The heads of FEMA, the FCC, and the City of New York have announced the launch of cell broadcast alerting in New York City. It's basically what many of us know as the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS), of FEMA's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). The name unveiled in the announcement is PLAN, the Personal Localized Alerting Network. It will provide alerts to mobile devices within a targeted geographic area that have been equipped to receive alerts for imminent threats, Amber Alerts, and Presidential messages. There will be no charge to citizens, and they don't have to sign up.
The all-star cast said the service will be available in New York City by late this year, six months before the deadline for participating cell companies to start shipping devices equipped to receive cell broadcast alerts nationwide. Most of the major carriers have said they will participate in what's been known as CMAS. Executives from AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon stood alongside FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to announce the launch of PLAN.
This doesn't mean that magically all mobile devices in New York City will be capable of receiving the alerts. But, customers buying new mobile devices in the coming months will be able to receive the alerts. It will take some time for the devices to change out.
FEMA hasn't announced what other communities will need to do to get involved with IPAWS. However, per our recent post here, IPAWS has started announcing the names of the vendors and other organizations who are working towards being able to offer IPAWS activations, including PLAN/CMAS alerts, through their systems. The IPAWS list includes over 40 commercial organizations and over ten non-commercial entities.
Cell broadcast pilots are underway in Florida and California per our earlier post....although the City of New York has certainly won the PR splash, getting major coverage with the Fugate/Genachowski/Bloomberg announcement.
Who will be next?
All the best,
Rick
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I-5 Bridge Collapse Again Provides Lessons in Public InformationYesterday's announcement that cell broadcast alerts will be available soon in New York City just touches the surface of a comprehensive plan. FEMA, the FCC, the Mayor of New York and cellular company executives announced that a program called PLAN, Personal Localized Alerting Network, will be launched in NYC late this year. As the program matures, mobile device users would receive text alerts about imminent threats, Amber Alerts and Presidential messages.
A number of important points:
1. The word "launch" is important. What was announced was that new mobile devices shipped to NYC will soon be equipped to receive the alerts. That doesn't mean that all mobile devices will receive them...only new ones from participating carriers. (Most major carriers are participants.) Most old devices (including the one I bought last month) won't be equipped to receive the alerts. I wouldn't receive them anyway, unless I was in NYC.
2. The new program will send alerts to devices in geographic areas, rather than relying on users to sign up and indicate the areas about which they are interested. (Getting residents to sign up causes heartburn for public safety officials throughout the country.) Through PLAN, users could opt out of imminent threat and Amber Alerts (although hard to imagine why people would), but not out of Presidential messages.
3. You can assume that these devices will be shipped elsewhere across the country about the same time (although the deadline for participating carriers to start shipping is mid-2012). However, other communities haven't made arrangements to activate the alerts while NYC apparently has. This will take time. Pilots had been previously announced in Florida and California.
4. The texts will provide limited details. They will only contain 90 characters, and will not contain URLs to avoid network clogs when lots of people try to hit a web site at the same time. Plus, use will be very restrictive - imminent threats, Amber Alerts, and Presidential messages.
5. U.S. Presidents have had ability to send "Presidential messages" to the American public since the mid-fifties through what's now called the Emergency Alert System. (Virtually everyone knows EAS through the tests and alerts they regularly hear on radio and TV.) With PLAN in place, the President will have ability to now send messages via text.
6. Although Presidential messaging has been available since the fifties, no President has ever used it. In fact, the system has never been tested on a national basis with alerts originating from the White House, then interrupting TV and radio broadcasts across the country at the same time. However, the first national EAS test is planned for late this year. (No word on whether residents of New York City who have new mobile devices will receive the test message via their devices.) Public over-reaction to the first national EAS test is a possibility. Outreach is being planned.
7. The PLAN program is officially known in federal statute as the "Commercial Mobile Alert System" (or CMAS). Presumably, it was felt that PLAN would be a more user-friendly acronym.
8. PLAN/CMAS and EAS are part of the FEMA program IPAWS (Integrated Public Alert and Warning System). These are not the only elements of IPAWS. When fully in place, a wide variety of public warning tools would be used.
9. With exception of Presidential messages (if any are ever issued), IPAWS alerts will originate from local and state officials...not from the federal government. (Most need for alerts is at state and local level anyway.) There are still steps that need to occur before local authorities can activate via IPAWS. One is that local officials will need to obtain official status to be an IPAWS alerting authority. Training will be required. Also, the federal government is not providing the tools that local alerting authorities will need to activate IPAWS. Those will be offered by private companies, most of whom already in the alerting business and are business at work modifying their technologies to work with IPAWS.
