April 14, 2003

On February 1, 2003 the Space Shuttle Columbia was lost during re-entry into earth's atmosphere. While the entire nation learned of the disaster and mourned the loss of the seven crewmembers, NASA officials began the painstaking work of investigating the source of the tragedy.

A significant component of the investigation focused on locating debris scattered across an area of more than 500,000 acres. Only with this material in hand would investigators be able to conduct the analysis needed to reconstruct the timeline of events.

Colorado Urban Search and Rescue (CUSAR) and the U.S. Forest Service's (USFS) Georgia based smoke jumper teams answered the call. Both organizations accessed IntelliCast Call List, pulled up first responder lists and launched call out events instructing team members on where to report to assist in the debris search.

As of March 25th, 4500 ground searchers had covered 56 percent of the search area. Roughly 25 percent of the shuttle Columbia has been recovered for analysis, to include recovery of the Orbiter Experiment Support System recorder (OEX). "We are extremely excited with the recent discovery of this recorder, and we want to thank the other agencies and communities for their support," said Allen Flynt, NASA Oversight Manager at the Lufkin Command Center.

IntelliCast Call List, Intrado's companion offering to IntelliCast Target Notification, allows officials to replace cumbersome and time-consuming phone trees to rapidly distribute information to key first responder groups. Said George Heinrichs, Intrado president and CEO, "IntelliCast Call List insured that CUSAR and USFS personnel were quickly on site to lend a hand."

For more information about IntelliCast, Intrado's Emergency Target Notification system and its Call List capabilities, please call Rhonda Spears at The U. S. Conference of Mayors at (202) 861-6794 or email her at rspears@usmayors.org, or contact Lilla Hammond at The U.S. Conference of Mayors at (301) 460-5251 or email her at lhammond@usmayors.org.