Saturday, August 28, 2010

ENS and Protecting First Responders

Much has been said about the benefits of emergency notification for ensuring public safety. As Rick and I attend the Fire Rescue International Show in Chicago, however, it occurs to us how little has been said about the benefits of emergency notification for first responder safety. Here are a few thoughts on how ENS provides for a safer responder environment:

Reduced panic.
At times, we hear concerns from emergency managers that mass calling will incite panic among citizens making the situation worse while placing first responders in even greater danger. Though one can imagine certain limited scenarios where this might be the case, empirical research and years of practical system usage by agencies across the country do not support this fear. Instead, clear information provides some measure of comfort to citizens, reducing panic and irrational behavior while creating a safer environment for responders.

Reduced threats.
Danger criminal behavior may occur both during and after critical events such as a disaster. One of the interesting findings post-Katrina was looting and rioting (perhaps more limited in frequency than portrayed in the media) occurred with more frequency several days into the crisis; a key driving factor behind the behavior was uncertainty and a lack of communication on when conditions would change. While analogies aren't perfect here as notification systems did not have power or infrastructure to work immediately after this disaster, the principal nevertheless remains. Poor or no information can lead to erratic and dangerous citizen behavior placing first responders in greater harm.

Appropriate public response.
A study on the San Diego wildfires of 2007 (covered previously in our blog) examined the impact of emergency notification on citizen behavior. A key finding emerged: people who received an alert were more likely to follow evacuation instructions than those who did not. Citizens following these types of instructions create a safer environment for responders, particularly in diminishing problems with access and egress.

Intelligence & situational awareness.
A final way emergency notification technology provides safety for first responders is in the knowledge gained from citizens as a result of an alert. Many examples exist of responder agencies issuing alerts and citizens calling back to identify the whereabouts of a criminal or provide other useful information. As knowledge is power, such intelligence allows for a better prepared response and a less risky operation (at least to some degree).


While ENS is clearly a significant tool for protecting local citizens, it is also a tool for protecting the protectors. With an effective notification program, everyone wins.

Best regards,

Lorin


Galain Solutions, Inc. helps public safety agencies develop effective emergency notification programs. For more information, email: info@galainsolutions.com.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

First CMAS Pilot Announced

The Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) could be a game changer for notifications, alerts, and warnings. CMAS is a program under FEMA's IPAWS (Integrated Public Alert and Warning System) through which cell carriers will deliver emergency messages for local, state, and federal authorities via cell broadcast. In effect, public safety officials would have ability to activate, first, text messages to cell phones within a specific geographic area. Later, voice messaging would be added. CMAS would be used for by the feds for Presidential messages, and could be used by locals for imminent threats and Amber Alerts. Cell carriers aren't required to participate in CMAS, but most will. If they don't, an FCC rule requires them to let subscribers out of their contracts.

CMAS is to be fully deployed by 2012. Sprint beat the other carriers to the punch by announcing its first CMAS pilot this week. The pilot will be in San Diego County through a Sprint partnership with the San Diego County Office of Emergency Services and the California Emergency Management Agency. The pilot is scheduled to launch this fall.

Sprint customers in San Diego County won't automatically be able to receive the alerts, even when the pilot begins. Mobile devices will need technology embedded to receive the messages, and most devices don't have it yet. Regardless, announcement of the pilot is progress. We'll all be watching.

For more on the announcement, see the article in Government Technology here.

All the best,

Rick

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Flood Alert Comments Filed

When the Army Corps of Engineers issued its after-action report on the May floods in Middle Tennessee, it cited significant communications challenges. Could those challenges have been overcome with a good automated notification solution? We believe so, and said so when we were asked to file an official comment on the after-action report. (See after-action report here, and Galain's comments here.) Perhaps, there are lessons for others.

The after-action report said when the rains first appeared to threaten significant flooding, Army Corps personnel failed to respond to Corps commander's initial email about flooding potential. The report said delays resulted in "slower communications up the chain of command regarding the potential severity of the event". The emails were not raid, the report said, "perhaps from an overload of emails in inboxes".

