Megaupload.com seized

Tue Jan 24 01:08:55 UTC 2012

On 21/01/12 11:20 PM, George Bonser wrote:
>> This is what disaster simulations are for, to suss out these problems
>> before a disaster and put in systems to avoid the mess.
>>
>> In the real world, while a city might keep the digital documents "in
>> the cloud" they would also (always) have paper copies, because in a big
>> emergency their computers (local mail/file servers or internet access
>> to the cloud) are likely to be unavailable, power or internet access is
>> likely to be disrupted.
> Nope, no paper copies.

I personally know Lynn Brown, OES (Office of Emergency Services) 
Coordinator for the City of Mountain View, CA[1]. I asked Lynn about the 
status of the maps the MV EOC (Emergency Operations Center) uses.  Here 
is the reply:

> While we rely on electronic and digital information a lot more these days, the City of Mountain View still has printed maps on hand.  I just updated the master map in our EOC, in fact.
>
> The computerized maps are great but we also plan for the worst case scenario with no access to them.
>
> I don't think paper will ever go away completely.
>
> Lynn Brown
> OES Coordinator
> Mountain View Fire Department
> 650-903-6825
> lynn(dot)brown(at)mountainview(dot)gov

If you believe that this is not the norm for EOCs across the country, I suggest you personally ask the OES Coordinator for whatever city you think is putting everything in the computer and no longer keeping any paper copies.  You may be surprised to learn how well they have indeed thought this thru, and that they do maintain paper maps in the EOC, just as Mountain View does.

jc

[1]  Given that Google has wired MV with free public WiFi, if there were 
ever a city that would be in a good position to use and rely on Google's 
cloud services for data storage, Mountain View would be it.