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.
Emergency planners are familiar with the "cry wolf" phenomenon that severely inhibits the effectiveness of tornado warnings. And there are few better examples of this phenomenon than the EF-5 twister that devastated Joplin, MO in the spring of 2011.
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.
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.
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.
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.
There are over 28 million Americans who suffer from some degree of hearing loss. Among workers the degree of impairment can range from a slight hearing impairment to total deafness. As the number of hearing impaired increases with the aging of the workforce, those charged with emergency communications in industrial settings continue to expand their alerting options.
Six months after 60 tornadoes devastated much of the state's infrastructure killed nearly 250 people, Alabama's disaster preparedness experts are crediting the effectiveness of the specialized training curriculum many of the state's environmental health professionals received in disaster preparedness that limited potential health hazards to citizens.
While Facebook and Twitter are having a decided impact on emergency communications, it's important to keep in mind that the new social media is far from completely overtaking more traditional forms of communications; this includes commercial broadcast radio.