No doubt many of you are wondering if email is really how the Corps communicates. Well, apparently so, according to the after-action report. In our response, we said, "While email can be an effective way of communicating certain information, it is a poor way of disseminating critical information that requires immediate action". Clearly, an automated notification system would have helped. The Corps' after-action report said they would start using "telephonic notifications". We said good move, but encouraged the Corps to look beyond simply using telephonic notifications. Instead, adopt a system that automates the phone process and uses other modes of communication as well.

The Corps also noted significant challenges in communications with the public. The Corps said it really doesn't have responsibility for notifying the public; that's responsibility of the National Weather Service. Yet, the report cited several significant public notification challenge.

  • Corps personnel “fielded numerous phone calls from the public during the flood event requesting information on the extent of flooding expected in their area.”

  • “With minimum personnel available the calls diverted staff time away from developing and implementing reservoir system operations plans.”

  • “This event occurred over the weekend, when limited personnel were in the District office to handle communications with the public.”

So, even if the Corps doesn't have "official" responsibility, they've clearly got a problem on their hands. The public wasn't well-informed and, whether the Corps was ready or not, the public turned to the Corps for information.

In our response, we didn't suggest that the Corps take over responsibility for informing the public in a significant flood event. However, we did encourage the Corps to take an active role in supporting a strong public notification program. They need to consider themselves a partner in such, roll up their sleeves, and get involved in any initiatives to improve the public alerting situation...including supporting a modernized Emergency Alert System in Tennessee.

Despite the very serious flood event, the middle Tennessee area was, well, lucky. Communications could have been much worse. For the most part, power was not interrupted. Had it been, which is common occurrence in flooding, the situation would have been much worse.

Let's all learn from the Corps. They may have not a number of things right, but they're being open about their challenges and seem genuinely interested in doing better next time...and, there will be a next time.

All the best,

Rick

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

How Will Social Media be Utilized in a Crisis?

How will citizens utilize social media in a crisis? The answers may surprise you.

While many view Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites simply as hobbies for "wired" young people, evidence is surfacing showing how social networks are becoming important tools and considerations for both citizens and responders during a crisis situation.

Douglas Idugboe makes this point in a blog post covering social media trends. He highlights a study just released by the American Red Cross entitled "Social Media in Disasters and Emergencies." The findings were released ahead of Thursday's Emergency Social Data Summit in Washington, D.C.

The online survey of just over 1000 Americans 18 years and older examined a representative sample of the U.S. population. Findings from the study include:
  • One in six have used social media to get information about an emergency
  • About half of respondents would sign up for emails, text alerts, or applications to receive emergency information such as location of food, evacuation routes, etc. (presumably during an event as we know sign up rates are not that high typically)
  • About half say they would mention an emergency through their own social media channels
  • Just over half say they would send a text message to an available response agency if someone they knew needed help (implications for the NG9-1-1 discussion)
  • During an emergency, almost half would use social media to let loved ones know they are safe. The vast majority (86%) of these would use Facebook to accomplish this.
  • Almost 70% say response agencies should regularly monitor their sites and respond to postings for help
As expected, younger people are more likely to request help from social media or text messaging. Only 39 percent of people over the age of 35 say they would ask other people on networks such as Facebook to help them get assistance, whereas 55 percent of people aged 18 to 34 say they would. However, in some areas, older and younger apparently agree. 18% say they would use digital media to ask for help in an emergency if they could not reach 9-1-1.

Though online behaviors in response to public warnings were not examined specifically in this study, we can nevertheless imagine how social media plays a role. Clearly, citizens expect to use these information channels to validate and enhance their knowledge of a situation. And, an increasing number expect to be able to interact with responders through them. Though still in its early stages, social media should be a growing consideration for emergency managers across the country.

