Computer model helps guide responders on disaster plans

SUFFOLK

Don't worry, the hurricane is just a computer code at this point. There's still time to get ready. And, if Lockheed Martin has its say, training will be a key part of that preparation.

The company is in the final stages of tweaks before it rolls out its "incident-management simulation," a computer-based model that will enable federal, state and local emergency responders to train in real time for a wide variety of disasters.

Unlike previous generations of disaster programs, this modeling will be dynamic, allowing users to make decisions and watch the good - and bad - that follow.

On Wednesday, the company invited local emergency planners to its Center for Innovation for a demonstration and discussion. The five-hour, real-time event was set to simulate the Hampton Roads area 10 hours after imaginary Hurricane Nerissa made landfall.

A room of company employees played the roles of emergency operations center personnel. From their terminals they monitored flooding and road conditions, dispatched road crews and ambulances, oversaw shelters, cleared debris, sent out news releases and so on. With each decision they made, the model adjusted.

The product will allow localities to use their own procedures and "train as you respond," all in an effort to make the response as realistic as possible, said software engineer Dave Macannuco.

The software running the model is intentionally flexible, he said, so localities can tailor it to their own populations. Once it's ready, users will be able to access it via the Internet, allowing them to train in their own facilities.

And though the simulation is nearly ready to roll, it will continue to be refined.

"We're trying to stick the whole world in a computer," Macannuco said. "There's always more you can do."

Besides the hurricane scenario, the company's research and development arm has been working on an improvised nuclear attack; biological, chemical and radiological attacks; a disease outbreak; and an improvised explosive device.

William Ginnow of the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Medical Response System attended Wednesday's hurricane demonstration.

Ginnow said there is a great need for programs like this, which can train for a mass casualty incident and, more important, simulate the results of people's decisions.

"We can't wait for the real thing to happen," he said.

Matthew Jones, (757) 446-2949, matthew.jones@pilotonline.com