Enlite™ Cloud Dispatch for Extreme Weather Response

Hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods across the United States are becoming more frequent and more severe, posing escalating challenges for emergency response agencies. [science.nasa.govenvironmentamerica.org] In 2024 alone, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tracked 27 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, the second-highest annual total in 45 years (surpassed only by 28 events in 2023 ). [environmentamerica.orgenvironmentamerica.org] Just in the past few years, the U.S. has averaged around 23 major disasters per year, nearly double the rate of a decade ago. [environmentamerica.org] This “significant uptick in the frequency and severity of weather disasters” is largely driven by our warming climate. [environmentamerica.org] Such extreme events are no longer rare; they have become a new normal that tests the resiliency of public safety infrastructure on an ongoing basis.

Extreme Weather Threats to Emergency Communications

When a hurricane makes landfall or a tornado tears through a community, the destruction isn’t limited to homes and roads; it often directly threatens the critical communications systems that police, fire, EMS, and 911 dispatch centers rely on. Power outages, flooding, and structural damage can knock Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) offline at the very moment they’re needed most. For example, widespread storms can down telephone lines and radio towers, and flooding can force the evacuation of 911 dispatch centers, leaving first responders without a central coordinating hub. Even when backup generators kick in, there is always a risk that a physical dispatch facility becomes inaccessible, roads may be impassable, or the building itself may sustain damage.

Traditionally, dispatch operations have been tightly bound to brick-and-mortar centers filled with radio consoles, servers, and telephone equipment. In these legacy setups, operational continuity is tied to a physical command center with limited location flexibility. If that center is compromised, dispatchers can’t easily relocate, the technology (from radio base stations to CAD terminals) is literally stuck at the site. Agencies do have disaster Continuity of Operations Plans (COOP), often involving backup sites or mobile command vehicles. But without modern technology, shifting an entire dispatch operation on the fly is daunting. Clearly, to effectively handle today’s fast-moving natural disasters, public safety agencies need a more flexible, resilient approach, one that isn’t knocked out when the terrestrial equipment is damaged.

Cloud Dispatch: Ensuring Continuity and Mobility

This is where Enlite™ Cloud Dispatch comes in. Enlite is a dispatch console system specifically designed to keep public safety teams operational through the worst scenarios. Unlike traditional consoles, Enlite embraces a cloud-native, software-driven architecture that prioritizes resiliency, mobility, and uninterrupted situational awareness. It essentially frees dispatch communications from the confines of the dispatch center, allowing 911 operators and dispatchers to “dispatch anywhere and everywhere”,  whether that’s a backup emergency operations center, a mobile command post, or even a dispatcher’s home in a pinch. Below, we highlight key Enlite features and how they help agencies maintain operations and communications during extreme weather events:

Accessible on Any Device, Anywhere

Enlite is cloud-based and accessible on virtually any modern device, giving agencies remarkable flexibility in where and how they run dispatch. Dispatchers no longer need to be tethered to a particular console desk. With Enlite, personnel can log in and operate the dispatch console from any Internet-connected Windows PC or laptop, or an Android-based tablet or smartphone. This means if a hurricane forces an evacuation of the primary 911 center, dispatchers can continue working from a safe location, for instance, a temporary command post or even their own homes, using nothing more than a standard computer or tablet and a network connection. Enlite’s cloud platform works over wired LAN, Wi-Fi, cellular LTE/5G, or even satellite, so even if local infrastructure is damaged, a wireless or satellite link can keep the communications flowing.

The ability to “dispatch anywhere” isn’t just a convenience; it’s a lifesaver. It ensures that emergency call-taking and dispatch coordination never have to go dark due to a damaged facility. Dispatchers on laptops in different locations can all connect to the same system in the cloud, seeing the same information and handling the same calls they would at the center. This level of mobility creates a distributed redundancy, even if one location goes down, your dispatchers are already spread out and can continue their mission. As a result, agencies equipped with Enlite can rapidly adapt to fast-changing disaster scenarios, maintaining service continuity when it matters most. (In practice, Enlite-enabled teams have successfully performed remote dispatch operations during network outages and building closures, demonstrating the real-world value of this mobility.)

