The thing about money is that there never seems like there's enough of it.  That's especially true when it comes to fully equipping emergency agency staff and volunteers with everything they need to respond effectively to any disaster.  Perhaps that's also why we're always hearing about new and unique fundraising ideas, like the Saint Patrick's Day Shamrock 5k/10k walk/run sponsored by the Emergency Management Agency (DCEMA) of Delaware County, IN.

When a crisis breaks, the last thing you want to be doing is search around for support documents such as call lists for emergency personnel, site maps, resource lists for special equipment and supplies, etc.  And this is just as true for industrial production/processing plants, large retail business and institutional facilities as it is for public safety agencies.

Looking back at disasters ranging from Hurricane Katrina to the mega-quake/tsunami that devastated Japan last March, it's hard to overlook how SMS (Short Message Service) has displayed its value in emergency communications.  That's why it comes as no surprise that government agencies at all levels are looking to make text messaging an important part of their communication strategies.

If 2011 seemed to you like a particularly bad year for extreme weather, you weren't alone.   And now with the release of their annual analysis of U.S. and global weather conditions, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has confirmed that 2011 did in fact break all records for climate extremes.  This in turn led to historic levels of heat, precipitation, flooding and severe weather.

"You want to have as many layers of notification as possible."  So says Travis Bryant, public safety director for Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC.  Bryant goes on to describe the system the university deployed as "a comprehensive solution that ensures that our people will receive notification regardless of where they are on campus.  The solution provides peace of mind for everyone."

February 7, 2012 marks the 200-year anniversary of the last in the 1811-1812 series of earthquakes that struck the Mississippi Valley along the New Madrid Seismic Zone.  The last quake in this series destroyed the town of New Madrid, Missouri, and also created Reelfoot Lake in northwest Tennessee.

There's little question that social media in now a valuable tool for emergency managers, with incidents such as the tsunami in Japan and last spring's tornadoes that swept across the southern U.S. making that point crystal clear.

However, as we're all aware, social media, at last in its present state, is far from being an end-all for emergency mass notification communications.

According to a recent survey of fire safety professionals, false alarms continue to rank as one of their biggest concerns.

Granted, they didn't do it right away.  But Abingdon, Virginia, which was founded in the 1770s, was eventually among the very first U.S. towns to deploy a 4.9GHz wireless broadband network with the specific intent to streamline emergency communications between first responders and its citizens back in 2009.

The rapid expansion of social media and mobile communications clearly dictates that government agencies need to completely re-think their attitudes with regard to the role this new technology now plays in emergency preparedness.  This was the collective and overwhelming conclusion reached by panelists and audience members in attendance at the October panel discussion conducted by the National Policy Institute in Washington D.C.