In most Illinois counties, terror-alert status, tornado warnings and highway closures are heralded to emergency agencies by “blast” fax, phone trees and e-mail–the communications equivalent, officials say, of the Pony Express.
A better method is expected to be installed in the spring, which will connect county and local agencies with the state’s emergency nerve center via satellite.
Chicago and six counties tested the EMnet satellite system during a bioterrorism drill in May.
On Tuesday, a contract that would expand the system to Illinois’ 96 other counties, plus 12 major hospitals around the state, won the preliminary approval of the DuPage County Board’s Finance Committee.
State officials have asked the county to order the system. Final approval is expected Jan. 13.
The system would complement existing emergency communications technology, including the National Warning System, a voice-based system that dates to the Cold War.
The National Warning System “is not secure at all,” said Roland Lussier, president of Florida-based Comlabs Inc., which manufactures both that system and the new satellite approach.
The state’s emergency communications systems are a “mishmash” now, said Mike Chamness, chairman of the Illinois Terrorism Task Force, whose communications committee recommended purchase of the satellite system.
Some counties subscribe to the National Warning System and some get faxes, Chamness said. Sometimes, reports show, the faxes jam, he said.
Installing the text-based satellite system means that for “the first time, the state will have a comprehensive statewide communications system,” said Thomas Mefferd, director of the DuPage County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
The state, barred from spending more than 20 percent of federal homeland security grants on itself, enlisted DuPage as a conduit grantee, Chamness said.
The contract is for $408,250.
The Finance Committee also approved a separate $267,663 contract for additional EMnet terminals in DuPage municipalities, fire districts and hospitals to be funded by cash the county receives from the DuPage Water Commission, Mefferd said.
