Last year Hurricane Sandy terrified and caused massive upheaval throughout the US for days on end. When faced by such a powerful natural phenomenon, once all possible precautions have been taken, what can you do except grit your teeth and trust in absolutely any way of surviving danger, which is exactly  what the citizens of several US cities had to do: they braved the fury of the hurricane with great tenacity and courage.

A fascinating and useful story, one that helps us to understand the relationship between digital technology and the world of rescue, comes to us from a rescue worker who was in the thick of it, in the role of paramedic during those days of panic and terror in which the whole of the US government and its people were wringing their hands about Sandy.

The paramedic J. Cortacons told an American emergency sector magazine how he cannot possibly separate himself from his Ipad while working. If anything, he went on to emphasise the importance and immediacy of these digital applications in the world of rescue in exactly the type of panic situations that occurred during the build-up to Sandy; according to Cortacons these instruments can really help the paramedic to bring about extraordinary results.

J. Cortacons named an application that he used several times during the Sandy rescue operations. He talked about Fleeteyes (developed by Intermedix), an extremely useful app which uses a digital map to give definite information about where rescue groups are located and therefore their distribution over the area; all very simple and clear with an impressive user experience. An app that is therefore efficient above all in those moments of panic where speed and the immediate location of the rescuers take on a fundamental role.

EMS digital will be back on everyone’s lips, rumours from the US signal a greater openness by American institutions towards increasingly technological paramedic equipment; we will see in the next few months which valuable futuristic objects our paramedic colleagues will be equipped with.

Here below are some images showing those dramatic moments, images of the post-Sandy rescue operations, certainly one of the most powerful hurricanes in history.