By Claudia Wayne, FirstNet Senior State Consultation Advisor

The FirstNet consultation team joined 74 public safety personnel for the Arkansas Initial Consultation Meeting in Little Rock last month. David Maxwell, the Single Point of Contact (SPOC) and Director of the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management, welcomed the group and encouraged everyone in attendance to ask questions and engage with the FirstNet team to make the day a success.

Kelly Gottsponer, who is the Outreach Coordinator for the Arkansas Public Safety Broadband Network (APSBN), discussed the state’s diverse geography and the wide range of events held every year across the state. She mentioned that Arkansas is affected by nearly every kind of natural disaster (except volcanoes and tsunamis) and has terrain ranging from Mississippi River floodplains to rugged mountain back-country. The state has a large seismic zone and there is a variety of important infrastructure, including interstates, train tracks, energy pipelines, and a nuclear energy plant on the Arkansas River.

One of the highlights for the day included four informative and compelling video presentations on use cases that covered a variety of public safety and first response incidents in Arkansas. The videos were an effective way of conveying the numerous challenges that public safety officials face. The state has made the videos available on the APSBN website. The first video focused on the annual Bikers, Blues and BBQ motorcycle rally, which brings hundreds of thousands of people to the city of Fayetteville every fall. Local representatives were featured in the video discussing the complex public safety deployment required for the event and were also at the meeting to answer questions. Although Fayetteville consistently provides a safe environment for the rallies, local officials pointed out a number of public safety tools that a nationwide public safety broadband network (NPSBN) could provide to augment and effectively support their efforts, including increased video surveillance and specialized applications for pushing photos of suspects or missing people to officers patrolling on foot.

Another use case video focused on widespread delta flooding in 2011 in eastern Arkansas that affected multiple counties and lasted for nearly two months. Many of the affected areas had small populations and limited resources, and many of the existing communications systems were disrupted. Better access to data mapping to predict flood zones and establish evacuation areas would have been of great advantage to officials. A video of a tornado that passed through central and northeast Arkansas in April 2014 also showed how data applications utilizing global positioning systems (GPS) and 9-1-1 information could have been used to respond to a disaster that caused heavy damage to communications infrastructure and destroyed physical landmarks.

The last video showed a devastating flash flood in the Albert Pike Recreation Area in June 2010 that resulted in 20 tragic deaths. The flood occurred after heavy rains in a remote area of steep terrain with almost no communications infrastructure, and there was no way to warn the hundreds of people that were camping in the location. This incident highlighted the challenges posed by the combination of a remote, rugged, and seasonally populated area and a lack of commercial wireless service. It was clear from the discussion after the video that this incident has had a continuing impact on the state’s first responders and their families, as well as the community-at-large.

Thanks to all who attended the meeting and made it such an informative and valuable event. In particular, I would like to thank SPOC David Maxwell, Penny Rubow, Statewide Interoperability Coordinator and Director of the Arkansas Wireless Information Network, and Kelly Gottsponer, for their hard work in organizing the consultation. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Arkansas.

Thanks again,
Claudia