With such volatile, violent weather, Alabamans are understandably looking to how alerts and warnings could enable people to get information faster, thus saving lives. The NYT article references a report issued by a committee appointed by the Governor, which calls for more geographically targeted, timely alerts on multiple platforms. (The report also points out the shortfalls of tornado sirens, which people believe are becoming less effective.) The NYT article states:

The council of community and business leaders called for a better system of warnings that would incorporate Global Positioning System technology and smartphones. People need to be warned through e-mails, text messages and voice mail based on the current location of a device, not its user’s billing address, the report suggested. The state could also make better use of electronic billboards and offer warnings in languages other than English, the report said.

Unfortunately, the article makes no mention or reference of IPAWS or the Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS), which offer some solutions to these ideas.

IPAWS was established to enable the dissemination of alerts and warnings via multiple channels and platforms. Display of emergency messages on electronic billboards and traffic signs has been talked about as one platform that IPAWS could serve.

CMAS, which was tested in the New York Times‘ own home city last month, will disseminate SMS-like messages to compatible mobile phones based on their geographic location. The threat of tornadoes and other extreme weather would likely be cause for a CMAS alert, as they would probably constitute an “Imminent Threat” (one of the circumstances that trigger a CMAS message).

Some of the capabilities mentioned in the report and article are still being figured out. Alerts via social media and commercial electronic billboards are definitely in this category. But it merits mentioning that the government is making progress on many of these challenges.

Caesar Augustus

We’ll start with the Romans. Caesar Augustus set up a group called the Vigiles in AD 6, who patrolled the streets of Rome at night. They were responsible for fighting fires, identifying fire hazards, alerting the community of conflagrations, and preventing thefts in the night. The Vigiles’s main tool was a bucket made of rope sealed with pitch, which was used in bucket brigades. Later, they had crude water pumps to assist in fighting fires. The prime alerting mechanism was by yelling through the streets. The obvious shortfall of this approach is the risk that the Vigiles happen not to be on your street when your house catches fire.

Great Wall of China

Another civilization had an early warning system more national in importance–and a good deal more strategic. For over two-thousand years, the Chinese relied on the Great Wall of China to keep out nomadic enemies. Apart from being a barrier to invaders, the wall also served as a long range early warning system. By lighting fires in towers connected by sections of the wall, warning of an advancing army could be sent hundreds of mile in just hours. It’s easy to imagine this as a precursor to CONELRAD, which was designed to alert the entire United States of the start of nuclear war, and its successor the Emergency Alert System. In a way, each ignited tower served as a kind of PEP station, carrying the message further.

Flashing forward to more modern times, the introduction of the telegraph ushered in an era where it was possible to transmit a message over long distances almost instantaneously. In 1852, the Boston Fire Department became the first to send out a fire alarm by telegraph. Later, radio and television created the ability to broadcast emergency messages to the general public. The first tornado warning to be transmitted over radio and television is believed to have been sent out in 1954 to residents of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Japanese Tsunami

Today’s early alerts and warnings systems provide a level of precision and timeliness that authorities throughout history would certainly be impressed by. One great example is the Earthquake Early Warning system in Japan. When an earthquake of sufficient magnitude is detected by seismometers distributed throughout the country, a message is automatically and instantaneously sent to mobile phones, televisions, radios and sirens in areas that may be affected by the quake. The alert is sent out in five languages. Residents are given valuable seconds to take shelter in doorways and under tables before the tremors reach them, saving lives and preventing injury in many cases.

We have come a long way since the Roman Vigiles. While we may never reach a point where we can prevent all deaths and injuries due to emergencies and disasters, each advancement in warning systems gives us the ability to save lives and property.

A 2009 study from Germany, titled A Measurement-driven Analysis of Information Propagation in the Flickr Social Network, traces messages as they “propagate” around the Internet. This study provided at least one disturbing finding:

We also find that information spreads slowly in the network; even the most popular photos exhibit a slow, steady growth in popularity over a long period of time (1-2 years).

This is not comforting, if one is relying on social media for timely, accurate accounting of what is happening where.  Preppers say “When seconds count, response is minutes away“. This is an example of when a delay in the warning process may cause a problem during extreme events.

