# A Practical Approach to Deploying a Drone-Based Message Ferry in a Disaster Situation +
## 2 Overview of Locally Accessible Cloud System (LACS)
### Information Delivery and Collection System Using LACS  
Real-time information is essential for disaster response and planning. To ensure that there is an access to urgent and accurate information after a disaster has occurred and the network is cut off, we proposed a method to collect and deliver vital information using LACS in the past. As proposed in our previous work, two LACS deployment modes were considered. In these LACS deployment modes, LACS can be used as part of a central system such as the Shared Information Platform for Disaster Management (SIP4D) [27]). In the first mode, LACS is installed only at the local headquarters. A movable LACS tours each disaster shelter that is without a network connection in order to collect and deliver vital information from/to the evacates at the shelters. Figure 4 shows the first LACS deployment mode. Additionally, NerveNet [28] can be utilized as an alternative to the movable LACS. The movable LACS can be used to collect/deliver data in various formats and sizes such as text, images, audio files, videos, etc. For instance, a 10-min HD video recording of the damaged building, road, injured evacuees, etc., should be between 1.2 GB and 5 GB based on the resolution used [29]. In this mode, information delivery and collection time increased as the number of people evacuated to shelters increased. In the traditional way, after a large-scale disaster, the disaster response team goes to the affected areas to find out the extent of the damage. Thereafter, the relevant information acquired during the visit is then passed on to the local headquarters to determine the measures to be taken. In this case, the information about the situation changes quickly and there is little time and resources to respond to the rate at which information changes. In recent times, this relevant information can be obtained by using various forms of communication infrastructure. However, most of the systems developed and used by many  
Figure 3: Use of LACS for disaster response. branches of government for disaster response depend heavily on internet connectivity [30]. In a situation where the communications infrastructure is severely damaged, the disaster response effort will be negatively impacted by the disconnection of the Internet. As a result, timely collection and delivery of information to individuals in the affected area may not be possible. In the second LACS deployment mode, LACS is installed at the local headquarters and as a standalone system in each disaster shelter as shown in Figure 5. The standalone LACS is used by the evacuees in the shelter to access LACS services and features, such as the bulletin board, information sharing and viewing of damaged areas, etc. Furthermore, essential information can be uploaded by evacuees to the standalone LACS server, which will be collected by the movable LACS. Also, evacuees can communicate with each other using the instant messaging feature on the standalone LACS (i.e., without an Internet connection). Similar to the first deployment mode, a movable LACS from the local headquarters tours each disaster shelter in order to deliver and collect up-to-date information to/from the standalone LACS. To improve the time it takes to collect and deliver information, the movable LACS and the standalone LACS after establishing a network connection, automatically synchronize data on the LACS servers. While synchronizing, the updated information to be delivered/collected transfers between both servers. Compared with the first deployment mode in which the movable LACS communicates directly with every evacuee, the second deployment mode is different in that only inter-LACS communication is established. This  
Figure 4: Information delivery/collection between users at an disaster shelter and movable LACS. Figure 5: Information delivery/collecting between standalone LACS deployed to a disaster shelter and movable LACS. improves the time it takes for delivery and collection information.