NCJ Number
122365
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 57 Issue: 3 Dated: (March 1990) Pages: 42-43
Date Published
1990
Length
2 pages
Annotation
Computer software called geographic information systems enabled rescue officials in Alameda County (Calif.) to dispatch help quickly to wherever it was most needed and to monitor the progress of the rescue efforts that followed the earthquake in California's Bay Area on October 17, 1989.
Abstract
The software required only a small personal computer. It allowed vital information to be placed, moved, and changed on a map that was drawn to scale on the computer. The software also allowed information to be retrieved from outside databases to provide faster identification of damaged cars and faster responses to downed power lines. In addition, the system integrated information from many sources onto a single map to make decisionmaking and dispatching simpler. As many as 80 people at a time could examine the 6 foot square map that was projected from the computer screen onto a wall in the Alameda Emergency Operations Center in an underground room. The computer program was also used to aid the rescue efforts involving Interstate Highway 880, where officials lacked their own system and relied on photocopies from a booklet with 51 pages depicting 80-foot sections of the collapsed highway. Photographs.