Automated flash-flood phone alert system developed

Consequently, Wolfe began working with, Jerry Paruzinski, a program director at the fort, to develop a warning system.

The result was a linking of cell phone technology to existing sediment monitoring systems at major watershed overflow points throughout the reservation, he said.

“We simply installed cell phones in dataloggers at three low-water crossings and programmed them to call when the stream depth was unsafe to cross,” he said. ”When water began to rise, the automated system would send voice alarms to range control officers,” Wolfe said.

The system worked but had limitations because it was piggybacked on the sediment-monitoring program, and due to the cell phone technology of the time, according to Wolfe.

The problem was that the analog phones and data loggers only issued a recorded, “robot-like, message stating ‘alarm at site 3; please acknowledge,”’ Wolfe said.

Everything still worked if range control personnel understood who or what was calling them, where site 1, 2, or 3 was, and were trained to acknowledge the alarm by entering a code, according to Wolfe.

“This worked well enough if you could keep the soldiers on-duty at range control briefed about the system,” he said. “Another problem, they frequently rotated personnel, as the military likes to do.”

In 2007 digital cellular phones became available, he said. The new phone systems were more reliable, made real-time monitoring possible, and communicated with Range Control is a much less cryptic manner, Wolfe said.

“(Today,) the digital system continuously measures water level at six low-water crossings on three major streams,” Wolfe said. “At 10-minute intervals, data is uploaded to a College Station server for display and delivery.”

When the programming determines flood conditions are eminent, text alerts are relayed to a list of range control personnel. The Range Control officers can then immediately warn units on maneuvers or civilian traffic control officers of dangerous stream conditions.

“The dual reporting nature, both web-based and via text alerts, gives increased reliability,” Wolfe said.

Real-time water level measurements for all six Fort Hood sites can be found here.

Plans for future expansion include flood prediction monitoring, adding more monitoring locations and perhaps automated warning lights at high-risk areas.

The system Wolfe installed for the City of Belton is basically a scaled-down version of the Fort Hood network.

Because of limited funds, it currently only uses one monitoring site on Nolan Creek about six miles west of Belton.

Similarly to the Fort Hood system, monitoring system data is updated every ten minutes to the Internet server, and alerts are sent to local officials and emergency personnel if flooding is eminent. Like the military stations, the Web site is available to the public.

Wolfe said field hardware costs from $3,500 to $4,000 per station. Software accounts for another $1,000 to $1,500.

Cellular service costs us $15 per month, per station, on a university contract, he said.

There’s also the cost for maintaining a server, but the one for Belton is gratis on another project.

“The real cost is in salary for the person installing and maintaining the system,” Wolfe said.