IT and Crisis Management

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IT and Crisis Management
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The City of New York

• Resident population of over 8 million daytime
  population of 10 million
• Over 350,000 City employees, 300,000 retirees
• New York City Government includes 5 counties
• The 1 million student school system reports to
  the Mayor
• Annual budget exceeds 54 billion dollars
• Trails only the Federal Government, and the
  states of California New York
• If New York City was a private sector
  corporation, it would be in the Top 30 of the
  Fortune 500 companies
• Over 120 agencies, offices, and organizations
  make up The City

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New York Citys Public Safety Record

• Out of the nation's 10 and 25 largest cities,
  New York City in December 2005, ranked the safest
  with the lowest overall crime rate. Among cities
  with 100,000 residents or more, New York City
  ranked 211th out of 227 cities, between
  Alexandria, Virginia and Edison Township, New
  Jersey.

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New York Citys Major Incidents - the past 5 years

• Terrorist Attack on World Trade Center
  September 11th 2001
• Crash of Flight 587 - November 12th, 2001
• Northeastern U. S. Blackout August 14th 15th,
  2003
• Staten Island Ferry crash October 15th , 2003
• Major Transit Strike - December 20th 23rd 2005
• Blizzard, largest recorded snowfall in NYC-
  February 12th 2006

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New York Citys Major Incidents IT lessons
learned

• Aftermath of Terrorist Attack on World Trade
  Center September 11th 2001
• Needed to coordinate IT equipment requests,
  triage, stage equipment, inventory, manage FEMA
  reimbursement applications, pay vendors.
  (coordinate and track donations)
• Needed to rebuild the OEM Emergency Operation
  Center and construct a Family Assistance Center
  
• GIS capability at OEM Emergency Operation Center,
  crucial
• Needed to coordinate all of the demands and
  resources with Emergency Resource Management
  Software
• Needed to construct Backup Emergency Operation
  Center Executive Offices
• Centralize - City data centers and network fared
  very well, agency servers and networks failed
• We did not have agency by agency business
  /continuity recovery plans

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New York Citys Major Incidents - IT lessons
learned

• Crash of Flight 587 - November 12th, 2001
• Mobile GIS capability
• Rapid deployment of Family Assistance Center

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New York Citys Major Incidents - IT lessons
learned

• Northeastern U. S. Blackout August 14th 15th,
  2003
• Hadnt adequately maintained some UPSs and
  Generators
• Protocols with Telcos needed to be strengthened
• 311 Handled 172,000 calls in a single day
  despite . Harden 311.
• Feedback from public
• Relieve 911, 911 experienced normal volume
• Additional battery capacity for Public Safety
  Radio repeaters were needed spares, portable
  generators
• Satellite phones and radios for executives had
  been deployed and worked well
• We needed to harden city hall
• Data centers network fared well, no users

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New York Citys Major Incidents - IT lessons
learned

• Staten Island Ferry crash October 15th , 2003
• System on hand at 311 to track missing,
  casualties / next of kin.

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New York Citys Major Incidents - IT lessons
learned

• Major Transit Strike - December 20th 23rd 2005
• Telecommuting policies and capabilities needed to
  be developed.
• We rapidly developed and executed a plan and
  capacity to transport 911 and 311 call takers to
  work and back.
• The need for uniformed NYPD, trained to handle
  911 calls became apparent
• A call center capacity outside of the region was
  desirable.

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New York Citys Major Incidents - IT lessons
learned

• Blizzard, largest recorded snowfall in NYC-
  February 12th 2006
• CALL CENTER CAPACITY OUTSIDE OF THE REGION
  DESIRABLE
• NYC 311 handled 243,000 calls in one day, normal
  911 call volume

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NYCs Major Incidents Effect on Telecomm (1)

• Land line cellular phone utilization peaks,
  exceeding network capacities.
• Phone service spotty and extremely limited.
• Challenge for critical communication for command
  and control.
• 911 may not be accessible.
• Government Emergency Telephone Service (GETS) may
  be inaccessible via cell phone.

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NYCs Major Incidents Effect on Telecomm (2)

• A prolonged power outage, further erosion of
  phone service occurs.
• Cell sites lose power and fail over time 3-4
  hours (100UPS, 50Generator Couplings,
  10Generators)
• Public Safety Radio infrastructure fails (unless
  supported by UPS)
• Non-copper based telephone infrastructure fails.
  Fiber optics premise based multiplexers
• Cable television service fails. Radio stations
  w/o UPS go off the air.
• VoIP service dependent upon operating non-copper
  based infrastructure fails
• Premise equipment w/o battery backup fails
  wireless phones, cable modems, routers.

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New York City 3-1-1
New Yorkers only need to remember two numbers to
contact City government 911 for emergencies and
3-1-1 for everything else.

• All calls are answered by a live operator, 24
  hours a day/7 days a week/365 days a year
• Provides immediate access to language translation
  services in over 170 languages
• Allows callers to quickly and conveniently
• Be directed to a specific City, State or Federal
  agency or program
• Request detailed information about services and
  programs
• File a request for City services
• Professional, courteous, knowledgeable,
  accessible

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New York City --- Why 3-1-1 is necessary
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Access Increasing call volume

• 3-1-1 has increased the publics access to
  non-emergency government services.
• Since March 9, 2003, 3-1-1 serviced over 30
  million calls, 15 Million/year
• 3-1-1 averages approximately 47,000 calls per
  day.
• Since its inception, the average number of calls
  per day has steadily increased
• 3-1-1 has set of a service level of answering
  over 98 of calls in less than 30 seconds, no
  calls on hold beyond 3 minutes.