How to act if there is a fire on a high-speed train

Researchers have used computer models to analyze the best way to evacuate the Spanish High Speed Train (AVE) in the case of fire; the involvement of the crew in organizing the fast transfer of passengers, completing the process before the train comes to a halt, and collective collaboration to assist those with reduced mobility are just some of the strategies to be followed

Researchers find best way to evacuate a high speed train // Source: yupedia.com

Researchers at the University of Cantabria in Spain have used computer models to analyze the best way to evacuate the Spanish High Speed Train (AVE), in the case of fire. The involvement of the crew in organizing the fast transfer of passengers, completing the process before the train comes to a halt, and collective collaboration to assist those with reduced mobility are just some of the strategies to be followed.
“In the event of fire on an AVE, two stages should be defined: the first is pre-evacuation in which passengers are transferred from one coach to another while the train is still in motion and the second involves evacuation once the train has stopped,” explains Daniel Alvear, member of GIDAI Fire Safety Group of the University of Cantabria.
A Servicio de Información y Noticias Científicas (SINC) release reports that the team of researchers have analyzed the best evacuation strategies on a high speed train, which has more inertia and less stops than others, using modeling tools and computer simulation. As Alvear says, “in this way it is possible to overcome drill exercise limitations which are costly, unrealistic and have a limited number of possible scenarios.”
Even so, input data supplied to the computer come from a real drill carried out in 2009 by 218 people inside the Guadarrama tunnel between Madrid and Segovia. The study enjoyed the participation of the Spanish Railway Network, RENFE and has been published in the Fire Safety Journal.
The results show that the pre-evacuation stage is “crucial” and the best strategy is to gather all passengers together before the train comes to a halt. Using a type of software, it was possible to determine the optimum and maximum number of coaches that can be evacuated from this type of AVE along with the time required to do so.
Two key aspects were identified in this process. One is to avoid those at the front of the evacuation line from impeding the movement of those behind. The solution involves one member of the crew hurrying up those at the front while another tells the others not to stop for their belongings. As a result, the aisle is not obstructed.
The second aspect refers to the need to evacuate those with reduced mobility. This is complex due to the AVE’s narrow aisles that make the passage of wheelchairs difficult and the fact that the amount of crew is limited. Therefore, the involvement of all passengers is recommended to assist disabled people.
Once the train has come to a halt, evacuation of the passengers can begin, taking into account the number of exits. If evacuation takes place onto the platform of the nearest station, exit availability will depend on the pre-evacuation strategy used.
For example, if the train is estimated to stop in less than ten minutes, the results indicate that the coach on fire should ideally be evacuated along with both adjacent coaches either side.
When stopping time is calculated at more than ten minutes, it is recommended that the maximum possible number of coaches is evacuated during pre-evacuation. This increases evacuation time by 27 percent compared to the first method, but passengers leave the train in safer conditions.
The driver and the railway traffic control centre are the ones who estimate how long it will take for the AVE to reach the nearest safe area, like a platform. The international standards stipulate that the train should arrive at a safe area some fifteen minutes after the fire is detected.
In many cases this is difficult and the train has to quickly stop in the middle of the line to avoid further damages. The researchers have also considered the possibility of analyzing what would happen if passengers had to alight directly onto the track ballast (the layer of gravel on which lays the track) using the emergency stairs.
The data show evacuation should be controlled by stages, giving priority to those individuals closest to the fire. This allows for quick, congestion free movement for those closest to the fire and minimizes their exposure to the harmful effects of the flames.

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Container ships as offshore platforms for direct support to disaster zones

DARPA’s Tactically Expandable Maritime Platform (TEMP) program has completed the design of technologies to transform commercial container ships into self-contained floating supply bases during disaster relief operations, without needing port infrastructure
During natural or man-made disasters, the U.S. armed forces’ rapidly deployable airlift, sealift, communication, and medical evacuation and care capabilities can supplement lead relief agencies in providing aid to victims. The Department of Defense’s 2012 strategic guidance document includes humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations as one of the U.S. military’s missions for the twenty-first century.
DARPA, the Pentagon’s research arm, says its Tactically Expandable Maritime Platform (TEMP) program has completed the design of innovative technologies to transform commercial container ships into self-contained floating supply bases during disaster relief operations, without needing port infrastructure. The program envisions a container ship anchoring offshore of a disaster area, and the ship’s crew delivering supplies ashore using DARPA-developed, modular on-board cranes and air- and sea-delivery vehicles.
“To allow military ships and aircraft to focus on unique military missions they alone can fulfill, it makes sense to develop technologies to leverage standard commercial container ships, used around the world daily, as a surge capacity for extended humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations,” said Scott Littlefield, DARPA program manager.
DARPA recently completed the first phase of the program, which developed four key modular systems, all of which are transportable using standard 20-foot or 40-foot commercial shipping containers.
The elements include:

