Mark Boudreaux is the Executive Director of the Terrebonne Parish Communications District and an Instructor for APCO. With hurricane season in full swing and his center recently adopting Prepared, Mark wanted to share his thoughts on how his center will use Prepared to adapt their approach to hurricanes and other emergency situations. Here are his thoughts:
On August 29, 2021, Terrebonne Parish took a direct impact from Hurricane Ida, a catastrophic Category 4 storm. It lasted a total of nine hours including five continuous hours of hurricane force winds. In the aftermath of the storm, we received much of our information from the various communities in our Parish by phone or radio. Moving forward, we will have the ability to provide our first responders an actual view of the damaged areas from the citizen’s perspective through Prepared.
This recent software addition to our 911 center gives us the ability to receive media in ways we could not during Hurricane Ida. The increased situational awareness provided by Prepared includes the ability to preserve shared photos and video for historical record maintenance. Instead of relying on social media posts that were made during, and after, Ida, we can rely on direct connections with citizens who dial 911 and elect to to provide media.
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For example, at the peak of Ida, we received a 911 call regarding an apartment building collapse. If we had Prepared, we could have sent a request to the caller to see the damage on-scene and an additional request to know the exact GPS location of the collapse. In this case, and future cases, this extraordinary tool can save valuable time spent during the search and rescue phase of recovery.
Prepared is truly a remarkable tool for all aspects of Public Safety. Not only does it provide “eyes on the scene” before first responder arrival, it also gives callers the sense of having someone with them on the scene - not just on the phone but with them, seeing what they see.
Imagine a routine call of a stalled motorist who is waiting for law enforcement response. Now, that citizen has the ability to share the vehicle’s location, any potential damages, and detailed images with dispatchers. When help arrives, it is the specific, measured help that the dispatcher sent based on the information they received from the caller. The applications are limitless.
One of the most common calls that 911 agencies receive are referred to as “hang-up” calls, many of which are from children. With Prepared, we now have the ability to check on the welfare of the accidental caller by requesting permission to see the circumstance that lead them to initially call 911.
One of our most recent uses of the software involved a caller reporting her missing child. Our 911 telecommunicator was able to receive a recent photo of the child from the mother’s cell phone and provide it to the Deputies responding. The child was seen and identified by a Deputy while en route to the call.
Under normal circumstances, we would've had to wait until we came in contact with the mother to see these photos. By enabling reception of the photo, we were able to start the search quicker and resolve the emergency.
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Terrebonne Parish, led by Mark, is a valued partner of Prepared. They continue to find new ways to use Prepared to make their community safer. We are honored to see them use our software for good.
To learn more about how your center can add this technology, please book a demo with a member of our team.
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