Best regards,

Lorin


Galain Solutions, Inc. helps public safety agencies develop effective emergency notification programs. For more information, email: info@galainsolutions.com.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Another State Takes on Silver Alerts

Add Massachusetts to the list of states that have expanded their Amber Alerts to include Silver Alerts. Now, when a senior citizen with memory loss, such as Alzheimer's is missing, authorities can engage the community to help find the senior through special alerts.

The Springfield Republican newspaper wrote: “I think it’s going to be wonderful,” said Janet Rodriguez-Denny, director of Elder Affairs in Springfield. “It’s another resource families can have to help care for their families.” Rodriguez-Denny said the Springfield Police Department has always been helpful in such cases, and this new system will be especially useful if an elder wanders into a neighboring town. “Society is very mobile these days,” she said. “This is going to reassure families.”

Finding Alzheimer's "walk offs" has long been a popular use for automated notification systems. Back in the day when we were first introducing the automated notification concept to officials, their eyes lit up when we told them stories of the technology being used to find seniors. (Politicians liked hearing the stories, too.)

Other states are considering Silver Alerts, and we suspect eventually, most will adopt them.

All the best,

Rick

Thursday, August 12, 2010

OASIS Announces Approval of Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) 1.2

The OASIS open standards consortium announced today they have officially approved the Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) version 1.2. CAP 1.2 is now an official OASIS standard.

EDXL-CAP is a standard protocol for structuring an alert message, enabling various types of warning systems to issue the same message simultaneously. It is designed to work with a wide variety of alerting media, including broadcast, mobile devices, email, etc. It is also an integral technology standard within FEMA's IPAWS program. The new release offers support for digital signatures, enhancing message security and authentication.

According to the press release, CAP will be featured in the OASIS demo booth at the IAEM show, October 28 - November 4 in San Antonio.

Best regards,

Lorin

Are Sirens Really Worth the Investment?

The Wall Street Journal recently featured an article on the public warning siren system in San Francisco. It seems the city has 104 sirens in the area and has invested approximately $500,000 over the last two years to expand the network. The problem, according to the author, is in the six decades these sirens have been in place, they have never been used for warning the public.

The article raises questions many emergency mangers face as they evaluate what to implement with regards to public warning systems. No one in public safety wants to waste taxpayer dollars, yet the public expects to be protected in a crisis. What is a conscientious emergency manager to do?

We don't have all the answers, but here are a few thoughts that come to mind after reading the article.

We must prepare for events that may not happen. Emergency managers are trained to deal with and prepare for the unthinkable. You've all received training and developed contingency plans you hope will never actually be needed. Sure the public may have a hard time understanding why money is spent on systems that have not been used in decades. However, under the right circumstances these sirens could save lives and property. The public certainly expects every effort will be made to protect them in a crisis, and systems like this may help achieve this goal.

"Contextual" alerts may work best for methods such as sirens. The challenge of traditional sirens is no content on the nature of the alert is conveyed during an alert. Loud tones do not convey anything specifically and it is easy for the public to ignore the warnings (in San Francisco's case, the sirens actually function as a public address system, though this is frequently not the case across the country). According to the article:

"When a siren goes off, instead of panicking or seeking out more information most people tend to behave with indifference and assume that the siren went off at the wrong time," says Dennis Mileti, director emeritus of the Natural Hazards Center at Colorado State University."

I haven't seen the research on this, but I suspect sirens dedicated to a specific type of alert (contextual alert) will be more effective than a generic "all hazards" alert. In our part of the country, for example, tornadoes are fairly frequent weather events. Our town has sirens in place activated when a tornado warning is issued. People are aware of these and know to tune to media when they go off (unless it's a beautiful sunny day when they're testing them). These are known locally as "tornado sirens" and are taken rather seriously. If these sirens were not tied to this specific emergency situation, I believe their effectiveness would be diminished.

No one notification method works universally. Every form of public notification has its unique strengths and weaknesses. No single method will reach everyone. As such, emergency managers need to deploy multiple methods and systems for alerting the public. In San Francisco's case, they have mobile device alerting, they interact with the media, and the sirens are not simply tone-alerts, but also double as public address systems. Some are appropriate for almost daily use, others will be reserved only for the most dire circumstances. Good notification programs include a variety of methods to insure as wide a coverage as possible.