Interoperability with Radios and Telephony (LMR, P25, etc.)

One of the most critical needs during a disaster is interoperable communication. Field responders, incident commanders, and 911 call-takers all need to stay connected. Enlite was built to bridge communications across radio and telephone systems, so that moving to the cloud doesn’t mean losing connectivity to legacy networks. Enlite supports Land Mobile Radio (LMR) systems, including traditional analog and Project 25 (P25) digital radio, as well as telephone call-taking. In other words, it can plug into the same police/fire radio channels and 911 phone lines that a physical dispatch console would use, but via the cloud. Dispatchers using Enlite can transmit and receive on their two-way radio networks, page out alerts, and answer incoming emergency calls, all through the software interface. The system integrates with existing analog radio infrastructure, P25 digital trunks, and all types of telephone systems to provide enhanced communication across multiple channels

What does this mean during, say, a major hurricane? Even if the primary radio tower or 911 center equipment is impacted, Enlite’s integration allows dispatchers at remote locations to continue talking to first responders over the radio and continue taking 911 calls. For example, a dispatcher working from a laptop at a backup site will hear the same radio traffic and see the same caller information as if they were at the main PSAP. This technology bridging ensures that police officers, firefighters, and EMTs in the field stay in touch with dispatch and with each other, coordinating their efforts without interruption. Enlite is radio-vendor agnostic, working with major public safety radio brands and interfaces, so agencies can leverage their current radio network through the cloud. By tying together telephony and radio in one platform, Enlite keeps all lifelines open during a crisis, from the citizen calling for help, to the dispatcher, to the units responding on scene.

Real-Time Mission Updates and Situational Awareness

During natural disasters, information will change by the minute. Traditional dispatch systems are often limited to voice communications and static screens, making it hard to keep everyone updated in real time. Enlite takes a more dynamic, data-driven approach. It allows for real-time mission creation and updates that can be instantly pushed live to all dispatchers (and even field users) on the system. In practice, this means dispatch supervisors can create or modify incident “missions,” workflows, or screen layouts on the fly as a situation unfolds, and those changes propagate to everyone’s console in real time. Enlite’s user interface includes a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) editor that lets you drag-and-drop new information components, channels, or data feeds into view. New tabs or alerts can be published without any system downtime, ensuring that the latest information is always at the fingertips of those coordinating the response.

This capability is a game-changer for situational awareness. Dispatchers and mobile command teams can be continuously fed critical data integrations, from live weather radar and flood zone maps to incoming video feeds, or social media alerts, all within the Enlite console. For example, as a flooding event spreads, a dispatcher could see updated map layers of road closures or inundation zones and relay that to field units, or as a tornado’s path is updated, they can quickly adjust which units are in harm’s way. 

Furthermore, Enlite’s cloud architecture includes an instant recall recorder (IRR) for all communications, so even amid chaos, nothing is missed, dispatchers can playback the last radio or phone transmissions instantly to verify details. All of these features combine to keep personnel acutely aware of the unfolding situation, enabling faster and more informed decision-making during disasters.

Resiliency When It Counts: Operations That Never Quit

Bringing together the above features, Enlite Cloud Dispatch delivers a level of resiliency and continuity that traditional systems simply can’t match. By decoupling dispatch from a fixed location and leveraging the cloud, Enlite ensures agencies can maintain mission-critical operations even when physical dispatch centers are compromised. In practical terms, this means a hurricane flooding your 911 center does not mean 911 services go down, your team can pick up a laptop or mobile device and continue working from anywhere with an internet connection. Dispatchers evacuating from a storm’s path could set up in a neighboring county’s EOC, connect a laptop to a cellular hotspot or satellite internet, and be fully operational on Enlite within minutes. The public calling for help would never know the difference, and first responders in the field would still hear that steady voice of dispatch guiding them, despite the center itself being out of commission.