10. This is good stuff, a sign of progress. But, let's not be naive about the amount of work that needs to be done in order to realize the vision of enhanced emergency alerting across the nation.
All the best,
Rick
Galain Solutions, Inc. is the nation's premier independent consulting firm aimed at helping public safety agencies evaluate, implement and integrate effective emergency notification solutions and programs. For more information, visit www.galainsolutions.com.
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The Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission provides a nice explanation of the Personal Localized Alert Network (PLAN), formerly known as Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS), in an interview with Bloomberg. Julius Genachowski talks about how alerts from PLAN will be different from text messages and other advisories people receive on their mobile devices. They are designed for "major disasters", said Genachowski, and will have unique sounds and vibrations; they'll show up directly on devices without human intervention.
Genachowski said the system is designed so that, even with network congestion during a major emergency, the mobile alerts will get through. He said there will be a "fast lane" so messages will get through to people to help save lives.
The alerts will be, in effect, broadcasts from cell towers to all equipped devices within the coverage areas. Officials will be able to target the geographic areas they want to alert.
The PLAN program is part of FEMA's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) program.
All the best,
Rick
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Broadcasters have weighed in on the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN) announced Tuesday by FEMA and the FCC. Despite the promising advancements in technology, they are officially unimpressed.
NAB Statement on PLAN
NAB Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton issued the following statement in response to the unveiling:
"We're pleased that cellphone carriers plan to live up to their promise to Congress five years ago to implement an emergency alert messaging system. However, when a cellular network goes down, customers will still be unable to access these 90-character warnings. As was evidenced in Alabama and other parts of the South just two weeks ago, there is no communications system that matches the life-saving immediacy of a local broadcast signal."
That the NAB would take such a position is not too surprising. Over the years, broadcasters have embraced their role in the Emergency Alert System as primary hometown crisis communicators. Weather broadcasts on radio and television are huge draws during major weather events. Further, broadcasters are currently replacing antiquated analog EAS decoders with shiny new digital versions on their own dime at the directive of the FCC. Finally (and perhaps most relevant), broadcasters generally support mandating the inclusion of an FM receiver chip within all U.S. mobile devices for emergency purposes (and for other commercial reasons no doubt). Understandably, anything perceived to weaken positions or threaten goals makes for unhappy campers.
Broadcasters and Emergency Management
We believe broadcasters play an absolutely critical role in informing citizens in times of crisis. Their willingness to step up to the plate and invest a part of their revenue stream in new EAS technology should be applauded. They will be the main focus of the national EAS test later this year. And, arguments for FM chips in mobile devices have merit. Ultimately, broadcasters' response illustrates EAS is important to them-something emergency managers should leverage through cooperation (as we discussed here).
We also believe there is no single "right way" to alert and warn citizens of danger. Our communication channels and preferences today are too myriad and complex to rely on any single notification method. As such, multiple approaches and technologies are needed to do the job well.
Here's hoping there is room for a variety of integrated warning technologies and practices. In all, let's keep the ball rolling on creating an unparalleled multi-modal "system of systems" to keep people safe and informed no matter where they are or what they are doing. Our citizens certainly deserve it.
Best regards,
Lorin
Lorin Bristow
Galain Solutions, Inc.
www.galainsolutions.com
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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
Galain Solutions, Inc.
Emergency Notification Consulting
www.galainsolutions.com
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I happen to be at a multi-day event involving thousands of kids from around the world at the University of Tennessee. With tornado warnings being a common occurrence in Tennessee lately, the University and the organization throwing the event, Destination Imagination, are working hard to make sure people here who aren't accustomed to such things know what do to if a warning is issued during the event. I've been impressed by the text messaging system established to be used if necessary.
Several of us old-timers at the Destination Imagination tournament recalled that it doesn't seem like that many years ago at the same event that plans were laid to help deal with terrorists threats. Then, there was the year we were all concerned by H1N1. It's interesting to note the improvement in preparations between now and then, made possible by text messaging.
Now, back to watching the kids show their ability to creatively solve problems...hopefully without incident. But, if one does occur, by golly, we'll know about it.
