10/29/2012 – A Night in the Emergency Operations Center
8:00pm: Hurricane Sandy has just hit the beaches and more. I’m at the University of Maryland Emergency
Operations Center (EOC) representing the Division of Information Technology
(DivIT) for a 12-hour stint during which, I hope, absolutely nothing of
importance occurs. Individuals from
Dining Services, Resident Life, Facilities Management, Transportation Services,
and, of course, Public Safety are all alternately gazing at their laptops and
at the whiteboard at the front of the room.
The latter is displaying Fox news from Buffalo via Slingbox (cool
technology), but someone requests switching to a local station so we switch to a
CBS channel from Baltimore. I grab a
sandwich to avoid two guys who are stringing heavy cable around the room for
emergency lighting and power. There are
twelve outlets and about twelve of us, but I’m guessing that each of the police
officers in the room is using more than one.
I don’t think my laptop in any way qualifies as a critical component so,
if the power goes out, I’ll be online (assuming the network stays up) for as
long or as short as my laptop battery lasts.
8:15: I ask about coffee and am directed upstairs to a very nice
Keurig cup setup. I choose hazelnut, add
a little half-and-half from the fridge, and return downstairs where I grab a half
sandwich and a pickle. Nothing to do combined
with lots of available food and drink is a recipe for disastrous weight gain.
8:45: Route 1 South is reportedly under water at Rossborough
Lane. For all intents and purposes, that’s
right across the street. Nobody here
seems worried. They probably all drive
SUVs, but my little car is a potential floater.
No worries.
9:10: I try Netflix to see what type of performance I’ll
get. It looks ok. There are several hard-wired connections
available in the room, but as those are already spoken for, I’m using the
wireless network to stream the last episode of the second season of “Battlestar
Gallactica.” The Cylons have unexpectedly
disappeared from occupied Caprica, and a priest played by Dean Stockwell turns
out to be a member of the mechanical horde.
9:20: Fresh coffee from a nearby 7-11 arrives. There is much rejoicing. On the big screen, CNN is reporting that New
York City subways are taking in water and 2.8 million people are without power.
9:45: I figured I’d call over to IT Operations in our
datacenter to see how things are over there and to let them know that I’m
working the EOC. The person I talk with doesn’t
know anything about the EOC so I explain its purpose and mine specifically,
which is to coordinate and communicate any IT-related emergencies. I give him my phone number and ask him to
call me should any problems arise. I
also ask him to share my contact info with the night shift when it comes on at
11:30. I’m glad I called. If I hadn’t and a problem did arise at the
datacenter, I’d be hard-pressed to coordinate or communicate since I would not likely
be in the loop in time to do much to help.
10:00: A tree has just been reported as having fallen on a
residential street in College Park. I
check out street view on Google Maps and see that one side of the street is
nothing but trees for the entire block.
I “virtually” wander up and down the street wondering which, if any, of
these trees was the one in question.
10:30 A porta-potty has reportedly blown onto Paint Branch
Drive, a (normally) busy thoroughfare. A
few minutes later, officers confirm that this is so.
10:50 Turns out the porta-potty was full.
11:00 Another tree is down, this one on another major
artery, Adelphi Road near the Archives.
11:15 I spoke w/a colleague in our networking group to
confirm the status of several network-related outages. One of the campus’ graduate housing
developments is without power so networking is only one of their concerns and
probably not the most urgent. Three other
wired and wireless issues will be looked into first thing tomorrow morning. I forwarded this info on to the officer responsible
for sending out the EOC reports.
11:35 I head upstairs for my second cup of coffee. I choose some sort of mocha combo, which
tastes like weak hot chocolate. I can
feel myself starting to fade, so I hope it helps get me through at least the
next couple of hours. 8am is a long way
away.
12:30am: People in
the room are getting antsy. They want to
watch something. I offer up my Netflix
account and there’s general agreement to watch the first two episodes of the
1950s television show, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” We turn off the lights and a few folks nod
off almost at once.
1:00: 30 or so students are reported to be swimming in a
pool on the mall.
1:30: We begin watching recent episodes of “The Daily Show”
with Jon Stewart. It appears that at least
most of my colleagues find Stewart’s barbs aimed at Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan
dead on. It’s inconceivable that next
week’s presidential election is in doubt, but the pollsters seem to agree that
it’s just too close to call.
2:00: The report includes the network outages I shared with
the group. Over 2,000 residents of
College Park have lost power. I
highlight the network information in blue and send a copy of the entire message
to the division’s senior management.
3:30: We’re done with “The Daily Show” and are now watching the
Weather Channel. Seven million people
from Connecticut to Maryland are without power with Narragansett, Rhode Island
reporting the strongest sustained winds (90mph). I check the PEPCO site to see if my
neighborhood still has power. If the
site is presenting an accurate representation of reported outages, then it
looks like we’re ok.
5:00: Not much to report.
The Weather Channel is still on the big screen, but most of us are
pretty subdued. I can’t decide whether
or not to have one last cup of coffee.
6:00: I’m listening to WTOP streaming while reading my RSS
feeds. People are coming and going here
and the place is becoming lively once again, though the lights are still off. I head upstairs to the Keurig machine for
another cup of coffee which works its magic almost immediately.
6:45: My networking colleague calls to update the status of
the outages. It turns out that two of
them were due to scheduled maintenance.
I create an update and send it on for distribution.
7:00: Bagels arrive.
I go upstairs and make myself a hot chocolate to go with them. One of the campus police officers asks about how
to change university IDs. I volunteer to
help and send an email off to our directory administrator.
7:15: I’m really feeling beat. I check in again with Operations. It’s been a slow night, though apparently
there was a fire alarm or something that went off in or somewhere near the
datacenter sometime between 2am and 3am.
Whatever it was, it was quickly taken care of so I express thanks for
the information, check that the event was logged by the EOC (it was), and
continue listening to streamed news.
7:45: The day shift is arriving in dribs and drabs and new
energy is filling the room—at least part of it.
I keep looking at the time down at the right corner of my screen.
7:55: I take what I hope is my last trip to the bathroom wanting
to believe that upon my return to the EOC the person scheduled to relieve me
will have arrived. He’s there when I get
back and I shake his hand warmly. “Not
much to report,” I say, or something very much like that. “There were a couple of network
glitches. It’s all in the log. I’m out of here.” There were probably a few more words
exchanged, stuff like, “How’s the weather?”
In my head, though, I was half way home and by 8:15, the other half of
me was there as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment