Wireless technology helps FEMA handle disaster relief

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is using wireless technology to react faster to the flood disaster resulting from Tropical Storm Allison. FEMA relief efforts are under way in Houston, where Allison flooded 38,000 houses and businesses, including an important medical center. FEMA's wireless network in Houston consists of 500 wireless telephones and 400 laptop computers with wireless modems. "This is the largest center we have ever set up this way," said Travis Ratcliff, a logistics section chief for FEMA who is now working in Houston. The laptops interface with FEMA's National Emergency Management Information System. In the shopping mall that houses FEMA's temporary headquarters for the Allison relief effort in Houston, users can take their phones and laptops anywhere in the building and the technologies will still be operational. FEMA is still experimenting with wireless technology, but Ratcliff said he expects there to be more setups like Houston's in the future. "With wireless, you don't have to run telephone lines inside a building," he said. "That saves many days of labor on installation and the cost of telephone wiring." Setting up such a field office typically takes between three and five days, Ratcliff said. But because wireless technology was used in Houston, it took FEMA less than 24 hours to make the office fully operational. FEMA expects to save money by using the wireless system. "It pays for itself," Ratcliff said. "We figure that the money saved over one and a quarter disasters will pay for the entire system. This is a much more efficient and effective way of conducting business." Tropical Storm Allison came ashore June 10 and caused up to $2 billion in damage in Houston alone. Allison has claimed at least 43 lives from Texas to Pennsylvania.