FirstNet innovates disaster recovery for emergency management

By Bruce Fitzgerald, Senior Public Safety Advisor, First Responder Network Authority

FirstNet helps with the four phases of emergency management – preparedness(link is external)response(link is external), recovery, and mitigation. I’d like to dive deeper into how FirstNet helps with the recovery phase.

Communicating during the recovery phase

Every year, disasters put millions of Americans in danger and cost billions of dollars in property damage. After the threat of harm from a disaster has passed, the recovery phase starts. Recovery can take months or years to get a community back on its feet. It’s critical to quickly start damage assessments and applications for financial assistance following a disaster.

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Durham 911 call taker says training struggles, worker burnout have led to ongoing operator shortage (NC)

DURHAM, N.C. (WNCN) – Almost half of the 911 operator positions in Durham are vacant, according to data on the city of Durham’s website.

There are currently 28 vacancies out of 60 call taker positions, according to the website. One year ago when CBS 17 first started covering the shortage of 911 operators, there were 30 vacant positions.47% of Durham 911 call taker positions are vacant – almost the same amount as 1 year ago 

Why can’t the Durham Emergency Communications Center build up the staffing numbers? … READ MORE