Community Response In Disasters / Incidents

January 17, 2009

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Notes• Examples which are given in brackets are for the purpose of demonstrating the line

of thought and are not the only options• This is an idea and a call to contribute / participate if the feedback is a ‘thumbs up’• Participation can be by way of assisting in creating the strategy, planning,

implementing and bringing the idea to being• For this presentation we are assuming Disasters and Incidents to be unwelcome

events that cause damage• The thought behind this idea is not to set up a parallel agency but to have a

grassroots initiative which will provide strength to the official machinery and NGO without (in any way) trying to impede their efforts – we recognize their organization and experience and will try to learn from them and optimize their processes where possible

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A small group of professionals working in Information Security got together to discuss life beyond technical stuff which non-geeks find difficult to understand.

As a result of not being able to understand this technical security stuff and how it permeates into the organization DNA, these guys found that the non-geek person a.k.a. the Business Owner / Manager did not consider it necessary to provide adequate budgetary allocation !

So these guys got together and want to work under OSA to present the risks, threats and vulnerabilities in an easy and understandable language. Just to make sure the non-geek understands the problems as well and gets as scared as the IS guy.

• OSA - an open community of individuals who are committed to providing the benefit of their knowledge and expertise to community.

• OSA - individual initiatives to undertake research and studies in Information Security (India centric) then provide learning to community.

• …. The underlying thought is to Be The Change.

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Disasters / Incidents

• Terror / Terrorist attacks• Fire• Natural Disasters (Earthquakes, Floods)• Criminal Activity (smuggling etc)• Anti-Social activity (drugs, eve teasing)• Accidents (train mishaps)• Cyber Attack

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First Response• Active Citizen(AC) witnesses incident and communicates to immediate team • AC Immediate team consists of immediate neighborhood AC’s from extended

neighborhood• AC-Lead tags the event as L1-L2-L3 depending on the type / severity of incident• AC-Lead activates escalation procedure via online system • Online process will be single point of submission and will activate all members in

the escalation path• Escalation will reach an “Intermediary AC” • Connect with various official authorities and facilities• Obtain contact coordinates • AC Ecosystem / Communication Team

– Establish AC-Response at crisis centers like hospitals, police control room etc – Activate AC-Feedback to monitor media transmission– Activate AC-Web to establish website and update with incoming information

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Active Citizen On Scene

Group / Neighborhood AC

AC Lead + Team

-School-College -Society Members-NGOs-Political -Police -Fire Dept

Establishment Ecosystem Hospitals - Police – Fire Department –Government – NGOs - Media

AC Ecosystem is activated to obtain and disseminate information from “establishment” and from onsite AC - via Communication Team

AC Communication Team

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Organizing the Initiative• Active and Concerned Citizens (AC) inducted through Schools,

Colleges, Housing Society Members, NGOs, Organizations, Offices, Law enforcement etc

• Implement a Quick Communication System using cellphones, text messages, twitter, internet blogs etc

• Training and education materials : disaster response, confirmation, escalation, communication….. etc

• Organization hierarchy : AC > Group > Lead > Comm > >>• Visual “identifiers” like badges / colors / tee-shirts for volunteers• Dynamic databases of volunteers, emergency services with

contact information, skills, mapped location, officer in charge

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Train the Team

• Use web based and contact training methods• Training areas can include

– Personal Response– Situation Assessment– Identifying Resources (tools, weapons)

• Periodic Drills • Interaction with Public, NGOs, Fire, Police,

Government departments

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Resources that can be mobilized

• Website(s) enabled for updates via regular modes and email / sms / chat / live response

• Twitter, Facebook etc Social Networking sites• Member Blogs and Panel Ads • Incident / Disaster sites• Media sites (TOI, PTI, IE, HT, Rediff, Reuters)

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To Start…. We need to have ..• Disaster / Incident Response Plan covering

– Identify the event– Mobilize resources and teams for response

• Open all communication channels• Operationalize reporting points (hospitals)

– Respond by facilitating • Flow of information to affected persons (families)• Report to points of escalation (Police, NGO etc)

– Updates based on Learning experiences

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Common Issues • Wounded and dead not accounted for in the

heat of the event (everyone is busy in remediation / recovery / containment)

• Next of kin clueless about official information centers because information gathering happens late

• Government looks clueless in their response since usually official machinery is thrown out of gear or is insufficient

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Common Issues

• Emergency services are not “connected” through a central dispatch system to ensure quick mobilization

• Disaster relief is wasted due to improper management of the supply chain (Kutch had numerous NGOs working and independent truckloads of donated food etc adding to chaos)

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Hard Look at Ground Realities

• Citizen cannot take up the role of responder and can only be a facilitator

• Citizen may be a helpless bystander at times and helpless (or clueless too) in the face of a disorganized establishment

• But the citizen can network and ease a lot of pain caused by the lack of organized response on the part of the establishment

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www.opensecurityalliance.orgJoin OSA and leverage your knowledge and expertise to provide guidance and direction to community. Help in removing the FUD and misinformation and contribute to practical and usable studies and research that is India centric.

This document is created by Open Security Alliance and is released in the public domain under Creative Commons License (Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 India) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/in/.

Title: Community Disaster/Incident ResponseVersion: 2.0 / January 17, 2009