On September 13th, 2023, Alvin Henderson Jr. CEM, CFPS, CPM, Emergency Management Division Manager for Cape Coral, Florida, along with the The Cape Coral Emergency Management Team presented a webinar titled, Hurricane Season: Cape Coral’s Effective Hurricane Ian Response.
The webinar provided an overview of how the City of Cape Coral, Florida utilizes the Veoci platform for both daily emergency management operations and incident response and recovery. Customized dashboards and modules for plans and documentation, along with resource tracking, damage assessments, call logging, and other functions make up their solution; allowing the team to manage all aspects of an emergency from one location.
Tailoring the system to meet their unique needs for community lifelines-based operations, rather than a traditional ICS structure, was a significant undertaking. The Cape Coral staff had the ability to update and program features, which they successfully did, but also collaborated with Veoci to develop customized solutions. Transitioning from their previous incident management system to a new platform also required effort and buy-in from staff. Ensuring the team received proper training on the new tool, however, made all the difference.
During Hurricane Ian, the solution proved to be especially useful. Veoci supported activities like alerting staff, capturing ICS 214 forms digitally, assessing impacts and coordinating with businesses. It also facilitated information sharing with partners and reporting to higher levels of government.
There were lessons learned from Ian’s response, including improved 214 forms, which will enhance future response efforts. It was also realized that during a major event like Ian, the volume of data and concurrent users could also present challenges for the system, challenges that Veoci worked to address in real-time.
Overall, Veoci provides Cape Coral a flexible system to manage all phases of an incident through customizable and scalable tools. Keeping up with ongoing maintenance and improvements is an ongoing process, but is made easier through the flexibility of the platform.
With storms becoming stronger and more frequent, we encourage Emergency Managers and municipalities alike to watch this webinar and learn how Veoci could help. You can find the recording here.