• Core support modules— container-sized units that provide electrical power, berthing, water and other life-support requirements for an augmented crew aboard the container ship.
• Motion-stabilized cranes — modular on-board cranes to allow transfer of cargo containers at sea from the ship deck over the side and onto a sea-delivery vehicle.
• Sea-delivery vehicles — Captive Air Amphibious Transporters (CAAT) have air-filled pontoons on a tank tread-like design, enabling them to carry containers over water and directly onto shore.
• Parafoil unmanned air-delivery system — a low-cost, propeller-driven air vehicle that uses a parachute for lift and carries urgent supplies from the container ship to stricken areas on shore.

DARPA says that while its investment in demonstrating the technology has completed, the information obtained should reduce risk for efforts of the military services or other government organizations with a humanitarian assistance and disaster relief mission.

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Mobile security services, cloud top priority in business disaster planning

As the United States readies itself for the upcoming 2012 Hurricane Season, businesses and organizations have developed their business continuity and disaster recovery plans to include mobile security services in the effort of protecting their IT infrastructure
As the United States readies itself for the upcoming 2012 Hurricane Season, businesses and organizations have developed their business continuity and disaster recovery plans to include mobile security services in the effort of protecting their IT infrastructure.
A recent study by AT&T found that:

• 83 percent of executives indicated that the planning and implementation of a business continuity plan as being a priority for their businesses and organizations — a 12 percent increase over last year’s national survey.
• Six out of ten (60 percent) invest in mobile security services with the majority (69 percent) indicating potential security breaches as the most pressing concern.
• 38 percent expressed making investments in cloud computing while another 34 percent expressed investing in mobile applications.
• 86 percent already have a business continuity plan in place in the event of a disaster or threat — up 8 percent over the past five years.

The results for the latest AT&T annual business continuity study shed light on several trends regarding how businesses are preparing themselves for potential disasters and threats. AT&T says it has conducted this study for more than ten consecutive years, surveying IT executives from companies in the United States with at least $25 million in annual revenue to measure the national pulse on business continuity planning.
2012 AT&T Business Continuity Study key findings:
The complexities of maintaining mobility and wireless capabilities during the event of a disaster or security threat has become an increasing aspect of importance for businesses as they consider business continuity planning.

• 67 percent (two-thirds) of executives surveyed have included wireless network capabilities as part of their business continuity plans.
• 52 percent of IT executives surveyed anticipated the spending for mobile security services to increase.
• Cloud computing is becoming a critical element of Business Continuity plans based on security, performance and cost savings benefits.
• Most companies (65 percent) will be investing in new telecommunications technologies to support their IT infrastructures.

The prevalence of social networking capabilities and mobile networks/devices in the workplace remain a concern for IT executives as they look to minimize the impact of security threats.

• The majority of executives (87%) have become more concerned about the increased use and potential threats of mobile networks and devices than social networking capabilities (76 percent).
• 88 percent of companies surveyed have taken a proactive approach to securing their IT infrastructure.
• Two-thirds (67 percent) of IT executives indicate that their business continuity plan accommodates the possibility of a “virtual event” such as a potential security breach.

With business continuity plans in place, businesses and organizations are testing and preparing themselves for potential IT threats and disasters.

• Roughly two-thirds (63 percent) of companies have had their business continuity plans fully tested in the past year.
• Seven out of ten (71 percent) companies implement specific protective actions when the state or federal government issues an alert for an impending disaster.
• 87 percent of companies have implemented the necessary arrangements for communicating with key executives during a natural disaster.

“There’s certainly no shortage of potential threats or disasters around the world and it’s evident that executives are taking the necessary measures to ensure their business continuity plans are in place and actionable,” said Chris Costello, assistant vice president, Offer Management, Cloud Services. We’ve seen a strong emphasis on IT security and continued growth in areas of cloud and mobile applications; implying that companies are embracing the tools and services needed to continue operational activities despite potential threats and disasters.”

 http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/

Interior’s New Madrid Earthquake Exercise Report Says More Awareness, Education Needed

By: Anthony Kimery

The Department of Interior’s (DOI) May 27, 2011 After Action Report (AAR) on its participation in National Level Exercise 2011 (NLE 2011) that simulated the catastrophic results of a major earthquake in the central United States region of the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ) -- the first-ever National Level Exercise to imitate a natural hazard -- determined there’s a “need to do more outreach, awareness and education on preparedness and response to earthquakes” and “the declaration of a national emergency (not the Stafford Act) to activate reserve military units and individuals.”

