Eagle County powers real-time emergency response with Google Workspace, improving communication and coordination across multilingual, remote communities.
In my work life, I’ve used several cloud-based software systems that I primarily value for centralized, secure data storage. Google Workspace stands out as a platform that has a great proactive impact when planning for a disaster.
The following case study from Eagle County, Colorado, illustrates how readily available tools can enhance context and communication within a multilingual, geographically dispersed population with diverse technical skills and devices.
Eagle County, Colorado: Powering Real-Time Emergency Response Through Cloud Collaboration
From snowy mountains and ski resorts to green river valleys and forests, Eagle County is an adventurer’s paradise. Home to world-class skiing, expansive hiking trails, mountain biking, and wilderness preserves (all overlooking some of the state’s most breathtaking views), Eagle County is one of Colorado’s most popular tourist areas, with well over 1 million people visiting the area each year. The climate and geography at the heart of the Colorado Rockies also make Eagle County susceptible to natural disasters, including avalanches and wildfires.
As any emergency responder will tell you, the speed of response, based on accurate information, is fundamental to preserving life and property when disaster strikes. But when trying to reach remote communities across challenging terrain, it is even more important to coordinate the resources at your disposal.
“In the case of a wildfire, information is coming in from multiple sources on the ground, including members of the public and the emergency response team itself,” said Brandon Williams, innovation and strategy manager, Eagle County Government. “You can have roughly 50 teams and maybe 500 people responding to a fast-moving incident.”
Getting up to Speed in the Situation Room
This presents the emergency team with two critical challenges:
“Our response teams need a single source of information that can be updated in real time,” Williams said. “It is equally important that we keep communities up to speed on evacuation plans, shelters, and road closures, for example.”
While technology plays a role in the age of mobile devices and online communications, Williams’ focus is on making information as accessible as possible.
“How do you ensure the latest news is accessible to a multilingual, geographically dispersed population with different technical skills and using a variety of devices from PCs and laptops to mobile phones?” he asked.
In the past, Eagle County updated its emergency operations plans on paper in three-ring binders. It mostly relied on phone calls and other traditional communication tools that proved difficult and unreliable in real-world emergencies.
Williams and his team originally deployed Google Workspace several years ago to create a centralized platform enabling a single, always-current source of truth in times of disaster. During the Lake Christine Fire in 2018, which destroyed over 12,000 acres on Basalt Mountain and caused $30 million in damages, the emergency response teams used Google Docs to share vital crisis information as the flames and smoke spread.
Eagle County also turned to Google Maps Platform to share information with residents so they could see the extent of the disaster, travel information, and other real-time information.
Transforming the Frontline Response
Given this previous experience, Williams decided to put Google Workspace front and center as part of Eagle County’s emergency response strategy. He also hired an expert to help the team maximize the potential of Google Workspace tools to help protect life and property.
“We wanted to do something special in emergency management,” Williams said. “We had the right tools. Now we just needed somebody who had the right skills and could give us guidance on how to make even more of our Google Workspace tools.”
Birch Barron, who was hired as the director of emergency management, saw the potential of Google Workspace, including tools such as Google Chat for real-time conversations between emergency crews, Google Sites to broadcast information to residents, and Google Forms for anyone to submit information quickly and in different languages.
The team’s plan was tested two years after the Lake Christine fire. At lunchtime one day in August, Eagle County emergency services received a 911 call reporting a fire spreading fast in Grizzly Creek. Williams and the team leapt into action with Google Workspace supporting their efforts.
Their first step was to set up a Google Doc for the situation report. “Providing disparate departments and their teams with instant access to information is the foundation of an effective response that preserves lives and livelihoods,” Williams explained. “Google Docs simplifies chaos and gives clarity to these fast-moving situations.”
Williams then turned to Google Maps Platform, using the My Maps feature to add layers of vital information, including evacuation and pre-evacuation zones, fire locations, and disaster assistance centers where evacuated people could seek shelter.
“Google Maps gives us the ability to communicate with our multilingual population in a way that transcends language. The interface is familiar to most people, and they can use it to find information about a natural disaster in the same environment that they use for finding directions or choosing a restaurant,” he added.
Some 30% of Eagle County’s 56,000 residents are Spanish speakers, so bilingual communication around safety measures and evacuation plans is key to protecting community public safety.
“It’s really critical that public safety and government response speak in a language that people understand,” said Faviola Alderete, community health strategist, Eagle County Government. “Google Workspace supports our efforts to communicate equally to everyone, especially when frontline workers such as health inspectors, nurses, or housing officers are sharing knowledge with Eagle County residents.”
One of Eagle County’s initiatives is to bring more stakeholder opinions around internal processes into the loop and amplify public voices in decision-making. Google Workspace makes this easy.
The Eagle County team is excited about working with Google Workspace in the future.
“Every year, Google Workspace tools get better, smarter, and more integrated,” Barron said. “They become even more accessible to people who aren’t familiar with technology.”
This makes getting new employees up to speed easier and further improves the emergency response.
“You can’t put a price on technology such as Google Workspace when it helps support split second decisions that make the difference between life and death,” Barron added.
Thank you to Google and Eagle County for enabling us to share part of this case study. The entire case study can be found online at workspace.google.com/ customers/eagle-county/.
