Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, Disaster Surveyor apps and standard team management website tools are available for use free by local, national, and international Urban Search and Rescue teams around the world. Our current Standard edition apps and tools will always remain free, while future premium versions with additional features will require a subscription or support package for your organization.

The Team Admin account is the master account for your team code. The Team Admin has the ability to change other team member levels to any of: Team Admin, Ops Coordinator, Observer or Standard user. The Ops Coordinator is the same as Team Admin but minus the ability to change account levels like the Team Admin. The Ops Coordinator can also share any team member data to another team code (i.e. that shared user’s data will appear in ‘read only’ mode in the recipient team code’s account website). The Observer account is a read-only account, and can not add, edit, update or delete any of the data on the website. The Standard user can only see data for their own account, if they log into the website account. 

Upgrading to a Team Admin account is free, but we ask that you use our Upgrade Request form at https://www.disastersurveyor.com/request-team-admin/ or by emailing support@disastersurveyor.com. We do this to prevent non-official users squatting on official USAR team codes. 

The main international version app with the light blue logo contains United Nations INSARAG compliant forms for Worksite Triage, Victim Extrication, Worksite Report, and Sector Assessment, as well as pdf forms that pre-populate with data collected in the app (available on the website). The U.S. and CERT versions do not contain these forms. The U.S. version (dark blue logo) further contains fields for ‘follow up’ info for Waypoints per FEMA requirements, and has FEMA Master Talley and Excel Follow up form that auto populate on it’s website at https://us.disastersurveyor.com. The CERT Surveyor version (green logo) has FEMA Waypoint iconography for the CERT program but do not have the follow up form fields in the Waypoint screen, but is otherwise CERT compliant. The website for CERT Surveyor user data is at https://cert.disastersurveyor.com.

Yes, we have several countries with customized versions with domestic incident report forms and full customization to support government level agencies are possible with a customization order.

We currently support English and Spanish languages within the apps, while our main international version website at https://www.disastersurveyor.com/login/ has web page language translation available via Google translate. For Spanish version INSARAG PDF forms, we have a Latin America / Caribbean  website at https://lac.disastersurveyor.com. We are, however, available for customization of our apps to the language of your choice through our consultation services. Please contact alex@disastersurveyor.com for more info.

Yes, the GPX and KML files downloaded from your website account for form locations, GPS Track Sets, and Waypoints are compatible with loading as layers in your ArcGIS Online account. Further, we have ArcGIS Online Account User Authentication available for users who require custom data population from our system.

Yes, our system has been deployed in the Mexico City Earthquake in Sept 2017, during Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Michael (Oct 2018) Search and Rescue efforts in the U.S., as well as in a dozen international Simex Drills, IER/IECs, and Emergency Disaster Preparedness Exercises by teams in the U.S, U.K, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Costa Rica, Ecuador, France and Greece to name a few.

No, your account with Disaster Surveyor can be used to log into any of our apps and websites. The data associated to your account will display as pertinent for each website tool. For example, if data is collected for ‘follow up forms’ in the U.S. version app, that data will appear in the download for the Excel Follow Up form, but in the CERT and International websites, will not display, while rest of the common fields will populate. One account, all Disaster Surveyor tools accessible. This means a custom website with reporting requirements for domestic government use can use the same user accounts as the international website and UN INSARAG forms.

All our apps support WGS84 Decimal Datum formats. Additionally, CERT Surveyor and US Disaster Surveyor also support USNG on the main GPS screen, and Waypoint data collected in the Waypoints screen. Additional formats such as UTM available in the near future.

We keep our datum in WGS84 decimal format for consistent reporting and common baseline for conversion to other formats. The baseline datum for each app is set by the guideline for each agency (i.e. INSARAG is decimal, US version is USNG).

All Disaster Surveyor app accounts and data by teams are securely stored on DoD Level 5 servers on our Amazon AWS networks. Our user data will never be shared or sold to any 3rd party outside of Disaster Surveyor Systems, Inc.