The 23-page DOI NLE 2011 After Action Report was released last month pursuant to a federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and highlights some of the same issues that were identified in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) “For Official Use Only” National Level Exercise 2011 Functional Exercise Final After Action Report that was issued last October.

NLE 2011 was conducted May 16-20, 2011 “to prepare and coordinate a multiple-jurisdictional integrated response to a national catastrophic event,” which in this exercise was the simulation of a magnitude 7.7 earthquake along the southern segment of the New Madrid Fault, “closely followed by a magnitude 6.0 earthquake in the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone (WVSZ)."

According to the recently released Interior Department AAR, “The NMSZ is one of the most seismically active areas east of the Rockies,” and “another series of earthquakes with the magnitude of the 1811-1812 earthquake series would prove catastrophic to the region. ... Since the 1811 earthquakes, the area around the NMSZ has experienced explosive growth in both population and infrastructure.”

The federal government's National Level Exercises (formerly known as Top Officials exercises, or TOPOFF) are conducted in accordance with the Department of Homeland Security’s National Exercise Program (NEP), which serves as the nation's overarching exercise program for planning, organizing, conducting and evaluating national level exercises. The NEP was established to provide the US government, at all levels, exercise opportunities to prepare for catastrophic crises ranging from terrorism to natural disasters.

The Interior Department's AAR found there is “the need to establish four interagency working groups who will think strategically (long-term) about: economic issues, interagency operations, congressional affairs and restoration of critical services."

“The establishment of a disaster relief fund and better coordination between departments and agencies and emergency support functions (ESFs)” were also identified, as was the need “to identify who [in the international community] can make valuable contributions to the US response efforts.”

The draft May 27, 2011 AAR also determined that “qualified and trained engineers and architects need to be put into the Resource Ordering and Status System (ROSS) and positions need to be developed for the Incident Qualifications and Certification System (IQCS),” an information system that tracks training and certifications for wildland firefighters.

The Interior Department also “needs to develop a DOl emergency/disaster business practices book similar to the fire community Red Book; build awareness for the US Geological Survey’s [USGS] role in major earthquake response; foster a greater understanding of the impact a catastrophic earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone would have on DOl personnel and critical assets;” and “review DOI’s Emergency Support Function roles in response to a NMSZ earthquake.”

FEMA’s final AAR stated that “the exercise highlighted opportunities for improving emergency management nationwide,” especially when it comes to dealing with resource gaps.

"The lack of key resources and/or the inability to deliver them in a timely fashion challenged activities in almost every capability” of the exercise, FEMA’s final AAR said. Examples of gaps identified in the exercise analysis include:

• Hazardous Material (HAZMAT), Search and Rescue (SAR), and other key teams
• Generators and fuel resupplies
• Trained sheltering personnel to support the mass-care mission
• Patient-movement support
• Medical-surge personnel and supplies
• Qualified personnel to conduct road, bridge and building inspections, and
• Availability of enough rotary-wing assets to deliver resources in a timely fashion to areas where the ground and water main supply routes were obstructed.

According to DOI’s after action review, the department’s Office of Continuity Programs “indicated that this event would not seriously affect continuity programs” and thus “would not prompt a Continuity of Government Condition (COGCON) level change, however, it would affect how quickly they could respond.” The DOI AAR added that “the Office of Continuity Programs would maintain situational awareness and provide assistance as necessary.”

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Protecting U.S. bridges from terrorism, accident

