Philippines, IBM open a central disaster planning, response center

MANILA, May 29 (UPI) -- A central command center to help the Philippines better cope with disaster response has been established by the government and IBM.

The new intelligent operations center, engendered as a consequence of last year's devastating typhoon Yolanda, was inaugurated Thursday in Quezon City by IBM and the Department of Science and Technology.

IBM had issued an Impact Grant of technology and services following the typhoon and delivered the center, which features an integrated communications.

"In the wake of Typhoon Yolanda, IBM teams in the U.S. and Philippines recognized both the enormity of the crisis and the opportunity to provide cutting-edge technology," said Mariels Almeda Winhoffer, president and country general manager of IBM Philippines. "These solutions will address the government's need for better decision-making support, and at the same time, provide a starting point to better manage future responses."

IBM said its integrated solution will pull data from disparate sources into a common view, giving emergency managers advance warning of extreme weather events, feedback from first responders on casualties and the condition of buildings, roads, and infrastructure for analytics and response planning.