Our premium team management tools include: (a) Archiving of your team’s forms data (for international users) and waypoints data (all users), (b) Ability to post your waypoints to any ESRI ArcGIS Hosted Feature Layer (for use with any Operations Dashboard), (c) Ability to send SMS-based team dispatch, and (d) Ability to send and receive SMS-based team messaging. Please see our Premium Features page at https://www.disastersurveyor.com/premium-features/.

You may purchase a single individual user license that is used as part of a team, or, a team leader may purchase a discounted multi-user pack, and apply that to their team members. If a 2nd person on your team also purchases a multi-user pack, that user license count will also be applied to your team account. Example: John purchases a 10 user license, Sally purchases a 10 user license, and Joe purchases a single user license. If all 3 users are on the same team code, the team admin for this team will see a total of 21 user licenses that can be applied to the team. Please see the “User License Details” section of our user guide for more details at: https://www.disastersurveyor.com/user-guide-international/.

When you downgrade your account from a higher user license count tier, you will continue to have your higher user count access until the next billing cycle. When the next billing cycle is reached, your user license count will decreased to your new tier. If you upgrade to a higher user count tier from a lower count, you will immediately receive the higher user count, but not be charged until the next billing cycle. Please see the “User License Details” section of our user guide for more details at: https://www.disastersurveyor.com/user-guide-international/.

No, all of our smartphone apps will continue to work as-is with the new premium team management website features. There are no separate premium version apps to download and install. 

For users who purchase a multi-user license pack for their teams, the available licenses can be assigned by checking a checkbox in the “license assigned to…” column on the “Team” page for your team member. 1 license will always be assigned to the individual who has purchased a license pack or individual license, and these licenses cannot be assigned to other users. For example: If you purchased a 10 user pack, 1 will always be assigned to your account, and you have 9 more you can assign to other team members as you need. Please see the “Assigning Licenses To Your Team” section of our user guide for more details at: https://www.disastersurveyor.com/user-guide-international/.

Simply log into your Disaster Surveyor, CERT Surveyor or US Disaster Surveyor website, and go to the ‘Account’ page. Click on the ‘upgrade’ link to start the upgrade process. We use Stripe for our payment processing, and you will receive a confirmation email from both Disaster Surveyor and Stripe when an upgrade is purchased. 

We honor cancellations for your monthly or yearly subscriptions with a cancellation request prior to your next billing date. Simply go to your ‘Account’ page and follow the link to ‘change’ your premium subscription and click ‘cancel’. Any remaining time left in your current paid subscription period will be honored until the end of the paid subscription month or year. You can also contact us at support@disastersurveyor.com. Please see the “User License Details” section of our user guide for more details at: https://www.disastersurveyor.com/user-guide-international/.

No, you only need to purchase your team licenses once. When you log into any of our 3 website platforms (https://www.disastersurveyor.com/login/, https://cert.disastersurveyor.com, or https://us.disastersurveyor.com), your team licenses will carry over automatically.

What’s the difference between the 3 versions of the app?

 

Feature International


 U.S. Domestic


 CERT version
NEW Premium feature:
SMS based team dispatch
NEW Premium feature:
SMS based team messaging
NEW Premium feature:
Waypoints posting to any
ArcGIS hosted feature layer
NEW Premium feature:
Archiving Data
Worksite Triage Forms ✔︎
Victim Extrication Forms ✔︎
Worksite Report Forms ✔︎
Sector Assessment Forms ✔︎
INSARAG Form PDF auto fill ✔︎
GPS Tracking ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
USNG Coordinates ✔︎ ✔︎
GPS Waypoints ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
NAPSG v7 FEMA Waypoint Icons ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
UN OCHA Waypoint Icons ✔︎
Internatinoal Waypoint Icons ✔︎
NAPSG v7 Waypoint fields ✔︎
Multiple photos per Waypoint ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
Download in FEMA Tally Sheet ✔︎
Live Map saved offline ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
Load PDF maps ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎
Team Messaging ✔︎ ✔︎ ✔︎