More than 600,000 bridges in the United States are 20-feet long or longer, some over a century old, many of them national iconic monuments; DHS, the Federal Highway Administration, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are conducting a series of tests aiming to make the bridges better able to withstand a terrorist attack; this research is discovering how materials, connection details, and designs in aging bridges react to IEDs, other explosives, kinetic impact, intense fires, and other accidents
It took only thirteen seconds for the bridge to collapse into the Mississippi River in a thunderous rain of concrete and steel. When the Minneapolis I-35W bridge, an 8-lane, steel truss arch bridge, cracked and plummeted in 2007, one of the first thoughts was: sabotage?
While sabotage was not the cause of the I-35 bridge collapse, sabotage can be used to weaken steel plates, girders, cables, or other key structural elements of a major bridge. While sabotage may not be easy to carry out, DHS says it takes all such threats seriously.
More than 600,000 bridges in the United States are 20-feet long or longer, some over a century old, many of them national iconic monuments. The DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has joined forces with the Federal Highway Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center to conduct series of experiments that assess potential vulnerability of critical structural components of aging steel bridges.
This research aims to discover how materials, connection details, and designs in aging bridges react to IEDs, other explosives, kinetic impact, intense fires, and other accidents. In addition to vulnerability analysis, DHS S&T says it is funding several complementary efforts that investigate advances in effective and affordable ways to strengthen bridges. Data obtained through such research will help update computational models, and may be integrated into engineering software for construction of more durable bridges.
Bridge specimens for research have been obtained from state Departments of Transportation and bridge authorities. Primary bridge components (tower sections, cables, suspenders, trusses) are recovered from bridges undergoing demolition or major renovation, including several significant bridges, such as the Crown Point Bridge (Lake Champlain, New York) and the Ft. Steuben Bridge in Ohio. These are then transported to different facilities for testing. One such series of tests was recently performed at test ranges in Ft. Polk, Louisiana to determine explosive effects.
“Bridges slated for demolition are hard to come by,” says S&T Transportation Security Laboratory’s Tom Coleman. “However, last year the research team found out that the Ft. Steuben Bridge — a vintage 1929 suspension bridge in Steubenville, Ohio — was to undergo demolition in 2012.”
With the Ft. Steuben Bridge closed to traffic, there was a unique opportunity to conduct onsite tests. “We developed a way to perform controlled impact testing on the bridge using a specially designed “cold gas thruster” device,” said Coleman. “Lateral impact loads were directed at specific locations on the main cable and forces transmitted to the rest of the structure were monitored in real time. This testing, along with similar experiments performed a few years ago on the Waldo Hancock Bridge in Maine, will help us learn bridge behavior and develop mitigation measures to better prevent damage.”
In a laboratory, it is nearly impossible to replicate the myriad dynamic and static forces that interact within a bridge structure. Opportunities to conduct field tests at the Ft. Steuben have made it possible to gain better knowledge of in situ bridge behavior. In addition to the onsite testing, cables and steel tower sections were recovered from the Ft. Steuben Bridge following its recent demolition. These specimens will be assessed to determine material characteristics and vulnerabilities during blasts, and to further develop mitigation measures.
“Our current work is quite unusual because we are testing actual vintage bridge components from long-span bridges, as opposed to newly manufactured samples,” says John Fortune, S&T’s Bridge Vulnerability Project manager. “The results will help us predict susceptibility to different threats and develop effective, feasible technologies to protect the Nation’s bridges. We are developing innovative approaches that will protect iconic bridges from hazards, and also aid in building smarter, more secure bridges for the future.”
Most U.S. bridges are owned by regional authorities, state departments of transportation, private authorities, county authorities, or local municipalities. These bridges are designed using codes and standards approved by the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO), whose membership includes State DOTs and other bridge owners.
DHS says that the work taking place will be shared with AASHTO and specific bridge owners and operators to ensure that project results will be available to engineers responsible for building new bridges and renovating existing ones.

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Weekend Exercise Will Measure USPS Anthrax Response Time

By Carlton Purvis

A response exercise scheduled for this weekend will measure the time it takes to deliver the first dose of antibiotics to a population after a widespread biological attack.

Postal workers on Sunday will deliver empty pill bottles to 37,000 homes in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area as part of Operation Medicine Delivery, the first dry run of a United States Postal Service anthrax response plan. Health officials announced the exercise at a joint Minnesota Department of Health (MDH)-USPS press conference in St. Paul Thursday morning.
“We’re going to be looking at how quickly it takes us to get the supply in and to different types of households--Apartment buildings versus rural areas and areas where there’s a significant walk to one place to another,” Edward J. Gabriel, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said by phone after the press event.
The exercise has been in the works for months and will assess the process from the initial confirmation of a biological attack to the delivery of medications and debriefing. And for the most part, the exercise is unscripted, Gabriel said.
“The staging of the medication, placing them into the postal vehicles, the postal workers coming to work, the operation center monitoring the activities--all of it will be a part of the exercise. We plan, but don’t script it to the point where every variable is thought out ahead of time because we want to test how the process works,” he said.
The National Postal Model for the Delivery of Medical Countermeasures, sometimes shortened as the “postal model,” is a plan that in event of an anthrax attack, a volunteer corps of mail carriers from local post offices can be deployed within 48 hours to deliver the antibiotic doxycycline to residents. Each postal worker would travel with a single police officer escort.
"We want it to be as thorough and accurate as we can so we can see what we can learn from this exercise," said St. Paul police spokesman Howie Padilla.
Untreated inhalation of anthrax has a 90 percent mortality rate, but deaths from anthrax can be drastically reduced if antibiotics are started within 48 hours (the mortality rate drops to 75 percent if treated).

