There is a lot of overlap between the skills required for geocaching and those used by Red Cross Disaster Responders. An important part of responding to a disaster is finding and mapping where the people are who need help and determining where to locate Red Cross services such as emergency shelters, feeding routes, bulk distribution sites, etc.
When I am not geocaching, I volunteer for the Red Cross Disaster Services. I created this simulation to give you a taste of how Red Cross volunteers use Red Cross mapping technology to deliver services during a disaster. Before tackling the puzzle, I strongly suggest you either print out the directions which follow, or open the interactive map (found below) in another tab.
It’s the worst blizzard in years, and you report for your assignment at the Disaster Operations Center (DOC) at the local Red Cross Chapter. As Disaster Assessment Manager, information is coming in to you from your Disaster Assessment teams in the field as well as from phone calls coming into the DOC. You create a spreadsheet with the addresses that have been reported to be unlivable because of a blizzard-related condition such a collapsed roof or power outage. In order to get this information out (in real time as new information comes in) to Red Cross volunteers across all functions, you use Red Cross mapping tools to make the information from your spreadsheet available on-line as an interactive map. Every time you update your spreadsheet, the map updates instantly. You tag each address with a blue snowflake. You can click on each snowflake for the address and other information. You share THIS MAP with all other DOC workers. You add layers in your map for possible emergency shelter locations, Red Cross Headquarters and power outage areas.
As soon as the DOC's Shelter Manager hears that your map is available, she opens the map and opens the NSS (shelter) layer in the Layers drop-down box. She sees that each red rectangle with the flag on top represents a possible Red Cross shelter site. (The local Chapter's Emergency Sheltering team creates and updates sheltering agreements throughout the year so we can open them on short notice.) She can click on each shelter icon for the address and more information such as evacuation capacity. She knows a capacity (EvacCap) of more than 0 means the shelter agreement has been activated and the site may be opened immediately.
With such widespread damage, the Shelter Manager knows we are going to need to open several shelters. In order to decide where to open the first one, she adjusts her view to look at the area south of Route 104, east of the river, and north of the inner loop. She decides to open a shelter between Joseph Avenue and the river.
Click on the site and take note of the street address and capacity of the shelter (A = the street number minus the capacity).
Returning to the map, the Shelter Manager drags over to the area bounded by Joseph Avenue on the west, Clifford Avenue on the north, Main Street on the south, and North Goodman St on the east. She sees two shelters in the area and notice that only one is available. She opens that one. (In an actual event, the Shelter Manager would add a separate layer for open shelters so everyone can easily find them, but we'll dispense with that in this simulation.)
Take note of the address of the shelter (B = the street number minus 696.)
After the shelter is opened, a Casework volunteer gets a phone call from a distraught resident at 35 Crombie Street in Rochester, who asks how far away the nearest shelter is. The caseworker uses the search tool in the map to find the address. After the map zooms there, he zooms out until he sees the just opened shelter. The caseworker clicks on the distance measure tool (the ruler with the double pointed arrow in the Measure drop-down box). He then clicks once on the Crombie Street snowflake icon and move his cursor over to the closest open shelter and clicks on it to get the distance from the home to the shelter.
Take note of the measurement result. Round the result to the nearest mile. (C = the number of miles plus 3.)
Click again on the Measure tool icon to make it disappear.
Meanwhile, the Shelter Manager wants to open two more shelters on the west side of the river. Based on the clusters of blizzard damage on the map, she decides to open them both East of 390, one north of 490 and one south of 490. She wants to be able to house more than 200 people in each of them.
Take note of the street address and capacity of the shelter that the Shelter Manager opened north of 490. (D = the capacity, minus the street address, minus 251).
Take note of the street address of the shelter she chose for south of 490. (E = the street address minus 270.)
The Volunteer Coordinator at the DOC gets a call from a group of geocachers who want to be Event Based Volunteers, but they can’t find the Red Cross Headquarters without GPS coordinates. The Volunteer Coordinator uses the search tool to locate the headquarters at 50 Prince Street, Rochester, NY. He then clicks on the HQ icon to get the coordinates. (Click on the Red Cross, not the blue map location button.)
Note the longitude (X) ignoring the minus sign - (F=X minus 75.58948)
Note the latitude (Y) – (G=Y minus 34.15959)
A large shelter is needed for stranded travelers and overflow from other shelters. The Shelter Manager opens a shelter inside the inner loop.
Take note of the capacity of the shelter. (H = the capacity minus 845.)
Word comes in that there is a major power outage in the Fairport area. The Mass Care manager wants to know how many potential shelters are in the area (knowing that even those without capacity might be available as warming stations). He goes to the map, enables the Power Outage layer in the Layers drop-down menu, drags the map over to the Fairport area and counts the potential shelter sites in the shaded area.
I= the number of potential sites.
The Information & Planning Manager wants to know how many square miles are included in the blackout area. She selects the Area tool in the Measure drop-down box and clicks on each corner of the power outage shaded area. The area is displayed in the area drop-down dialogue box.
J = the square miles (rounded to a whole number) minus 12.
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.
To start, the cache is loaded with Red Cross swag. FTF gets his/her pick of a Red Cross CPR Kit (with breathing barrier and vinyl gloves), 150 year commemorative pin, lanyard, 16 oz insulated coffee mug. and two Red Cross tee-shirts.