TFCC Alert - Connecting People To Information When It Matters Most

Integrating Severe Weather Warnings into Your Notification System

Any time of the year, harsh weather conditions can bring a disaster to your area. Heavy storms and tornadoes can level off communities that can cause devastating effects on lives and properties. They can destroy homes and structures at a wink of an eye. Over the years, numerous people have suffered the painful loss of their loved ones, their homes and their dreams because of these calamities.

Yet, as floods subside and strong winds have eased up, a lot of communities have learned lessons from these critical moments. They have made a stronger bond together, and committed to undertake cooperation towards everyone concerned. 

As preventive measure, TFCC offers severe weather warnings that you can integrate into your TFCC Alert emergency notification system.  By using TFCC, concerned public safety officials are able to automatically send out immediate notifications to the public of any approaching severe weather conditions.

Weather changes without warning, making speed and reliability critical factors in successful emergency notification. TFCC’s weather module automatically notifies registered individuals seconds after the National Weather Service (NWS) issues an alert. This requires no action in your organization; everything happens automatically and nearly instantaneously.

Individuals register to receive weather alerts via TFCC’s online sign-up page by providing their address, phone number(s) and selecting the alerts they wish to receive:  severe thunderstorm, flash flood and/or tornado. It’s that simple — but also a matter of life or death.

Not only is this technology lightning-fast, but it is also targeted, making it much more effective than broader warnings, such as sirens or televised messages. Only those individuals who are in the path of the severe weather are notified, which heightens attention levels and decreases false alarms.

The faster that the residents of a community be notified about incoming weather hazards, the better they would be able to prepare themselves. One way to achieve this is by encouraging them to register their e-mail addresses or cell phone numbers on the corresponding community emergency notification sign-up website. 

Last year the Town of Collierville was hit by a ravaging storm.  One Collierville resident was sitting in her kitchen when she received a severe weather notification from the AlertCollierville emergency notification system.  She and her family quickly moved to a safe part of their home. Fifteen minutes later a tree came through their roof, inches from where she had been sitting when she received the alert.  This story highlights the importance of emergency notification systems because the faster public safety officials can notify residents of severe weather, the better chance people have to take cover.

Considering the benefits that you can get from integrating a severe weather warnings into your existing emergency notification system, it could be the best way to protect the residents in your community from danger. 

Are You Ready for Severe Weather This Spring?

The Ohio Committee for Severe Weather Awareness and Ohio Governor John Kasich, have declared March 25- 31, 2012 Spring Severe Weather Awareness Week in Ohio. At TFCC, we urge all Ohioans to be prepared for severe weather this spring. Here are a few tips from TFCC for this spring.

1. Be informed, make a plan and build a kit. FEMA’s Prepare, Plan, Stay Informed web site is a great place to start.
2. Check with your city to see if they have an emergency notification system. Sirens are great but may not be heard with the windows closed and the air conditioning running. The key in weather emergencies is the ability to get information and updates from as many ways as possible.  A good emergency notification system, can call your landline, cell phone, email, and send you a text message – all at the same time and within seconds of the initial weather alert.
3. Sign up for your city’s emergency notification system and make sure to list as many different ways to contact you as possible. Remember, your cell phone number is not registered unless you sign up.
4. Carry a copy of all important phone numbers in your wallet. If you have to leave the house or be evacuated you may not have time to grab your cell phone, so you need to keep important numbers with you. Or if the power is off for an extended period you may not have a way to keep your cell phone charged.
5. If you’re a business, make sure you have a business continuity plan and that your plan includes emergency notification. Business owners need to be able to quickly communicate critical information to employees to keep employees safe and their business up and running.

The best way to avoid significant problems during a severe weather emergency is to think ahead, and take steps to make sure you, your family and your business can be kept informed and updated.

Best Practices for Emergency Notification Message Creation

Whether you use TFCC Alert to deliver a message to a small or large group, it is important that the message you send is clear and consistent. The clarity and content of your message are essential in helping your contacts to make the proper response.

Make sure your message:

• States who is relaying the message, what recipients should follow the message’s recommendation, why they should do so, what they need to do and when they should do it.
• Is clear, specific, accurate, certain and consistent.
• Speaks directly to the action to be taken.
• Is simply worded. Jargon and acronyms should be avoided.
• Is clearly understandable by a diverse audience, as words can be interpreted differently.

Make sure your message includes elements such as:

• Who the message is from.
• Date/time the message is being sent.
• Type of message. It could be an announcement, a reminder, a warning, etc.
• Urgency of the event/alert. Let your recipients know if they need to take immediate action, soon, or in the near future.
• If an emergency message, include ways recipients can obtain more information. For example, direct the recipients to a web site, television statement or information line. Or, tell them to watch for additional updates to be sent from this messaging system.
• If a non-emergency message, include contact information such as a phone number or email address.
• End the message by saying thank you.