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Obama to Press Concerns of Security, Disaster Response During Summit of Americas

By: Mickey McCarter

President Barack Obama will focus on shared security concerns and disaster response during the upcoming Summit of the Americas in Colombia this weekend, White House officials said in a teleconference Wednesday.

Meeting with the leaders of other nations in North America, Central America and South America, Obama will stress priorities such as combating drug trafficking and cartel violence, Dan Restrepo, White House senior director for the Western Hemisphere, told reporters.

With regard to security issues, Restrepo emphasized that Obama will seek to build on Colombia's success in fighting the illegal drug trade in that nation. The United States continues to focus on confronting the demand for illegal drugs within the country while also investing in security partnerships abroad.

 

"The United States has to confront transnational organized crime in the Americas, largely fueled by the drug trade," Restrepo stated. "The president has sought and secured $30 billion worth of investment in drug prevention treatment here, domestically in the United States, in his first three budgets; the request for another $10 billion in the current budget request."

"It's why we've taken unprecedented steps to cut illicit flows southbound from the United States into the region," he continued. "It's also why we've been very focused on building an unprecedented security partnership with Mexico, increasing annual funding for Central American security efforts from approximately $60 million per year when the president took office to more than $100 million per year right now."

The Central American Citizen Security Partnership, launched last year in El Salvador, brings financial institutions like the International Financial Institution, the Inter-American Development Bank and others, together with other countries like Canada, to provide resources to boost citizen security efforts in Central American nations, Restrepo said.

At the last Summit of the Americas in 2009, Obama signed off on the Caribbean Basin and Security Initiative, which formed a partnership with Caribbean countries to fight transnational crime in and around their nations. The United States has invested more than $200 million in that security partnership since 2009, Restrepo said.

The upcoming summit also will assess support for disaster response and relief, Restrepo added. The United States engaged financial support for Haiti from the Ninth General Capital Increase Bank, for example, after the Haitian earthquake in January 2010. Obama will seek to build on those efforts to assess military capabilities for disaster response this year.

"Military support to civilian response for disaster relief in the Americas is something that we've been very much working on, and we'll continue through this summit and into the next defense ministerial in the region later this year in Uruguay," Restrepo said.

Restrepo acknowledged that Latin American leaders likely will raise the issue of decriminalizing illicit drugs in the United States as a means of cutting demand and building the capacity to control the drug trade. Latin leaders raised such concerns to Vice President Joe Biden when he toured Latin America last month.

As Biden told Latin American nations then, Obama remains committed to stiff criminal penalties for the use of illicit drugs in the United States, Restrepo said. Discussions over legalization and decriminalization of drug use will afford the United States with opportunities to make its views known and "demystify" American response to those issues, he added. Obama is prepared to reiterate the US position during the summit in Cartagena, Colombia, this weekend.

"US policy on this is very clear.  The president doesn't support decriminalization.  He does think this is a legitimate debate, and it's a debate that we welcome having because it helps demystify this as an option," Restrepo said.

He continued, "I think that Cartagena provides a real opportunity to build on the conversation that Vice President Biden started in Honduras for the countries of Central America last month, where how is it that we can work collectively in the Americas more effectively to address the real challenges of crime and violence that too many societies are facing right now?  There is no magic bullet in that debate as the consumption of drugs spreads through the Americas. The response and the responsibility to address this challenge also needs to spread.  And we need to ensure that we're doing everything we can to build the kinds of rule-of-law institutions necessary to defeat these transnational criminal organizations."

Restrepo cited progress in working with Brazil and Bolivia recently to strike a trilateral agreement on surplus coca cultivation in Bolivia. The United States and Brazil, as the largest consumers of cocaine in the world, were interested in establishing a partnership with Bolivia to cut down on cocaine availability. This shared understanding of tackling the problem enabled the United States to foster understanding of its efforts to halt drug shipments.

White House spokesman Ben Rhodes added that Obama would have opportunities to engage in talks with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on the progress his country has made against the illegal cocaine trade in his country and its fight against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

In addition to security and disaster response, the summit will also address physical integration, information technology and poverty, officials noted. 

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