Last weekend, I spent Saturday afternoon at a picnic sponsored by the small historic town that I’ve lived in for nearly a decade. One thing (of many) that I love about the town is the local fire station that’s less than a mile from my home, and how involved the firefighters are with the town (many attend the picnic, participate in our annual parade, etc. – basically just good people being good citizens). I’ve always felt safe knowing that brave firefighters and skilled EMTs are around the corner just in case.
‘Just in case’ is a scary phrase because it can result in many things, but without a doubt it implies a sub-optimal outcome. These can range from the relatively banal, “I will pick up extra candles and blankets just in case the storm knocks the power out” to the frightening, “I better learn judo just in case there’s a Dexter-like psychopath [without Harry’s code, of course] on the loose.”
That got me wondering, what “just in case” scenarios did the residents of Boulder Colorado think about? Could anyone predict the multi-faceted challenges of droughts, wildfires and floods in the same season? And what did it take for their brave firefighters, EMTs and other first responders to battle these overlapping disasters? It must have been a Herculean effort to move equipment, supplies, communications gear, etc. with basically no warning—and with lives on the line.
Unfortunately, we don’t know what the next ‘just in case’ disaster will be. The future is unknown, there’s no crystal ball and the Magic 8-ball doesn’t work. However, being prepared ahead of time to battle these tragedies is an essential to step to mitigate the devastation. And that’s one of the reasons I’m so excited to be a part of Savi. We recently released a solution that helps emergency workers and other first responders with a “Respond & Rescue” logistics solution; this solution enables these brave men and women to locate & track critical assets anywhere in real-time—even in harsh, remote and/or devastated areas. Savi’s solution not only sends alerts when assets deviate from their planned route / location or have been tampered with, but also the analytic capabilities predict how long it will take to move and set-up key assets, as well as needed quantities and best placement. Now, that Savi solution makes the unknown “just in case” a bit less scary.