Many islanders who heeded the evacuation order may recall the frustration felt when, during the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Charley, they tried to find out what happened to their homes or businesses. Stranded off-island while workers cleared the streets and fixed the sewers, these folks had no idea of what they would eventually return home to find 5 days later. Well, many positive things have come about as people learned from the mistakes made during that storm, and one of them is a special software program that will allow emergency personnel who come onto the island immediately following a hurricane to input data based on the things that they observe. This data will instantly be visible on a website that evacuees can access and have real-time information about what happened to their homes, streets and neighborhoods. The data will also allow for faster cleanup, so folks don't have to stay away from their homes so long.

At Monday night's CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) Amy Hoyt from Lee County GIS presented the software to the CERT members, teaching them to use the program during the conducting of "windshield evaluations" as soon as the storm begins to pass.

The CERT program itself is a product of Charley, and now comprises nearly 100 volunteers who are trained under the auspices of the Fort Myers Beach Fire Department to conduct light search and rescue efforts in the aftermath of a storm until the firemen and other emergency personnel can arrive. Brought to FMBFD by Chief Mike Becker, the program follows nationwide criteria set up by FEMA. Al Agathen, a former firefighter from Wisconsin, was tapped by Becker to lead CERT, and it was he who introduced Amy at the members' monthly meeting.

"After Charley, we had people do this written assessments and ended up with boxes of paper, some of which we still don't know where it went," said Hoyt. "So we knew we had to come up with something different."

The software, called I2C Enterprise, is being implemented across Lee County and is easy to use. After clicking on the icon, CERT members or other emergency personnel conducting the damage assessment locate their name in a drop-down field under each department, then log into the site. A map of Lee County is presented, which is actually comprised of hundreds of low altitude photos taken once every three years. Once an area is selected, the user can zoom down to rooftop level, and all street names and house numbers are listed, so in case an area is destroyed the user can identify what used to be there.

To the right of the top of the screen are tabs for the different types of assessments, and users can conduct anything from a simple visual survey from the front seat of a vehicle to thorough inspections and resident interviews. At the far top right hand corner is a "synchronize" symbol, that, when clicked, uploads the information to the server which makes it visible to anyone accessing the site, including - among others - the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and others conducting assessments - thus eliminating duplicate assessments of the same site. In addition, the person entering the information's name is recorded, along with the time the entry was made.

For the "windshield assessment" that CERT members will conduct, different icons indicating tree debris, utilities, power lines, flooding, etc are clicked and placed on the spot on the map where the item is observed. For homes, the windshield assessment indicates damage easily visible, all all the information about the owner and the value of the property (taken from property assessment data) pops up as soon as the address is clicked on.

"This will save a lot of time as our emergency personnel will instantly know where the trouble spots are," said Hoyt. "And people can go directly to the site, see what's been entered for their neighborhood, and even run real-time reports on damage assessments. FEMA has access to the site, too, and this will help get aid faster."

Hoyt told the CERT members that the program is being updated even further to include such things as sand - which washed over the island during Charley, making many streets impassable - and the ability to upload photos.

Keri Hendry