For example, during a recent tornado warning, one National Weather Service office tweeted:

tweeted:

The result was a number of retweets, some as late at two hours after the fact.

As I discussed in an earlier post, Social Media is a good tool to have in the toolbox… But emergency managers must also have other tools (at least three) to get information from trusted sources.

Yesterday, during the deadly twisters in western Massachusetts, 20 communities reported tornado “touchdowns” leaving citizens caught off guard, saying “we didn’t realize it was a tornado until it was too late.”   This spring, following each of horrific incident, officials have learned that having a resilient alerts and warnings infrastructure is essential to savings lives.  Here is what we know:  if one community within a county or region, has certain alerts and warnings capabilities go down, all surrounding jurisdictions are impacted, placing public safety at risk.

This scenario of having capabilities go down is what also keeps emergency responders up at night.   If communications systems are unavailable during a catastrophic incident, emergency responders are unable to direct support services necessary for search, rescue and recovery operations, including mobilizing hospitals, removing debris, and fixing disruptive power-lines and gas leaks.

With advancements in social media technologies, officials of alerts and warnings now have more tools to communicate with the public before incidents occur.    The key for governments at all levels is knowing how to use these tools in a way that compliments long-standing existing alerts and warnings systems, such as sirens, and notifications through the radio and television.  When the tornados hit in Massachusetts and Missouri, citizens said the storms sounded like trains coming, making it difficult to hear the sirens.   Technologies provide more tools and applications to disseminate instant communications, which enable officials to send alerts and warnings to more people in less time.   Customizing a “system of ‘systems” approach for alerts and warnings, which accounts for social technologies helps communities become more resilient, robust, and redundant.

In the wake of these historic storms, the best way to determine the most resilient investments for using social media technologies is to develop relationships across disciplines and jurisdictions well before incidents.    Achieving increased resiliency is an ongoing practice that starts with officials recognizing what Jack Hayes of the National Weather Service recently said following the recent tornados in Missouri, “It’s not enough.  We have to do more.”   The next time alerts and warnings officials gather to assess capabilities and the use of technologies, they should start by asking how will this increase resiliency and do more to keep people safe.

For more interesting reads:

• Tornado-hit Missouri town calls for improved warning systems
• Mass. tornadoes wrecked at least 200 buildings; official death toll remains at four
• Massachusetts Begins Cleanup After Tornadoes

In the last week of August and the first days of September, AT&T’s secure phone system controlling the sirens was affected by a “software glitch” that has since been fixed, according to Messamore. During that time, the phone lines for each of the sirens were no longer secure, she said.

“The lines were opened up, so anyone who dialed those specific numbers could set off the tornado sirens,” Messamore said.

Officials think people accidentally calling a wrong number – the phone numbers assigned to the sirens were local numbers – set off the sirens, she said.

“The way the system is set up, the first ring means the siren will go off for one minute, the second ring means the siren will go off for two minutes, and so on … ,” Messamore said. “People were probably misdialing, and they would hear the phone keep ringing and ringing before they’d finally hang up.”

The full article can be found at the following link: http://hutchnews.com/Todaystop/sirenz2010-09-18T21-48-36

For many, the actions of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, the man U.S. authorities say attempted to detonate an explosive device in his underwear, aboard Delta Airlines Flight 253 are such a wakeup call. The failed Christmas Day bombing came at a time when most people were focused on gathering for cherished family time and taking part in long-held holiday traditions. But with one news flash, those priorities, at least for a moment, were redirected into thoughts of safety and security.

Personally, beyond the typical reaction of most Americans to word of the failed effort, I could not help but think of the important role digital signage can play in delivering emergency alert messages.

Certainly, I’m not so wrapped up in digital signage that I think there’s a place for 42in LCD panels and a digital signage network aboard an airliner. That’s just silly. But what does come to mind is how businesses, educational institutions, stadiums and arenas, casinos, government agencies, the military and many others have taken steps to ensure emergency messaging via their digital signage networks as a component of their overall strategy for responding to a threat.

More at:  http://www.content4reprint.com/business/digital-signage-emergency-alert-messages-can-save-lives.htm