WASHINGTON-When an emergency event occurs, there is currently no directory of available entities-both public and private-to use for contact and information sharing. The ComCARE Alliance hopes to change that by developing the Emergency Provider Access Directory.
“The lack of a directory to enable that kind of communication was a critical missing link. We hope EPAD will fill that gap,” said Judith Woodhall, executive director of the Communications for Coordinated Assistance and Response to Emergencies (ComCARE) Alliance. “The point is to have the information available so that everybody can see the information about an incident. It is not about technology; it is about bringing disparate groups together.”
ComCARE received a $1.7 million grant from the Department of Justice to develop EPAD and hopes to release a request for proposals in July, choose a vendor partner in August and have an alpha version of EPAD ready in January. A flash demo is being fine tuned but will shortly be available on the ComCARE Web site at comcare.org.
EPAD is not expected to replace existing technology that entities already have, said Rob Martin, EPAD director of partnership development and communication. “It helps use the information you have.”
ComCARE envisions a scenario where an incident occurs-anything from a traffic accident to a weather event to a major terrorist attack-and EPAD subscribers in a specific geographic area would receive information about the incident that can then be downloaded into their own systems for their own use.
While the media is expected to subscribe to and be a member of EPAD, the type of information it receives may be slightly different than what others receive, said David Alyward, president of National Strategies and ComCARE founder.
“If you were a daily press outlet or TV station, you would be registered for weather alerts or major events so you would get the information you need,” said Alyward. As for a traffic accident, “you might not get all of the data-there is no reason to have the actual crash data-but rather the fact that a crash occurred.”
