As soon as the date for the inaugural Enjoy Illinois 300 race was set, Cory Heuchert and the Madison County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) went to work on their public safety planning for the event. Fortunately, they knew that in this all-hands-on-deck situation, they could quickly turn to FirstNet®, Built with AT&T to help in their efforts.
With 57,000-plus people potentially in attendance for the NASCAR race, the Madison County EMA engaged FirstNet on emergency response plans that required everything from connectivity and real-time information to on-site health care and patient tracking.
FirstNet is well-versed in helping organizations like this respond during both ordinary and extraordinary times. As public safety’s nationwide communications platform, FirstNet provided the Madison County EMA with peace of mind, knowing they would have the reliable connections and tools they would need to keep their community safe.
To ensure coverage throughout the event, FirstNet utilized assets from its fleet of 100+ temporary service solutions, which includes ground-based assets such as Cell on Wheels (COWs) and heavy-duty Satellite Cell on Light Trucks or SatCOLTs. It also contains ground-breaking use of drones, Flying COWs™ (Cell on Wings), and FirstNet One – an industry-first blimp.
Heuchert says that the Madison County EMA – a FirstNet customer since 2018 – was particularly impressed with how the FirstNet team made itself available, at all times.
When race day arrived, the event in Illinois’ Metro East area was sold-out. It ended up being the largest single-day crowd in the history of the venue. But thanks to its thorough planning and collaboration with FirstNet, the Madison County EMA was ready.
According to Heuchert, FirstNet’s network coverage was great and the support they received was “wonderful.”
To learn more about how FirstNet can help with your community’s large, planned events, please visit https://www.firstnet.com/power-of-firstnet/large-planned-events.html.
