Display of Operational Data (1967)

[Music] at the Modell County Civil Defense Emergency Operating Center the duty staff carries out its responsibilities during the first hours following following a simulated attack against the United States with nuclear weapons in this exercise the initial enemy strikes were against West Coast cities this operational information is relayed to the EOC over the national warning system or nawas telephone Network the data is recorded on a large situation map hung on the center's display wall all through the center information is being collected from a variety of sources analyzed and displayed in in summary form to Aid officials in making an analysis as a basis for their Command Decisions this influx of operational data about bomb hits shelter status weather and the like and the display of this data for use is a prime aspect of the EOC function and the subject of this film if the county is to be directed and controlled by its government from the shelter of the EOC during during a nuclear emergency that EOC must be stocked with all the important facts and figures in readily available form which relate to the outside situation in regard to people and resources this includes of course facts and figures about Fallout and blast damage and other essential information peculiar to nuclear war now a report relayed to the center on the nawas extension brings the conflict closer to home a new clear hit on metropolis a city just across the state from Modell County the message is brought immediately to the attention of the County chief executive George derso as he talks with his CD director Scott Harper the information leads quickly to a call for a conference among the chief deputies to assess the local situation on a map of the state the Rev officer marks the city city that has just been struck this is 150 m to the north of Modell County and the county seat of central city where the EOC is located The Briefing gets underway as officials use the information displays to help them clearly set forth the status of the population and resources of Modell County as it girds to meet this new challenge this simulation of EOC activity with the emphasis on operational data display is in the way of an introduction to our subject let's take our leave of this set and go over to another where we can discuss the subject of operational data in more detail perhaps we can get back to the EOC later to see how the exercise works out in this film we're concerned with the mechanics of collection and display of data so that we may relate it to the analysis and verification aspects required to provide the basis for decisions for our purposes let's consider these two stages of collection and display the collection phase begins during the early organization of the eocc and the development of the CD emergency plan one of the problems arising during the collection of data is is what information to gather and what not to gather only that of prime importance should be stored in the limited facilities of the EOC basically the EOC is first concerned about people and then resources as this list indicates population information is of highest priority in the following categories of resource items the relative importances may vary with individual judgment but in any listing these would be included information or data regarding these areas must be on hand in the EOC either collected in advance or fed in during an emergency if the officials are to make Intelligent Decisions based on facts how is this information collected well we have some views of Scott Harper the Modell County Civil Defense director during some of his collection activities let's watch kill the lights please a lot of it is of course knowing the city or county and knowing the responsible officials first stop on Harper's list was the county sheriff's office here Harper requests information that will be needed concerning the location of law enforcement facilities throughout the county civil defense being an emergency function of local government requires close coordination with the police agencies the director not only coordinates the acquisition of operational data but points out the need to develop procedures to have the data kept constantly up to date similar Cooperative arrangements are made by Harper during meetings with County Fire Chiefs and the heads of other government services again Harper discusses the locations of important physical facilities this information concerning equipment personnel and Department capabilities will also be included in the EOC operational data the highway Department's emergency repair service is another key element of the County's Resources Personnel from these agencies will of course Aid in the collection process Harper doesn't do the collecting his job is to initiate the process County offices can supply the EOC with a variety of important statistics about the population how many are there where do they live how do they shift around day and night and seasonally what is their distribution according to occupation and so forth private utility companies as well as Government bureaus are sources of data about water supply gas electricity telephone and pipeline operations because there is a military base within his political jurisdiction Harper wants to get better acquainted with the commanding officer they'll discuss resources available for Mutual assistance and arrange for periodic exchange of information and in addition state and federal agencies can be a bountiful source of useful compilations surveys statistics ICS tables charts and other facts and figures useful in the EOC lights on again please and so collection is the activity of deciding what data is important and then getting it and remember collection involves the preliminary Gathering of basic information also the firming up of arrangements to ensure the continuing flow of essential data into the center to keep the information up to date and finally a system of emergency reports to supply vital facts about the developing situation during periods of Crisis this is the collection of operational data now the next of our main headings in the data process is displayed this involves the boiling down of the material and illustrating it in a manner that presents the information as effectively and efficiently as possible the map is the most common means of recording operational data for display in the EOC but there are many other devices here's a chart for finding distances between geographical points a time conversion placard a line graph an organizational chart message center flow chart and the Damage estimation chart for nuclear bomb effects these are all familiar and useful means of presenting data in graphic form selecting