These days, much of the conversation with regards to emergency communications seems to focus entirely on social media, smartphones and other more exciting new technologies. Consequently, many of the more traditional modes of emergency warning have been crowded out of the discussion. Outdoor sirens, which many communities continue to employ across the full spectrum of emergency alerts and warnings, are a good example.
When we launched EMComm one year ago we had no idea that 2011 would be such a benchmark year in emergency communications/mass notification and disaster preparedness. And we're confident that as a professional in the field of emergency management you probably see it the same way.
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.
"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."
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.
It almost seems as if a day doesn't go by that you don't read or hear about a new application for GPS technology. Originally developed for the military, it did not take long for Global Positioning Systems technology to be applied to a wide variety of other uses both in government and private enterprise.
Whenever public address systems are integrated with warning systems such as fire alarms, it is critical to understand the very unique requirements of emergency alerting and evacuation. Successful integration can only be achieved after first acknowledging that the critical demands of warning and evacuation far outweigh the requirements of a typical PA system.
A 2:00 p.m. Eastern time today, November 9, the first ever test of the nationwide Emergency Alert System (EAS) will be conducted. This critical first step is designed to assess the readiness and effectiveness of EAS as it currently exists today. Future tests will identify necessary improvements so that all levels of the system can better serve our communities and deliver critical information that will save lives and property.
It has been a decade since the tragedy of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center focused attention on the inability of first responders, emergency managers, government agencies and others to effectively communicate with one another. While the concept of interoperability was being addressed before that time, the failure of the fire department's radios to communicate with other agencies or even between older and newer model radios on 9/11 put the spotlight on the need for interoperable communications.