All the best,
Rick
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A nice article in a publication called Florida Today on how Brevard County, Florida is using social media for alerts and warnings... Brevard is particularly vulnerable, as it sits right in the path of potential hurricanes and is the home to Cape Canaveral. The article says the Brevard County Emergency Management Agency has posted over 1,100 messages about fires, traffic problems, and weather in the two years since they started operating their Twitter account.
County officials are quick to emphasize that residents shouldn't rely on social media for their critical information. County EMA Director Bob Lay was quoted by Florida Today as saying, "It's not something we were required to do; it's something we needed to do. There are parts of the population relying on these tools for information during emergencies".
Way to go, Bob and way to go Florida Today for a fine article. We see lots of these articles in local publications, particularly since the big announcement in New York City about the Public Localized Alerting Network (PLAN) was announced...a new name for the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) program being put together by the FCC and FEMA. Through PLAN, short text messages can be, in effect, broadcast to mobile devices within a specific geographic area. Cell companies have started shipping PLAN/CMAS-equipped devices. FEMA is working on plans to help local officials have ability to activate alerts through the system.
All the best,
Rick
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Following a crisis, people's best intentions may cause more harm than good. An example of this is unfolding in Joplin, MO following the recent devastating tornadoes that struck the area--providing lessons for emergency managers regarding alerts and warning practices.
In an email sent to subscribers, FEMA has urged people to stop the "tidal wave of unsolicited goods and volunteers" to the area. The release states "critical resources are being redirected from the important work of response and relief to managing what has become a crush of unneeded donated items."
All over the country faith-based organizations, businesses, civic organizations, and individuals are loading semi-trucks with food, clothing, etc., and hopping on to volunteer their time. The generosity of Americans is inspiring. Yet it causes problems for on scene response and recovery personnel trying to coordinate volunteers and warehouse goods.
As an alternative, FEMA is urging people to donate cash (to recognized voluntary agencies). Cash doesn't require manual handling or storage and allows resources to be directed where they are needed the most.
While the situation is technically not an "alerts and warnings" story, we can reflect on several key lessons that relate to emergency notification practices.
First, the overwhelming unprompted response of volunteers illustrates the power and speed of communication today. In this circumstance, information regarding assumed needs spread across social networks and traditional communications channels like wildfire. Volunteers were mobilizing themselves in a matter of hours. The same is true when alerts and warnings are issued. Once a message is ignited, it is no longer easily managed--making the margin for error in creating and disseminating messages very small.
Second, when faced with a vacuum in information, people fill in the blanks for themselves. This story highlights the importance of providing within alert and warning messages as much instruction and detail as possible (through a variety of channels) to ensure there is clarity in how people should respond.
Third, managers shouldn't wait for a crisis to educate and inform people of desired actions. For example, it would be far more efficient and effective to condition people over time that giving money instead of hard goods is preferred after a crisis instead of trying to stem the tide once it has started.
On the plus side, the same communication channels that ignite well-intentioned, but perhaps misguided, responses can hopefully help adjust future actions. The tragic situation in Joplin certainly provides numerous lessons on a variety of fronts.
Best regards,
Lorin
Galain Solutions, Inc.
Emergency Notification Technology and Process Consulting
www.galainsolutions.com
Leave a comment
A nice article in a publication called Florida Today on how Brevard County, Florida is using social media for alerts and warnings... Brevard is particularly vulnerable, as it sits right in the path of potential hurricanes and is the home to Cape Canaveral. The article says the Brevard County Emergency Management Agency has posted over 1,100 messages about fires, traffic problems, and weather in the two years since they started operating their Twitter account.
County officials are quick to emphasize that residents shouldn't rely on social media for their critical information. County EMA Director Bob Lay was quoted by Florida Today as saying, "It's not something we were required to do; it's something we needed to do. There are parts of the population relying on these tools for information during emergencies".
Way to go, Bob and way to go Florida Today for a fine article. We see lots of these articles in local publications, particularly since the big announcement in New York City about the Public Localized Alerting Network (PLAN) was announced...a new name for the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) program being put together by the FCC and FEMA. Through PLAN, short text messages can be, in effect, broadcast to mobile devices within a specific geographic area. Cell companies have started shipping PLAN/CMAS-equipped devices. FEMA is working on plans to help local officials activate alerts through the system.
All the best,
Rick
Galain Solutions, Inc.
Emergency Notification Technology and Process Consulting
www.galainsolutions.com
Leave a comment
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