Accela Unveils First Emergency Response System for Wireless Damage Assessment

South San Francisco (July 15, 2002) - Accela, Inc., a leading provider of government automation solutions announced today the commercial release of its Emergency Response System, Accela ERS™. Accela ERS provides a government agency with a real-time damage assessment, response and recovery solution that allows for immediate conveyance of information from the field to the central office. The product incorporates the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) standard damage assessment form, enabling government agencies to complete required tasks more efficiently.

With a personal digital assistant (PDA), such as a Palm, Compaq IPAQ, or Handspring Visor, inspectors are able to enter data from the field that can be instantly viewed on a map by officials and response coordinators at any local, state or federal Emergency Operations Center (EOC). This is made possible due to a direct connection from the PDA to a geographical information system (GIS), enabling the geographic representations of reported damage and trends. Using FEMA standards as a guideline, the solution allows agencies to easily complete the required ATC-20 Damage Assessment Form for allocation and federal relief, significantly faster than in the past. The detailed, real-time information expedites the response and recovery efforts by dispersing immediate resources to the areas most in need of assistance to treat victims and assess damage. 

"This product will change our method of reporting property damage. Citizens will directly benefit by being able to move back into their homes or offices and get financial relief from the federal government much faster. This solution takes a process that involved months in Glendale to one that will now take only days," commented Scott Fabbro, Project Coordinator for Land Information Systems in Glendale, California. Glendale provided crucial insight and testing for this product and is the first jurisdiction to implement the release version of Accela ERS. Mr. Fabbro added further, "this product is ready for broad deployment and comes at a crucial time when ATC-20 and damage reporting is at the forefront of discussions involving emergency management. Agencies who review this product will be impressed with the maturity and overall value of Accela ERS and I believe it will soon become the defacto standard for ATC-20 form compilation and damage reporting." 

Accela ERS further increases homeland security by providing extremely effective disaster response procedures. The system's functionality enables inspectors to report the exact location, severity and type of damage, as well as assign a dollar amount to the destruction. "Accela ERS provides jurisdictions with the capability to rapidly assess damage and share information with other government agencies in real-time. Further, the capability to respond in a much quicker, much more exact manner is crucial to those responsible for the safety and well-being of citizens," explains Richard E. Morrey, Accela's chief technology officer and senior vice-president of engineering. "Accela ERS provides a smart solution for the thousands of agencies looking to better equip themselves for homeland security and disaster management preparedness."

Accela ERS includes the following features:

• Adheres to the required, FEMA standard ATC-20 Damage Assessment Form for proper allocation of resources, and federal and state relief funds
• Accessible via a web browser and wireless capabilities, allowing inspectors and other personnel to access the system from virtually anywhere, while data flow to and from the centralized database remains secure
• Ability to visually track the number of damaged structures, types of damage, status of buildings, dollar amount of damage and exact location immediately 
• Drop-down menus with the appropriate color-codes (red, blue, yellow), allowing inspectors to tag building status based on the level of damage 
• Allows inspectors and other staff to work from the field with real-time access to information as it is compiled, seeing results immediately and planning next steps
• Access to database with information about each building and property associated with a parcel of land, including potential threats and fire prevention devices 
• Access fire pre-planning and hazardous information on-site or while en route
• Ability to create short-term and long-term plans for recovery within hours of the disaster, based on accurate information
• Collect comprehensive data that can be viewed geographically, enabling users to create and print, as well as edit and annotate maps of disaster area and make decisions based on accurate information