The American Red Cross responds to a disaster every eight minutes, around the clock, 365 days a year. This quick response is due in great part to satellite technology. Founded in 1881, this independent, volunteer-led organization is dedicated to helping people in need throughout the United States and the world. Each year the Red Cross trains more than 12 million people in lifesaving skills. When a situation arises these volunteers are ready to travel to a disaster scene at a moment’s notice. To be more efficient, the Red Cross must be able to reach its response teams anywhere, and the ability for the teams to communicate with the outside world is crucial to assisting disaster victims. That is where satellite technology comes in. Gary Gilham, manager of mobile communications and automated systems for the American Red Cross spoke with Satellite Business Solutions and shared how satellite technology benefits the organization and how its newest mobile technology has improved the American Red Cross’ response capabilities.

Gary Gilham

Manager, mobile communications and automated systems

Problem:
How do you speed delivery of disaster services during a crisis without relying on the local infrastructure or incurring outrageous costs?

When responding to a crisis, coordination is just as important to disaster workers as food and water. When these highly-trained professionals arrive on a scene they need access to reliable communications. Unfortunately hundreds of telephone connections required for each disaster operation can eat up a lot of donated cash. Savings are just one issue; often large disasters also destroy infrastructure including terrestrial telephone networks.

Solution:
Get moving with satellite

“The American Red Cross has been using satellite technology for years starting with Inmarsat A, C and M units, American Mobile Satellite mobile units, Iridium, Globalstar and now VSAT systems,” says Gilham.

One of its newest communication tools is the Linx. Based on the Ford Excursion SUV, the nine trucks were donated to the Red Cross by Ford Motor Co. The Red Cross then spent $250,000 each equipping these emergency response vehicles with phone and radio operation systems, digital satellite TV and live video transmission capabilities.

According to Gilham, one of the benefits the satellite-enabled Linx offers is that, “It does not rely upon local infrastructure, and even with a large-scale telephone system outage it allows unit-to-unit communications.” Another benefit is efficiency. “The major purpose of using satellite technology for disaster response is for speed in providing service to the disaster clients that need assistance,” he says.

Besides providing communication services in situations where conventional phone and cell phone calls do not always work, satellite technology affords beneficial cost savings to the Red Cross. “There will be long- distance savings and savings on local line installation charges that we would have paid if we used land lines,” says Gilham. “The real issue is not always cost, though [it’s] top of our list when spending donated money, but the speed of service to a disaster client that needs help in a troubled time of their life. You can’t really put a dollar value on that.”