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<br />EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS <br />A SURVEY OF THE CENTURY'S PROGRESS <br />AND IMPLICATIONS FOR FuTURE PLANNING <br /> <br />Bascombe J. Wilson, MPA, CEM <br />Director, DERA Disaster Resource Center <br /> <br />Background <br /> <br />Today, new electronic systems and applications are being developed faster <br />than we can readily assimilate them into our personal and professional lives. <br />Increasingly, even experts in the fields of information management and <br />communications technology find it difficult to keep pace with new develop- <br />ments because of extreme complexity and narrowing specialization. <br />The nation and local communities are best served when emergency <br />managers and the elected leadership have a working knowledge of the ways <br />communications and information management systems inter-operate, and are <br />able to make informed decisions regarding cost-effective technical solutions <br /> <br />to local problems <br />This study is intended to help bridge that gap by outlining for emergency <br />managers some of the history of emergency communications and emergency <br />management (the road behind us), a candid assessment of current systems <br />(where we are now), a projection of where technology is leading us (a <br />tentative guess at the road ahead), and a review of the lessons we've learned <br />along the way. Many of those lessons, as we all know, were learned through <br />loss of life, terrible suffering by many people, and devastating property loss. <br />We should not forget those lessons, even in the face of a bright and optimistic <br />future filled with dazzling technological wonders. <br />This paper began as a review of communications/information manage- <br />ment/incident command trends developing over the last 20 years following <br />the tragic Big Thompson Canyon flood disaster. It soon became apparent, <br />however, that a 20-year perspective was not sufficient to provide a clear <br />understanding of the trends and developments shaping our current state of <br />emergency communications and incident command systems. As I looked <br />backwards a decade at a time, I began to develop a new appreciation for the <br />difficulties our predecessors had in integrating new technologies into their <br />organizational structures and in keeping up with rapid change. <br />