrew at 618 Rants and Raves (I presume he counted 'em?) who has more to say about the deficits of our interoperable communications systems, and just like a cop, he lists things I didn't consider - which just proves my point that we need to cross-train our emergency personnel.

Five things the new congress needs to investigate

The American people have spoken and they said loudly "enough already!" and I could not agree more. Given that is my prevailing sentiment, the most beautiful words to these ears right now are Henry Waxman has subpoena power.

I do not desire that the Democrats play nice. Remember the last six years. Republicans not only shut the Democrats out of the legislative process; in many instances they did not even let Democratic members of committees know where committee meetings were being held. It was like double-secret governance or something.

Enough alredy indeed. Time for oversight to return.

I can think of a few things the Democrats need to start investigating the very minute the 110th congress convenes in January.

I want answers about a lot of things. Where have our pension and retirement funds been going? What really happened to lose Iraq? Why was pre-September 11 intelligence ignored? How widespread is the NSA's domestic spying program? Is "big oil" using those oh-so-creative Arthur Anderson accounting methods? By the way, we want a look at the Vice President's super-secret energy task force documents, too.

Retirement funds: Due diligence must be done and retirement funds must be managed properly. For years, corporations have been underfunding their pension funds, and shifting the risk from the corporations to the workers through the proliferation of 401k and 503c funds that are tied to the market. The Securities and Exchange Commission is too understaffed to apply due diligence, leaving policing of the funds mostly up to the administrators of those funds. Can you say fox in the hen house?

Big Oil: Why did gas priced shoot to $3.00 per gallon right after Hurricane Katrina? Refining capacity was not dramatically affected. The impact on extraction from off-shore rigs was a blip at best. The U.S. Department of Energy reports that the gulf coast refineries are not operating at capacity, which indicates that there is actually some slack in the system. This internal Texaco memo is pretty telling, however:

supply significantly exceeds demand year-round. This results in very poor refinery margins and very poor refinery financial results. Significant events need to occur to assist in reducing supplies and/or increasing the demand for gasoline.

Say it out loud, you know you are thinking it...Price fixing is going on and price fixing is illegal. Period.

The last serious investigation into the oil industry was concluded in 1952, a full decade before I was born. I think it is high-time they get scrutinized. Darth Cheney's energy task force would fall into this category, since so many petrol people were on it...Supposedly. One of those for the public good things that has been kept from the public. Why the hell would that be? (Plans to invade Iraq to get their oil are, perhaps, lurking in those documents?)

September 11: Investigate further what happened to the run up to the terror attacks of September 11 2001. More than one ball got dropped there. An informant for the FBI rented an apartment to two of the highjackers. The CIA had followed the two Saudi nationals to Malaysia and lost track of them before they left for California. But they remained off the FBI radar, even though they rented from an FBI informant (who was also a Saudi spy).

They had the August 06 2001 daily briefing that was dismissed with that immortal aWol-ism "okay, you have covered your ass now."

Oh yeah. I have a lot of unanswered questions about this cock-up that cost 3000 American lives.

Domestic Spying: I for one have seen this movie before. The cast of characters included the Church Committee, the Pike Committee and COINTELPRO. COINTELPRO was a domestic spying operation that targeted the peace movement. Now we have the FBI and local law enforcement spying on groups that oppose the war. Once again, they need to be brought to heel.

The NSA wiretapping probram is the part of the iceberg above the water line. The real danger lurks beneath the surface.

Iraq: We have a fuck-up of monumental proportions on our hands. Iraq had nothing to do with September 11, and now we know that plans to invade Iraq were laid before September 11 occured, if not before the boy king was installed. This absolutely must be investigated thoroughly, and if war crimes have been committed, the perpetrators must be surrendered to The Hague.

There you go. A handfull of investigations that should commence immediately. Representative Waxman, your country awaits and we know you will not disappoint. Give 'em hell, Henry.