Bellingham firm helps handle flow of information for Gulf oil spill [The Bellingham Herald, Wash.]

May 16--A Bellingham company is providing the Web-based system for the official information site for the Gulf oil spill.

PIER Systems Inc. has been working with BP and the U.S. Coast Guard since the explosion rocked the Deepwater Horizon oil rig last month. The company, which has an office on Railroad Avenue near the Herald Building, has been providing support through its Web-based system onsite in Louisiana and Alabama as well as from Bellingham.

Within hours of the explosion, a website was operational, providing information, photos and video as well as having a system in place to handle inquiries from the public and the media.

The website, deepwaterhorizonresponse.com, has had more than 19 million hits since it became operational last month. It also has handled more than 14,000 inquiries from the public, directing those to the proper person for a quick response. Visitors can click on links to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter for public discussions and notifications.

The overall handling of the flow of information has gone exceptionally well, said Gerald Baron, who in 2000 developed PIER, which stands for Public Information Emergency Response. PIER Systems was acquired by O'Brien's Response Management Inc. in December 2009, and Baron stayed on as the company's executive vice president for communications. It has 11 employees in the Bellingham office.

"There are always surprises, but PIER was developed to handle surges of traffic in events of this size," Baron said. "It will also be an important site for information in the long term for those communities impacted by this event, even after media interest is gone."

The site has received praise from the Coast Guard, an agency that has used the PIER system for years, including during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In a recent article on NextGov.com, Lt. Cmdr. Christopher O'Neil, a media relations chief for the Coast Guard, said PIER is a powerful tool other agencies should adopt for crisis management.

The idea for PIER came about in response to the 1999 Olympic Pipeline explosion in Bellingham. Immediately following the pipeline explosion there was confusion in the community and between agencies about what was going on, and Baron believed a Web-based solution was possible.

"That explosion led to many changes in terms of safety and regulation, but it also changed how agencies communicate with the public and the ability to handle inquiries in a crisis situation," Baron said.

WHO USES PIER

A wide variety of government agencies and companies use the PIER System. Here are some examples:

City of Bellingham, City of Atlanta, Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority, Port of Houston, U.S. Food & Drug Administration, Washington State Poison Control, Whatcom County, Bonneville Power Administration, Shell, BP, Tesoro, Allstate Insurance, Boeing, Western Washington University and Bellingham Public School District.

SOURCE: PIERSYSTEMS.COM

Reach DAVE GALLAGHER at dave.gallagher@bellinghamherald.com or call 715-2269.

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