GRAND FORKS, N.D. - A cross-border team of National Guard Soldiers is using new technology in the flood fight here to cut through the communication fog that's hindered past civil emergency operations.
Two Joint Incident Site Communications Capability (JISCC) systems have been deployed in North Dakota since overland and river flooding began to plague the entire state nearly two weeks ago.
The systems, one from North Dakota and the other from South Dakota, allow civilian emergency responders to communicate seamlessly with each other as well as with military personnel on the ground.
It's the first time the Guard assets have been deployed in a "real world" emergency in either North Dakota or South Dakota. The portable system can be stood up in about an hour almost anywhere.
"We are set up and ready, fully functional and all signals are good to go," said Warrant Officer Eric Nagel, with the North Dakota National Guard's Joint Force Headquarters, from Fargo, which has seen some of the most severe flooding.
Nagel said the JISCC systems have allowed Guard dike patrollers in Fargo to use VHF handheld radios to keep in constant communication with their military command posts and with civilian first responders.
The JISCC system in Fargo also has served as a backup to the Tactical Operations Center (TOC) there, in the case that the TOC's communication system goes down. The Fargo TOC has been responsible for coordinating all flood-fighting missions in eastern North Dakota.
In Grand Forks, about 70 miles to the north, down the swelling Red River, the South Dakota JISCC serves as a contingency for the TOC there.
"It's nice that we have another entity with the same capabilities that we can count on as the flood fight moves up north," Nagel said.
The JISCC is part of the National Guard's response to communication problems during the emergency response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and again after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
In both cases, emergency responders were unable to effectively talk with each other as a result of incompatible communication systems.
JISCC provides voice, data, video and radio accessibility between local, state and federal agencies. The system is so flexible that a county sheriff on a cell phone can call up a military commander who is using SINCGARS (Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System), a common military radio.
During the past five years, the National Guard Bureau's Communication Directorate has issued more than 70 JISCC systems in 54 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories at about $500,000 apiece.
Capt. Lew Weber, with the South Dakota National Guard's Joint Force Headquarters, said JISCC teams rely on local incident commanders to provide contact numbers, signals and frequencies for the area.
He said the benefits of JISCC systems continue to grow as word spreads about their capabilities, especially among civilian agencies.
"The biggest challenge up to this point is that a lot those people don't know these things exist," Weber said.
He said one JISCC system fits in the back of an 18-foot trailer. It includes a durable satellite dish, 20-foot by 20-foot tent, light tubes and generators, allowing it to be set up anywhere, from a hardened modern structure to the middle of nowhere.
Spc. Tyler Skoglund, Sioux Falls, S.D., one of nine South Dakota National Guard members who've joined Weber in North Dakota flood-fighting operations, said it's been exhilarating to actually deploy the JISCC system in a non-training scenario.
"It's a great learning experience," he said. "I was excited from the moment I got the call to come up here. This is what I signed up to do."
Weber said the JISCC systems are not all work and no play. Because they're equipped with multiple laptop computers with Internet and telephones, military personnel can use them to call home or surf the Net.
"And it's not just for the military and first responders," he said. "In the case of an emergency situation, we can provide these services to civilians, too."