John Hughes

New York City’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) is much aided in its recovery efforts at Ground Zero when it starts using a little-known piece of emergency management software, which it only purchased last month and that was originally going to be launched on September 17. [Wall Street Journal, 10/23/2001; Wired News, 11/2/2001] The software, called E Team, helps organizations to “prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters and emergencies of all types.” [California Technology Ventures, 10/16/2001] It was created by E Team Inc., a company based in Canoga Park, California. [e-ProWire, 5/22/2002] The New York City OEM only bought E Team in August (see August 2001). It installed the software on computers in its Emergency Operations Center in World Trade Center Building 7 (WTC 7) and intended to launch the system on September 17. [Wall Street Journal, 10/23/2001; Wired News, 11/2/2001]
Engineers Put Together New System to Manage Recovery Operation – The OEM was in contact with E Team Inc. executives within a few hours of the attacks on the WTC on September 11. [Wall Street Journal, 10/23/2001; e-ProWire, 5/22/2002] E Team Inc. employees reportedly suspected in advance that WTC 7—which housed the computers on which their software was installed—would collapse. Matt Walton, the company’s CEO, will later recall: “We knew that tower number 7 was probably not going to make it. We contacted the [New York City] mayor’s office and told them we would put up the New York databases on our own servers.” [Wired News, 11/2/2001] That night, a group of E Team Inc. engineers gathered at the company’s headquarters in Canoga Park, and put together a system on the company’s servers using data that the New York City OEM had sent to the company to prepare for the launch of the E Team system on September 17. By September 12, the engineers had the system ready for use. [Wall Street Journal, 10/23/2001]
System Goes into Operation at New Command Center – For the first couple of days after 9/11, the OEM had to coordinate its recovery efforts on paper or using e-mail, because its emergency management computer systems were destroyed when WTC 7 collapsed on the afternoon of September 11 (see (5:20 p.m.) September 11, 2001). An OEM spokesman will comment, “It became apparent that we needed very sophisticated technology to effectively handle the crisis.” [Wired News, 11/2/2001] Then, on September 14, the E Team system goes into operation at the OEM’s temporary command center at Pier 92 on the Hudson River, where several server computers have been set up to run the software and 200 workstations are connected to the system. [Wall Street Journal, 10/23/2001; e-ProWire, 5/22/2002] Troy Armstrong and John Hughes, two senior E Team Inc. employees who are distinguished emergency management professionals, are installed at the temporary command center. They are supplemented with three additional E Team Inc. employees.
System Plays Key Role in Recovery Operation – The main initial uses of E Team in response to the 9/11 attacks are resource management and situation reporting, but over time the system will also be used for incident reporting, asset tracking, action planning, and logistics. [California Technology Ventures, 10/16/2001] E Team tracks everything related to the recovery efforts at Ground Zero. It enables emergency responders to monitor the location of fires, personnel, supplies, and trucks. It also handles resource requests. [Wired News, 11/2/2001; e-ProWire, 5/22/2002] It makes the recovery operation “much more efficient,” according to Lieutenant Colonel John Flanagan of the New York Army National Guard. [Wall Street Journal, 10/23/2001] In total, more than 1,700 individuals from over 200 organizations will use the E Team system at the height of the rescue and recovery efforts. [Council of the City of New York, 8/2002, pp. 22 ]