Emergency Notification Mistakes Provide Lessons for All
Last week, a local fire district responded to a hazardous materials release at a nearby manufacturing facility. Units from surrounding areas were dispatched to provide mutual aid. The media was notified, social media sites were updated and an emergency notification callout was initiated—or so emergency managers thought.
Last week, a local fire district responded to a hazardous materials release at a nearby manufacturing facility. Units from surrounding areas were dispatched to provide mutual aid. The media was notified, social media sites were updated and an emergency notification callout was initiated—or so emergency managers thought.
Unfortunately the callout was never actually initiated, despite the need to send targeted geographic warnings. There had been a breakdown in the process for sending out alerts. Fortunately, no citizens were harmed from the hazardous materials release.
In a post-event analysis conducted by the OEM, several reasons were cited for the error. They include:
- An older system (managed by another agency) had been replaced months earlier with a new system, yet the supervisor in the emergency communications agency was not aware of this change. [Communication]
- The incident was complicated by its location on the border between two counties. As a result, multiple agencies were involved and there was a lack of adequate and clear communication between them as it related to the community notification system. [Communication]
- The agencies lacked clear written protocols for activating the system, which had been in place only for about six months. [SOPs]
- It was identified that additional training was needed to activate the system. [Training]
Overall, inadequate communication, poorly defined operating procedures and insufficient training were the key culprits.
We sure don’t want to pick on this agency as the problems identified here exist all over the country. In fact, they should be applauded for conducting a thorough analysis and providing an open, honest assessment of the discovered shortcomings. In the days since, you can bet they’ve taken steps to ensure it will never happen again.
As with most mistakes, the situation provides a learning opportunity. Everyone in the EM community should use this example to think about their own emergency notification communication processes, operating procedures and training methods. If gaps exist in any of these areas, commit today to filling them.
Like any good tool, emergency notification technology is a valuable asset if used at the right time, in the right place, and in the right way. Clear communications, well-designed procedures and in-depth training (and exercises) will go a long way towards ensuring these sorts of problems don’t arise and the tool is used to its full potential.
Best regards,
Lorin
