The Operation Respond Institute (ORI) toured the south in October, visiting railroad towns and distributing the Operation Respond Emergency Information System (OREIS TM) to local firefighters, police officers and EMS responders. ORI was participating in the Whistle Stop Tour, a railroad outreach initiative for emergency responders organized by the Norfolk Southern Railroad and Transcaer.
Operation Respond used the events to demonstrate the capabilities of OREIS TM and get the software into the hands of local emergency responders. ORI was signing responders up for OREIS TM at the events and providing them with copies of the software for installation in their agency's dispatch center or response vehicle. The software was distributed free-of-charge in this program and the response was very positive.
As a result of the tour, Operation Respond was able to enlist the participation of nearly 200 emergency response agencies in the program, many in jurisdictions that had not previously run the software. It was a great benefit for ORI to be able to reach out to these agencies, many of which are small rural or volunteer departments.
Representatives of the Emergency Services Information Network Corporation (ESINC) joined ORI on the tour to spread the word about their new network for emergency responders. Every responder that signed up fir OREISTM on the tour was also enlisted in the ESINC network, which has the ability to send targeted emergency notification, messaging and alerts to the emergence response community.
The 2002 Whistle Stop Tour began in Washington, DC on October 7 and traveled through Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee before concluding in Duluth, Alabama on October 12. The tour stopped at a different city every day and included larger sites like Knoxville and Alexandria as well as smaller towns like Salisbury, NC.
The purpose of the Whistle Stop Tour is to reach out to emergency responders located along major railroad corridors and provide them with the training and information they need to help them plan for and/or respond to a derailment, chemical spill or other incident involving the railroad.
The daily events included hazmat and railroad response training classes involving live demonstrations, classroom exercises and scenarios. Responders were able to train in railcar fire simulations and received credit for the sessions. Most of the events occurred in Norfolk Southern rail yards in the selected cities.
A select group of companies were selected to travel with the tour and display their products and services to the local emergency response communities. ORI, along with organizations like Operation Lifesaver and CHEMTREC, was among the selected companies and had representatives at every stop of the tour. The tour was a great success for ORI, Transcaer and the Norfolk Southern and was of great benefit to the emergence response community.