People Locater System Tested At U.C. Berkeley

Berkeley, Calif. Sep. 28, 2007 (KGO) (KGO) -- A new kind of emergency notification system is being beta-tested at U.C. Berkeley. The web-based People Locator System is designed to provide news about an incident and where to go for help. But does it live up to its name?

If there were a major disaster on the Berkeley campus, a major earthquake for example, cell phones went down, email went down, U.C. Berkeley officials say the People Locator would still be working.

It is an idea born in the calamity and confusion following Hurricane Katrina.

"The key point is that we learned from Katrina that major infrastructure can be taken down during a major emergency. If we lost our data center if we lost our power to the region, this contact system could still work because it relies on the status of the UCLA campus, not in the Bay Area," said Tom Klatt, U.C. Office of Emergency Preparedness.

Students and faculty can log on to the campus website using the university issued pass phrase and post important information.

"It gives my current location and how I can be reached and a message I can leave for somebody who could be looking for me and my whereabouts," said Tom Klatt.

"The thing that People Locator depends on and what makes it really powerful is that we have an authentication mechanism on campus that knows everybody on campus and everybody has an ID and a password and so your able to login and say this is really me," said Tom O'Brien, U.C. Berkeley computer analyst

Friends and family can find the posted information using the person's email address and People Locator also allows them to post information about the person they're looking for -- that information is clearly marked unauthenticated.

Cal student Robbie Crabtree says the idea is a wipe out for him. He won't be going to that website following a disaster.

"I'd probably check the news at Drudgereport.com," said Robbie Crabtree, U.C. Berkeley student.

A few other students we spoke with felt the same way.

"In my neighborhood and in my apartment we could all pretty much be together as opposed to relying on a line of technology which may not be that reliable," said Heather Nelson, U.C. Berkeley student.

"I would just use a cell phone if it works and if it didn't work I'd wait till it started working," said Eleanor Jaeger, U.C. Berkeley student.

That reaction on campus is exactly what emergency officials expected considering the system is in its first few months of operation. And they say of course students will use the most familiar forms of communication first. But there will come a day when this system of last resort, maybe the only system available.

U.C. Berkeley emergency officials are waiting on a $25,000 dollar grant from FEMA so it can write the code and make the People Locator available to the 50 campuses that are interested in using it.

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