From a technical standpoint, Enlite’s cloud deployment is built with robust redundancies to survive disaster scenarios. Cloud servers are geo-diverse and backed up in multiple regions, with automatic failover that keeps the system running if one data center goes down. In fact, Enlite is designed for 99.999% uptime, meaning virtually no unscheduled downtime, even amidst outages. This level of reliability, often called “five-nines” availability, is achieved through the use of high-availability clusters and continuous mirroring of communications in the cloud. So not only can dispatchers connect from anywhere, but the system itself is far less likely to fail. Contrast this with a single-site dispatch center: a direct hit from a tornado could knock out all your servers at once. With Enlite, the core of the dispatch console is distributed and accessible from wherever your team relocates.

Mobility, resiliency, and uninterrupted situational awareness ultimately all tie together to protect lives during extreme weather emergencies. When a massive wildfire or Category 5 hurricane strikes, public safety agencies equipped with Enlite Cloud Dispatch can operate with confidence that their communications will hold strong. They have the freedom to move and adapt, the tools to integrate all their voice and data channels, and the real-time information to make quick decisions. This translates to faster response times and better coordinated rescue efforts when citizens are in danger. Even beyond natural disasters, this flexible, cloud-based approach provides everyday benefits, from enabling remote 911 call-taking during a pandemic to simplifying system updates and maintenance (Enlite can push software updates live without interrupting service).

Building a Cloud-Connected Future for Emergency Response

As extreme weather events continue to challenge our communities, investing in flexible and resilient dispatch technology is no longer optional; it’s essential. Public safety agencies and PSAPs must be prepared for worst-case scenarios, and that means having a dispatch solution that can ride out the storm. Enlite Cloud Dispatch offers a forward-looking answer: a cloud-based, mobile, and interoperable platform that connects lives to lifelines when disaster strikes. By leveraging Enlite’s capabilities, access from any device, integration with all critical comms, and real-time updates and management, agencies can ensure that 911 operators and field dispatch teams remain connected, informed, and operational under any circumstances.

Extreme weather is testing the limits of emergency response infrastructure, but modern technology like Enlite is empowering agencies to meet the challenge head-on. Your team can continue orchestrating police, fire, and EMS responses from wherever they need to be, with full confidence in the reliability of their tools. Resilient, cloud-enabled dispatching means emergency services stay online for the community, no matter what Mother Nature throws our way.

Discover how public safety cloud systems, such as Enlite Cloud Dispatch, can revolutionize your operations today!

FAQ

1. How does Enlite Cloud Ready Dispatch work during a power outage or evacuation?

Enlite is cloud-based and accessible from any internet-connected Windows PC, laptop, or Android device. If a dispatch center loses power or must be evacuated, dispatchers can immediately relocate and continue operations remotely, ensuring no disruption in emergency response.

2. What communication systems does Enlite integrate with?

Enlite supports both analog and digital P25 radio systems, as well as standard telephony. This allows seamless integration with existing public safety communications infrastructure, making it ideal for agencies transitioning to modern platforms without losing legacy compatibility.

3. Can Enlite be used in a mobile command unit or field office?

Yes. Enlite’s cloud architecture allows it to be deployed in mobile command posts, temporary shelters, or even homes. As long as there’s connectivity (Wi-Fi, LTE/5G, or satellite), dispatchers can operate securely and effectively from any location.

4. How are mission updates shared with remote dispatchers or field teams?

Supervisors can create and push real-time mission updates directly through Enlite’s interface. All approriate users receive the updated information instantly, maintaining full situational awareness regardless of their physical location.

5. Is Enlite secure enough for mission-critical communications?

Absolutely. Enlite follows NIST and OWASP encryption guidelines. It’s designed for secure, high-reliability operation—ideal for public safety and mission-critical environments where reliability and data protection are paramount.