The wind began to blow somewhere deep in the South -- laden with moisture. It then built up speed and atmospherically collided with a cold front from Canada which was laying as stationary as a fortress wall. The jet stream kicked in and gave the whole mess a good spin.  

It is this phenomenon of weather that creates devastating Midwestern Tornados and for the unfortunate town of Dundee, Michigan, it just so happened to land as a F2 twister like a bomb in the middle of the night.  

Early warning systems had gone off around 10 p.m. and when the storms produced no tornado, it lulled the town into thinking the worst was past. Then at 2:17 a.m., June 6, devastation hit like a freight train as folks slept in their beds.  

Two houses were completely blown apart and many were missing roofs and siding as nearly century old trees were uprooted and sent spinning in the air. Luckily, a completely full hotel was spared extensive damage and in the randomness of these disasters, the twister skirted a trailer park with not one home damaged. No one in Dundee died, however the storm did leave 11 injured.  

The town came to life to help and assess the dam- age right away. First responders reacted very quickly. Being experienced volunteers and with operations fully established, the well trained teams acted quickly. They setup accountability of their resources and began organizing themselves for the collapse rescue that needed attention. They mastered the inevitable roll-up that is require for a town to be safe, secure, and organized after a disaster like this.  

Terry Massingill, Assistant Chief of Dundee Town- ship Fire Department, began operations first with a collapsed structure rescue and later Police Chief, Dave Uhl, took over formal Incident Command. Thankfully, as plans go, they had prepared for an event of this magnitude and had training, systems, and technology in place to help out the citizens of this small community.  

The interTRAX Suite by Salamander Technologies was a welcomed part of that technology and train- ing. Although this was a big incident for the local response teams, it was a NIMS type 3 incident by standard categorical measure.  

The primary role of interTRAX was to insure site security and track all personnel at the incident including Responders from Dundee, Michigan and six county and regional jurisdictions around the area. There were multiple Citizen Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) involved. There were various contractors from the utility companies working and the local support groups pitched in as well. A total of 750 responders and the general pub- lic were tracked with the system.  

The biggest concern that ensued as the days of the event wore on was the security of the area damaged. Issues of looting, theft, safety, and security were a big concern in neighborhoods and retail areas that were without power and were exposed to the outside world. The IC required the tracking of responders, volunteers, contractors, and suppliers right away. Any person working the response to the incident was required to Check-in each morning to receive a new color-coded incident specific tag and required to Check-out in an informal Demobilization process. The Command Log was used to take notes during staff meetings and record specific incident events for later reporting. Volunteers and staff operated the system with only the minimum of “just-in-time” training. They all operated well on their own with very few problems. The SERG team (Salamander Emergency Response Group) was called in to assist with the system early in the operational period and was serving in an advisory role.  

The system ran for six days with one central Command Post. There were five mobile handheld units in the field connected to a wireless network when it was available. Data was stored and sent via cable when wireless was “coms-out” and shared at the end of each operational period for proper reporting. Two rapidTAG kits were deployed immediately and helped to maintain security and operational management. The data was then shared with interTRAX exchange monitor over the internet.  

There were approximately 4500 local site passes made with an average of 250 volunteers show- ing up to help per day. The performance of CERT organizations was exceptional. Many teams were pre-tagged with trusted credentials and they all quickly learned system function and took over operations seamlessly.  

“The biggest benefit,” said Police Chief Uhl, “was that the system helped tie together mutual aid for security and control. The system and the tag provided a common denominator for unified tracking.”  

“Yes,” said Assistant Fire Chief, Massingill, “and the system performed great at keeping track of where all the resources were assigned. I could just check who was where and what they were doing. Later in the operation, we even began to “check-in” and “check- out” radio gear to the volunteers as well.”  

Soon the power all came back on, the trees were cleared, the broken windows boarded up and the doors repaired and secured. Eventually the buildings will be re-roofed and the trees replanted. As the injured heal, and the little town begins to rebuild their lives and homes, we will all think of the community that responded to this disaster. Relief came from many local businesses as well as dedicated responders. All these groups and Salamander Technologies joined in a common mission to help. By using a system, built upon a simple ID tag to web technology, the folks can sleep better at night. Not because the wind won’t continue to blow, but because they know, if it does; that there are people and technologies out there that will help rescue them, protect them, and keep their families, homes and business secure despite what damage may occur.

Salamander Technologies
Salamander Technologies, Inc. provides simple, scalable, and interoperable accountability systems -- from the tag to the Web -- for first responders that comply with National Incident Management System (NIMS) and Personal Identity Verification (PIV) mandates. www.salamandertechnologies.com.