The article on San Francisco's sirens highlights a clear challenge of balancing investment versus preparation. What are your thoughts and experiences dealing with sirens and trade-offs between investments in the various alerting options? We'd love to hear from you.

Best regards,

Lorin


Galain Solutions, Inc. provides consulting services for public safety agencies selecting and implementing emergency notification systems. For more information, email: info@galainsolutions.com.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

City to Use Emergency Notification System for Sexual Predator Alerts

The Florida city of Cape Coral (population 160,000 plus) has decided to stop sending out mailed sexual predator notifications. Instead, Cape Coral will be using their automated telephone notification system to notify residents when sexual predators move about in the area.

The City Council unanimously voted to take the step, saying they would save money and be able to get the notices out more quickly as sexual predators move from one place to the other. The News-Press article quoted interim Police Chief Jay Murphy as saying, "Offenders move and law-abiding people move into their former houses. The innocent residents sometimes are mistaken for an offender and may be harassed by their neighbors because of the long delay between mailings."

Cape Coral uses a hosted telephone notification system with large capacity, so shouldn't have problems getting emergency alerts outs when a sexual predator notification is issued. We suppose people could complain about using the emergency alert system for this purpose, but it seems that the more the system is used for important purposes such as this, the better off all will be.

All the best,

Rick

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Questions about IPAWS

In a recent webinar, the chief engineer for FEMA's Integrated Public Alerts and Warnings System (IPAWS) took questions from emergency management practitioners about the IPAWS program. The questions asked Mark Lucero were interesting. But, what was perhaps more interesting were the questions Lucero asked the practitioners. Some examples:

- Should warning authority be limited by geography? (Most of the webinar participants said "yes".)

- Should warning authority be limited by severity? (Most said "no".)

- Should warning authority be limited by method of dissemination? Examples given were Emergency Alert System, National Weather Service, and Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS). (Most said "no limits.)

- Should the message originator have the option of choosing the method of dissemination? (Most said "yes".)

- Should university officials have direct access to IPAWS? (This one was pretty evenly split between yeses and nos.)

- Should regional, multi-agency coordination agencies have direct access to IPAWS? (Most said "yes".)

- Should a state agency be required to submit state or local emergency alert plan as a condition of IPAWS participation? (Most said "yes".)

- Should agencies be required to submit an IPAWS Implementation Plan, Standard Operating Procedure, or Warning Annex? (Most said "yes".)

- Should third party systems be required to demonstrate Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) compliance? (Most said "yes".)

About fifty people voted during a webinar conducted by FEMA's Disaster Management Program. Lucero's presentation about IPAWS can be found here. A recording of the webinar can be found about half-way down the page of the Disaster Management Special Interest web page. The recording includes presentation slides and the on-line poll (including results).

The poll may not have included a large group, but it showed the types of questions IPAWS is asking as the national alerting program FEMA is modernizing and expanding matures. These questions emergency management practitioners and alert and warning industry should be pondering.

All the best,

Rick

Monday, August 2, 2010

IPAWS Standards of Practice

Public safety professionals interested in learning more about how the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) program will work may want to tune in to a webinar this week. FEMA engineer Mark Lucero will talk about issues related to developing the IPAWS Standards of Practice for message originators. Message orginators? That's you, public safety official.

When IPAWS matures, local public safety officials should be able to access IPAWS and originate messages through a number of methods and modes including commercial vendors, cellular broadcast, and the Emergency Alert System. Presumably, Mr. Lucero will talk about the latest efforts.

The webinar will be held Wednesday, August 4th. The best way to access it is to go to the FEMA Disaster Management web site and follow the link to sign-up for the Public Safety Officials practitioner email list. And, if you miss it, the Disaster Management web site usually archives their webinars.

We hope Mr. Lucero will also discuss how local officials can provide input into how message origination will work.

All the best,

Rick