Submitted by:
Jodi Horigan
Writer/Editor
Communication, Information, and Technology Staff
Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Room 3323-South Bldg.
Washington, DC 20250-0900 USA
v: (202) 720-6145
f: (202) 690-0289
e: jhorigan@usda.gov
Categories:
Other (Using technology for disaster assistance)
Keywords:
Innovative or improved ways of doing things; More equitable access to technology or electronic information; Creation of new ideas, products, or services; Technology transfer; Local commitment to network-based activities; Volunteer contributions of time and energy
Supporting Documentation (contact author for more information):
Video (A video news spot exists outlining a single story of aid to 4-H Hurricane victims collected and sent by 4-H’ers on Long Island, NY); Documentation; Other (Fact Sheets still available via Almanac)
Story Site (if other than location listed above):
Homestead/Dade County, FL; hurricane-struck portions of Louisiana and Mississippi; ES-USDA, Clemson University and Purdue University; the states of Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Indiana; and Washington, District of Columbia
The Story:
HURRICANE COMING? READ YOUR ALMANAC!
Extension Service Uses Internet E-Mail for Rapid Response to Disaster
The National Weather Service issued a frightening warning late in August 1992. Hurricane Andrew–a storm of staggering force–was headed for the southeast United States. As the storm approached the mainland, Extension specialists in several states turned to the Almanac. This Almanac was not the book generations of farmers thumbed through for help. This is the Almanac of the `90’s, and it’s found on computer screens–not in a bookcase. Developed at Oregon State University, Almanac is an information server that uses e-mail to receive requests for and deliver stored documents. It operates over the Internet system, which electronically networks the cooperative Extension System nationwide–at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 74 land-grant universities, and thousands of local sites.
Almanac serves up information in different forms:
- stored full-text documents can be accessed upon request, read on screen, printed, or be sent to the requestor’s electronic files;
- subscriptions to periodicals such as newsletters, daily news releases, and market and weather reports; and o special “mailboxes” for rapidly gathering and disseminating critical information. Six states and Extension Service, USDA, now have Almanac information servers, and several are under development.
Rapid Response Beforehand
For Clemson (SC) University Extension staff, access to Almanac was a quick way to provide threatened states with materials developed during Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Computer specialists at Clemson immediately began to convert the text of 33 fact sheets on topics ranging from water and food safety to filing an insurance claim. ES-USDA and Clemson staff coordinated the effort with technicians at Purdue University, who helped download the text to Purdue’s Almanac server. Staff in endangered areas of Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana downloaded the information, printed it, and had fact sheets ready BEFORE the hurricane hit…BEFORE power went off…BEFORE telephone lines came down. When food and water centers opened after the storm, agents were ready with much- needed information–in 3 languages.
E-Mail the Only Communication
Over the following days, E-mail messages flew back an forth from Dade County, as Florida State University and Extension Services all over the Nation organized relief efforts for the devastated states. That the System was able to regain e-mail contacts despite wholesale power outage was by no means a small feat. Extension Information Director DON POUCHER, University of Florida IFAS, arrived in Homestead behind the wheel of a solar – powered mobile communications center. For many days this was the only source of power in the stricken county. Before telephones were restored and fax machines powered up, messages from the center brought home the personal side of Hurricane Andrew. E-mail requests for essential goods spoke volumes about human needs, with pleas for baby formula and other food, diapers, water, and gasoline– and even chain saws for removing debris. The messages struck the heart of the system, and relief efforts intensified. In one instance, only a week after Andrew hit southern Florida, a truck transported to 4-H’ers in Dade County water, canned goods, clothing, toys, and games collected by 4-H’ers on Long Island, NY. USDA Extension Service issued daily on-line disaster up dates to the Department. The System was kept informed via weekly updates we transmitted in the ES Administrator’s newsletter, “Current Developments,” one of the subscriptions available from the ES-USDA Almanac information server.
Expanding Textbase for More
Texas A&M University staff are coordinating efforts with ES- USDA to update the Disaster Handbook originally done at Penn State. All contributions will be available in electronic format. In the meantime, an electronic fact sheet archive on Almanac can easily be added to with existing and new fact sheets dealing with other natural disasters, such as earthquakes and floodwaters.
For additional information contact:
Janet Poley
Director
Communication, Information, and Technology Staff
Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Room 3329-South Bldg.
Washington, DC 20250-0900
v: (202) 720-3029
f: (202) 690-0289
e: jpoley@usda.gov