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$2 million distributed to 25 areas to improve response in disasters
By MICHAEL MARTZ
Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia)
Firefighters and rescue workers in Hanover County will be able to radio their counterparts in Richmond and other neighbors in a regional emergency.
Police in Petersburg will be able to monitor video feeds from a safe distance and retrieve medical data from hospitals. Fire and rescue crews will be able to find out about potential hazards in buildings they’re about to enter.
Hanover and Petersburg are two of the 25 localities that learned yesterday that they will receive federal grants in the next two weeks to improve the ability of emergency communications systems to talk to one another in a disaster. Virginia is distributing $2 million through its homeland security grant program.
The purpose of the grants is to improve the “interoperability” of emergency communications systems in a terrorist attack or natural disaster. The issue has been high on the country’s security agenda since the chaos that followed the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center in 2001.
In Hanover, for example, county fire and rescue workers use a radio system made by Ma-Com Inc., while emergency workers in neighboring jurisdictions rely on systems made by Motorola. “They will not naturally talk to each other,” said Cecil V. “Buddy” Martinette Jr., assistant county administrator in charge of emergency communications. “You can do some patching and things, but that does not really work well in an emergency situation.”
The county’s sheriff’s department received grant money last year to buy portable radios so it could communicate directly with law-enforcement agencies in Richmond, and Chesterfield and Henrico counties. The $75,000 grant announced yesterday will allow Hanover to buy portable radios for fire and rescue services, as well.
Petersburg also received a $75,000 grant through the state. The city plans to use the money to create a wireless, high-bandwidth network capable of transmitting data — from building plans to medical information and video feeds — according to a spokeswoman for the Petersburg Police Department.
The city already is improving its ability to share voice communications by erecting an 800-megahertz communications tower, financed by a grant from a nonprofit foundation, the department said. The new grant will expand the ability of city police, fire and rescue workers to share critical data in an emergency.
The grants were awarded by the State Interoperability Executive Committee, which Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said is the only such coordinating committee in the country. The committee is primarily composed of representatives from police, fire and rescue organizations, which are the “first responders” in an emergency.