Emergency responders to have online info source

Emergency responders nationwide will soon have access to vital information via a single online source.The Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded a contract Sept. 28 to CNI All Points Logistics to set up FEMA’s Emergency Management Information Management System (EMIMS) as a repository for emergency management information.The contract is worth $2.2 million, with four additional options available for a potential total of $4.5 million. The company will provide program management for the system. Subcontractor SSI Services created the commercial application, Knowledge Center, on which EMIMS is based.“The system will be used to coordinate and effectively manage the incident, to develop future operational plans, to prepare comprehensive periodic reports, to track information requests and other pending actions, and to maintain accurate records,” according to a FEMA news release.EMIMS sorts emergency information for validity and importance and then distributes it to multiple offices, including the National Response Coordination Center (NRCC), Regional Response Coordination Center and the Joint Field Offices.The system effectively becomes an automated system to support emergency managers across the country.“Any person who’s in a position of command-and-control responsibilities, such as [the head of] the NRCC, needs instant access to information that he needs to make decisions in reference to the proper way to respond to whatever happens to be going on,” said John Richardson, contract specialist at FEMA. “This system will consolidate all that information and provide it in a format which [responders] will be able to read.”Richardson said the basic system should be installed in two weeks, with additional customization to follow.