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SURGESTORM

Cassidian’s mission-critical communications solutions are used by public and private sector organisations worldwide to keep people connected when it matters most. From 9-1-1 call taking to emergency notification services to Land Mobile Radio (LMR), Cassidian Communications Inc. helped the Northeastern US survive and recover from Hurricane Sandy, the deadliest cyclone of 2012.

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They called it the Superstorm. When Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast of the US in October last year, it left an unprecedented, costly and fatal wake of destruction in its path. It put to the test local pub-lic safety operations, companies and communities, along with the mission-critical communications technologies that work to ensure people’s safety every day.

“Incredibly, every solution and service platform we offer was utilised in some way during Hurricane Sandy and the nor’easter,” says Mary Wathen, Chief Operating Offi cer for Cassidian Commu-nications’ Critical Communications Solutions and Services division headquartered in Temecula, California.

Nearly 1,200 of the company’s public safety customers are located in the states directly impacted by the hurricane. Cassidian provides 9-1-1 call taking, emergency notifi cation solutions, and Land Mo-bile Radio and LTE networks to public safety operations, including Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) and federal agencies. New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg reported approximately 10,000 calls came into the city’s PSAPs every half an hour during the height of the storm.

But Cassidian also serves more than 100 private sector clients – hospitals, banks, law fi rms – in the region as well. For Gary Aydelott, Cassidian’s regional account manager, this meant that his customers were employing their emergency notifi cation systems for business continuity/disaster recovery (BC/DR) communications, helping en-sure the safety of their employees and sustain operations before, during and after the unprecedented storm.

Response in a time of rapid change

“Pretty much everyone I work with in the Northeast was impacted in some way,” says Aydelott, “whether it was their building taking on water, or employees being unable to get into work because of damage to the roads, transit systems or their own homes.”

In New York City, one Japanese bank used Cassidian’s Inbound Bulletin Board service to provide employees continuous status up-dates. A prominent Manhattan law fi rm used widespread text mes-sages to communicate their emergency notices. And an IT company for a small hedge fund used the company’s emergency notifi cation solutions to help keep the hedge fund afl oat.

“What we typically recommend is a combination,” Aydelott says. “If you’re sent a text and don’t acknowledge receipt, the system ac-counts for this and attempts another contact method. It will be as aggressive as you set it to be, given the situation.”

One fi nancial services company with 2,000 employees and fi ve offi ces in the New York–Manhattan–New Jersey area was hit hard. Before the hurricane made landfall, they activated their emergency notifi cation system, The Communicator!® NXT™, alerting people of impending danger. After safely evacuating employees, their Man-

hattan building’s basement was submerged, and 1.5 metres of water fi lled the lobby, mixing with sewage and diesel fuel to create a toxic fl ood that released hydrogen gas throughout the structure.

During and after the storm, the company used their system to account for employees. By sending out calls, texts and emails, they were able to locate and notify all of their employees – and the em-ployees were able to respond, calling into the system to receive sta-tus updates.

“Clients like this had to deal for the fi rst time with things they hadn’t thought of,” says Aydelott, “like directing people to branch offi ces operating out of hotels, sending out notifi cations as the situ-ation was changing rapidly and having to wait for missing employ-ees to make it to some place, in some way, where they were able to get in contact. They really appreciated that their system was avail-able 24 hours a day.”

Securing the future

Many of Aydelott’s customers have been with the company for at least six years, and it’s not the fi rst time that they’ve employed their emergency notifi cation systems so aggressively: from the massive blackout across the Northeast US and parts of Canada in August 2003 to everyday occurrences in cities like New York – burst steam pipes, construction accidents, labour and transit strikes, broken elevators in skyscrapers – immediate, widespread communication is always imperative. It’s just the frequency of these notices that changes when the stakes rise.

Cassidian’s emergency notifi cation systems are vital during a cri-sis, letting key decision-makers know the true extent of its impact. From there, strategies can be built around where recovery efforts most need to be focused. Cassidian Communications Inc. is a global leader in mission-critical communications solutions, providing these kinds of value-added products and services to civil and military cus-tomers worldwide.

“Every one of my clients said our systems worked great. The fi -nancial services company was using it four or fi ve times a day.” In fact, fi ve months on, this company has still not returned to its build-ing, and employs Cassidian’s automated notifi cation solutions daily to keep their employees informed.

In September 2013, Cassidian Communications Inc. will hold a summit in Nashville, Tennessee, where clients from all over the US and abroad can interact with and learn from others who have employed their emergency notifi cation technologies in high-stakes situations. “Not all of our clients have completed training with their systems,” says Aydelott, which he says proved a challenge to Cas-sidian’s tech support during the hurricane. He hopes the summit will provide further opportunity for the company’s clients to suc-cessfully weather the next storm. Jess Holl

New York’s Public Safety Answering Points received 20,000 calls an hour during Hurricane Sandy

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