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At NASA Ames Research Center's first-ever Open House on September 20, 1997, more than 200,000 visitors came to Ames Moffett Field to learn about NASA technology. As a precautionary measure, the Emergency Operations Center was activated along with Emergency Services personnel, including DART. As it turned out, it was extremely fortuitous that this was done. The Open House Planning Committee anticipated a crowd of 50,000. By 1:30pm the crowd exceed 200,000. There was a several mile traffic back up in both directions on Highway 101 of people wanting to attend the open house. At that point the Director of the EOC decided to close Moffett Field to all incoming traffic except for those on government business.
The Open House was considered a major success for NASA Ames Research Center even though it proved to be a bit of a nightmare for the Ames Emergency Services community. By 1:30pm the minor medical emergencies, fender benders, and other incidents that are typical of extremely large and mobile crowds, began to overwhelm the available resources.
The DART Rescue Unit demonstrated high angle rope rescue operations in Hangar 1. DART HazMat also provided demonstrations.
The Open House focused on partnerships with NASA among businesses, aerospace, academe, community organizations and education. Activities at the Open House included watching robotics competitions, observing a Mars rover demonstration, taking a virtual trip across the Martian surface, viewing Mars and lunar rocks, and learning about our next mission to the Moon with Lunar Prospector, among other things.
Guests also visited many important and historic facilities, including the world's largest wind tunnel, one of the world's most sophisticated flight simulators, and the premier NASA supercomputing facility in the country. NASA's High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) Program interacted with guests by sharing its goals and accomplishments. Its exhibits featured side-by-side demonstrations and large graphic displays depicting major activities in Computational Aero Sciences, Earth and Space Science, NASA Research, and Education Network and Learning Technology Project.
The Resident Agencies at Moffett Field, the U.S. Space Camp California, the Ames staff, and the local Chambers of Commerce worked cooperatively on the event.
FEMA and CaTF-3 also participated in the Open House by providing displays and personnel to staff the displays. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's displays depicted the role that FEMA plays in disaster preparation, response, and recovery.
Ray Williams, Acting FEMA Region IX Regional Director, said, "Our partnership with NASA was valuable during the 1991 Oakland Firestorm, the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and the floods of 1997."
The FEMA exhibit featured a display on the partnership between NASA and FEMA in developing mitigation education and marketing materials. FEMA partnered with NASA's Video Production Group to document flood mitigation success stories following the January 1997 California Winter Floods. This video was developed to brief Vice President Al Gore and FEMA Director James Lee Witt during their site visit to the flood areas in January of 1997. Additionally, the video was used to inform members of Congress on the value of mitigation. NASA and FEMA are collaborating in the documentation of mitigation successes in communities around the country, and the Territory of American Samoa, the Territory of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia, covered by Region IX's jurisdiction.
NASA's partnership role was also highlighted in the exhibit with fly over photographs documenting the disaster areas of the Oakland Hills fire, the Malibu fires and flooding in Marysville. The public also got a "hands on" look at emergency and preparedness information found on the FEMA web server.
Click on an image to see an enlarged view.
Emergency Operations Center (EOC) |
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Open House Site |
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Hanger 1 Exhibits |
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California Task Force 3 (CaTF-3) Exhibits |
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Disaster Assistance & Rescue Team (DART) Exhibits |
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DART Hazardous Materials Response Team (HazMat) Exhibits |
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