which recording method to use is an aspect of the general feasibility of preparing the presentation other concerns in this area are the limiting of information shown on a single visual to one or two items and making sure you can afford the project in funds labor and materials if the construction of a graphic display is involved once you have determined that the project makes sense and can be accomplished there are some selection criteria that can help you in relation to recording the data and setting up the [Music] material Simplicity and neediness are obvious but nonetheless important statistics can be meaningless if not shown in comparison or relationship to some understandable yard stick a DOT may tell us little except possibly yes or no but several dots connected by a line set up a relationship that shows a trend past performance and movement symbols should be easily understood we've all been looking at weather maps for years but you probably don't know what this means a gale force wind from the Northeast EOC people will often have little time to train so use obvious symbols and finally don't throw data or log books away until you are sure the information is no longer needed because of the importance of maps in the EOC operational data process they should be given some special attention they come in many shapes and sizes there is the common gas station road map the large scale local map like those seen in real estate offices this is a 1 to 22 million Scale map prepared by the US Geological Survey for OCD and these are from the Army map service series 1 to 500,000 scale and 1 to 250,000 scale in using some of the maps it can be helpful to cut them into sections carefully noting grid markings and put them into a notebook the books May hold maps of different key areas or they can include many maps of the same area with different features such as electrical power Nets gas lines and so forth in indicating population and resources on a map the equal value dot method is widely applied this is New York state with each dot representing 10,000 people for a rural area a smaller dot value is necessary as here where each dot represents 5,000 still smaller values can be assigned for large scale local maps in this case one dot for every 1,000 people note that this map shows Urban population distribution for daytime and for nighttime by color coding the equal value dot method may also be used for resources distribution as here for indicating area dwelling units but when precise geographical location is important each dot usually stands for a single installation as in this display of bridges and underpasses in a highway system obviously there is much more to know about Maps than we're able to present in this picture after the operational data has been collected and recorded on a chart or map the physical means of presenting it or displaying it are many principally flat panel displays are employed being cheap and available this includes the simple notebook shown earlier and also the popular chalkboard or Blackboard besides being inexpensive it's easy to maintain and the use of colored and fluorescent chalk can make it an impressive and adaptable agid another flat panel is the magnetic board which may also take chalk as here its most desirable feature is that suitable symbols or figures can be employed for clarity and they can be easily shifted from one point to another such as this many representational figures are commercially available and magnetic Clips can also be obtained similar to but somewhat cheaper than the magnetic board is the felt board if a good grade of material is used the symbol should adhere here with reasonable persistency the peg board much used in our homes and stores can also be adapted for display of information colored ribbons can be used as in this example or strung from Peg to Peg to form a line graph pegboard is inexpensive and can be cut to any shape desired illustration board with acetate overlay is useful where you wish to indicate a changing situation against the permanent background and of course there's our old friend the bulletin board which can be a more expensive cork variety or if the budget's really tight can be simply a piece of beaver board and finally we find that a blanket can make a workable display surface as can plain brown wrapping paper so if you're going to pin paste or put up a data display on a flat panel you have many backgrounds to choose from three-dimensional displays may be valuable in special cases but they are too expensive and difficult for most purposes however projection of material not requiring special preparation can often be effective lights out please the opaque projector can be used for showing a special map to a group such as this one or perhaps a news picture depicting disaster damage such as this one an ordinary typewritten page though as we can see here is not projected with sufficient Clarity lights on please the overhead projector is more elaborate but has some special advantages the image can be projected on a large screen with a short throw it can be shown with room lights on and it can present a rapidly altering situation quickly to a large audience the projection of data on a screen or against the wall can have the effect of attracting attention and is sometimes the best means of getting information across with extra urgency that about covers the subject of displaying operational data though we should add that lighting the displays is important to ensure accurate reading and reduce fatigue the final category into which we divided our material is use the use of the displayed data as we've seen is fundamental to the operation of the EOC examples of data use were dramatized in the introduction to the film let's go back now to the EOC for one more example the simulated attack is over for this exercise the conflict lasted about one day but Metropolis across the state was hit by a large nuclear weapon most of Modell County escaped The Fallout from the blast except that in the northwest corner of the county people would have to remain in shelters for the next couple of days in continuing the exercise the Modell County EOC is now preparing to summon its available resources to Aid the survivors in the Metropolis region here Fallout information is being posted the map and the Damage assessment information are examples of operational data reduced to an efficient form for Speedy application to command problems results of this work will help to determine the safe routes for transportation and so we observe that the very life blood of EOC is operational data of one form or another that is collected and brought into the center where it is recorded and displayed for use in the EOC mission of Direction and control