BEECN pronounced (Beacon) is an acronym for Basic Emergency Earthquake Communications Node, and it’s indigenous only to Portland, Oregon.
Ernest Jones the Volunteer Program Development coordinator with the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management was on hand at the city’s Central Library recently to educate interested citizens about the BEECN program.
In 2012 the Mayor along with other city officials, and staff from the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management set about the task of discovering a way that Portland’s population and the city’s emergency responders could receive vital information after a disaster occurred. Cell phones, landlines, texting and Internet service are not resilient enough to endure the anticipated damage a disaster will cause.
BEECN is what they came up with, it’s a system of using hand-held radios to connect neighborhoods to the local government so that citizens can find out what’s going on, and also report sever damage or injury. These 2-way radios like walkie-talkies are placed at prearranged locations throughout the city, (see the map with the red dots.)
After a disaster event happens, specially trained volunteers go to their predetermined locations and set up the BEECN system. They initially establish communication with nearby fire stations, but the BEECN’s are much more than that, it’s a “clearing house” where local people can go to find food, water, shelter and other supplies. This is potentially life-saving info following a natural or man-made disaster.
So far…Portland, Oregon is the only community in the U.S. to have the BEECN system, but as other communities across America increase their resiliency they might want to copy Portland’s innovative approach to emergency preparedness.
