In January 2007, Columbus, Ohio was cited as the fourth most-prepared city in the nation for disaster preparedness. This is partially due to the fact that the City of Columbus Department of Public Safety has incorporated MARCS interoperability into their emergency preparedness plan with over 900 units deployed. The City of Columbus is prepared to enable any agency at the local, state or federal level to speak with all other agencies in the state through the MARCS capabilities.

In August 2005, Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast of the United States. Communications vans from Ohio Emergency Management Agency, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, several County Sheriff Offices, Ohio Fire Marshall and Ohio National Guard equipped with MARCS equipment convoyed to the area to assist in the relief efforts. Ohio’s resources were able to communicate with local agencies in the Gulf area. Although high winds toppled many of the public safety towers in the area, the Ohio communications vans were equipped to act as stand alone tower sites, aiding communications in the area. The MARCS resources worked so well that talks between Gulf Coast public safety agencies and Ohio MARCS users are still under way, so these disaster ravaged areas can also build a similar system.

MARCS is made up of three components. Voice, Data and Computer Aided Dispatch. A vehicle equipped with the full suite of subscriber equipment for the voice and data component is shown below.

The Computer Aided Dispatch component of MARCS provided global positioning system (GPS), auto vehicle location (AVL), resource recommendation, patching capabilities and much more.

The State of Ohio realized back in 1990 there were serious problems with the communications systems utilized by their public safety and service agencies. This was evident after the Shadyside flood disaster in 1990. First responders were unable to communicate with each other even though they had portable and mobile radios. The inability to communicate between responders created serious issues when attempting to rescue and evacuate people on either side of the raging river. The State of Ohio conducted in-depth studies of the lack of statewide interoperability communications, resulting in the development of a statewide voice and data communications system providing the bridge between the communications gap.

You can see several agencies at various levels of government shown below, all equipped with the MARCS interoperable communications system.

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