I write this post from Los Angeles after midnight. My family has evacuated from Del Mar CA today as a result of the San Diego Fires. Our home lies directly in the path of the firestorm in a neighborhood bordering Rancho Santa Fe. At a time like this I am reflecting on what I could have done better to reduce the risk. First, the customer alarm monitoring center is totally safe and secure.It was never at risk. Our monitoring center is owned by Acadian Ambulance Services and located in Lafayette, LA 1500 miles away. Acadian is the largest privately owned ambulance company in the country. Acadian wrote the book on redundancy. And they weren't afraid to rewrite it with lessons learned after Hurricane Katrina. Acadian is run by a former Westinghouse engineer who believes in triple redundancy. Acadians monitoring center was built to withstand 170mph winds, and has back up generators to power the facility for weeks in the event of a power failure. The dual telephone and power feeds are underground. The Acadian building also houses the 911 backup center for the county. During Hurricane Katrina a 3rd party backup monitoring facility was in place in Michigan...just in case. Acadian staff slept at the facility, and manned 100 phone lines throughout Hurrican Katrina. This was accomplished while they operated the triage center at the New Orleans Superdome. rescued infants and elderly from facilities throughtout the state. They were credited with saving 7000 lives. In the Spring (07) Acadian bought another monitoring facility 240 miles from Lafayette in Houston ,TX. The two facilities (Lafayette and Houston) continuosly back each other up. And just in case,the Michigan center is the third back up.. Before we evacuated Solana Beach, I made one phone call to Blane Comeaux VP of Acadian Monitoring. Blane instantly agreed to handle all customer service needs. We forwarded all phones to Acadian, who continued to instantly live answer our telephones, and handle customer service needs immediately. We packed our vehicles, grabbed emergency earthquake supplies and left town in a hurry. At this point in time, I'm pleased to report, our valued customer were 100% unaffected by our San Diego disaster. Our sales calls were patched to our sales associates in Florida.(( Christy , our sales manager. was busy writing orders for new customers medical alarms until she was forced to evacuate her own house in Solana Beach, and reluctantly turned the sales over to Art . and Roberta . in Florida.)) Other employees had to evacuate their homes as well.
Before we evacuated we removed the computer servers and locked the fire proof safe. We evacuated our family, two German Shepherds and two cats. Please keep us in your prayers as the firestorm was three miles from our homes and closing distance. We won't know for a few days if we will be fortunate enough to have a home to return to, In the course of evacuating we made two other stops, and abandoned those locations after they became dangerous as well. We also stopped in to see my son Matthew, and his girlfriend Michelle at Caltech in Pasadena.
Thanks to my dedicated staff and the excellent professionals and disaster experts at Acadian Ambulance.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Medical Alert Videos
While my son was home from college (Caltech) this summer he updated our website
www.pioneeremergency.com , and convinced me that I had to leave the comfort of the Stone Age, and it was time to start creating this blog, and to make videos. I knew nothing about blogs and videos. I am not a techie. Not accustomed to hearing "no," he pulled out the video camera, wrote a script, and sat me down on the living room couch, and the camera started to roll. If these videos look like they were made by total amateurs, in the privacy of their homes, it's because they were. I think this was the first time my son used the camera. I've done several TV interviews before, but always with real cameraman and real TV interviewers. None came with scripts. Anyway, we hope the videos will be helpful to the audience. Please notice one of my German Shepherds walking through the film shoot. Her first film. Next time, I'll try to look straight at the camera.
Medical Alert Video
Medical Alert Lock Box Video
www.pioneeremergency.com , and convinced me that I had to leave the comfort of the Stone Age, and it was time to start creating this blog, and to make videos. I knew nothing about blogs and videos. I am not a techie. Not accustomed to hearing "no," he pulled out the video camera, wrote a script, and sat me down on the living room couch, and the camera started to roll. If these videos look like they were made by total amateurs, in the privacy of their homes, it's because they were. I think this was the first time my son used the camera. I've done several TV interviews before, but always with real cameraman and real TV interviewers. None came with scripts. Anyway, we hope the videos will be helpful to the audience. Please notice one of my German Shepherds walking through the film shoot. Her first film. Next time, I'll try to look straight at the camera.
Medical Alert Video
Medical Alert Lock Box Video
Medical Alert Videos
While my son was home from college (Caltech) this summer he updated our website
www.pioneeremergency.com , and convinced me that I had to leave the comfort of the Stone Age, and it was time to start creating this blog, and to make videos. I knew nothing about blogs and videos. I am not a techie. Not accustomed to hearing "no," he pulled out the video camera, wrote a script, and sat me down on the living room couch, and the camera started to roll. If these videos look like they were made by total amateurs, in the privacy of their homes, it's because they were. I think this was the first time my son used the camera. I've done several TV interviews before, but always with real cameraman and real TV interviewers. None came with scripts. Anyway, we hope the videos will be helpful to the audience. Please notice one of my German Shepherds walking through the film shoot. Her first film. Next time, I'll try to look straight at the camera.
www.pioneeremergency.com , and convinced me that I had to leave the comfort of the Stone Age, and it was time to start creating this blog, and to make videos. I knew nothing about blogs and videos. I am not a techie. Not accustomed to hearing "no," he pulled out the video camera, wrote a script, and sat me down on the living room couch, and the camera started to roll. If these videos look like they were made by total amateurs, in the privacy of their homes, it's because they were. I think this was the first time my son used the camera. I've done several TV interviews before, but always with real cameraman and real TV interviewers. None came with scripts. Anyway, we hope the videos will be helpful to the audience. Please notice one of my German Shepherds walking through the film shoot. Her first film. Next time, I'll try to look straight at the camera.
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