Tips on recording voice messages:

• Write your message ahead of time. Having it in front of you will reduce mistakes, pauses, hesitation, etc. This will increase the likelihood of your message being recorded correctly the first time.
• Ask someone to review the message to see if it makes sense to them.
• When speaking phone numbers, street addresses, or website addresses, be sure to allow an extra length of pause or slower speech. Then, repeat them.
• Don’t say the letter “O” if you mean the number zero.
• Record your message in a quiet area. Re-record the message if you made mistakes or said “um”.
• Always listen to your message before you send it.

Tips for creating text-to-speech messages:

•  Use a comma to add a pause.
•  Enter phone numbers in the following format: 800-555-5555.
•  Spell out all abbreviations such as “Drive”, “Avenue”, “Street”, etc.
•  Spell out all acronyms. Type “Police Department”, not “PD”.
•  Do not use commas when typing number amounts.
•  Type the date and/or time in the following formats: mm/dd/yyyy, hh.mm, AM/PM.
•  Enter currency in the following format: $555.55.
• Type a website address as: “w w w dot example dot

 General considerations:

• Make non-emergency outbound calls between 10am and 7pm.
• If you send a message about an upcoming event, send a follow-up message as a reminder.
• If you sent an emergency message, let people know when the emergency is over by sending them a call, e.g. lost person found, boil alert is over, etc.
• Avoid leaving multiple answering machine/voicemail messages.
• Keep test messages sent to the general public at a minimum.

Top 10 Points to Consider When Selecting an ENS Vendor

Whether you’re evaluating your current emergency notification system vendor, or a potential new vendor, here are the top 10 points for every decision-maker to consider.

Relentless Reliability

Secure systems, company stability, and longevity speak volumes. The vendor must assure your contact data will always be safe and secure. A company with multiple years of experience, solid financial stability and an excellent proven track record of successful message deliveries help assure potential clients their ongoing services will remain available in the years to come.

Capacity & Speed

Robust systems and successful deliveries matter. Be sure that the vendor can handle an unlimited number of contacts, messages and scenarios. The vendor must not have restrictions in the volume of data they can handle for you. The service must provide you with guarantees on the types and number of messages they can process per hour.

Contact Data Management

Accurate contact information is absolutely vital. Be sure the vendor can import your contact data in a timely fashion. The vendor must provide details on how they handle data security. The vendor should be able to import and manage a variety of contact data including hosting your own data, commercial, or 911 data. The vendor must offer up-to-date, online mapping using the common ESRI format. Also the vendor should offer a public signup page where the public can supply additional contact information and alternate contacts.

Multiple Messaging Options

Reach your citizens in as many ways as possible. The public expects to be contacted in a variety of ways. Besides phone calls and emails, your citizens also expect to be reached via text messaging, and fax. In addition, the public may look to social media as another vehicle to receive messages and check in on updates.

Reporting

Notification sent, was it successful? The results of a current notification and past notifications are essential to gauging success. Users want to see real-time results so problem deliveries can be handled quickly. The users want to be able to quickly resend notifications to those who did not receive initial notifications.

Superior Customer Service

Help should be available to you, all the time. It is critical for users to have access to live technical help 24/7 throughout the year. When emergency events occur, the vendor’s live help desk should be ready at a moment’s notice.

Ease of Use

Send messages with just one click. During a crisis, users need to quickly and easily launch their notifications. When a user needs to create and send notifications they want to use an intuitive user interface to get their messages out ASAP. Users need and want to have the confidence in being able to create messages, select contacts and send without uncertainty.

Implementation Before and After

Smooth Implementation with no surprises. Clear project planning in conjunction with the vendor’s client manager is essential for the success of the project. Be sure the project is clearly defined without loose ends. Be sure the vendor is committed to the project every step of the way.

Scalability and Flexibility

Adaptability is critical for ongoing success. The vendor’s system must be readily expandable to accommodate any size of data. The vendor’s system must be flexible enough to incorporate ever-changing technologies. The system should offer clients the ability to create customizable tiers of security groups which give a variety of permissions-based access to their users. The system should allow users multiple options in which to create, launch and schedule messages. The vendor should be able to accommodate any number of simultaneous notifications.

Simple Pricing

No complicated pricing, please.

Download our whitepaper on Selecting an Emergency Notification Vendor for a full list of questions to ask around the top 10 points we just shared.

Communicate Internally Using Your Existing Notification System

Today you use emergency notification system to communicate with your public constituents but did you know that it can also be used for internal communications with your staff?  Doing so can increase ROI, improve operational efficiency, and allow you to communicate accurate information to your employees faster.

The State of Georgia Emergency Preparedness and Response uses TFCC Alert for the internal communications and reaps the following benefits:

• Immediate distribution of emergency information to medical professionals, first responders, hospitals, and shelters
• Immediate accessibility to TFCC Alert via online or 24/7/365 live support
• Reduction in the notification process by hours
• Multiple forms of notification - email, phone call, text message, fax, social media
• Robust reporting – confirmation of message received 
• Unlimited system users and security groups

Watch this video from our client meeting to learn more about how the State of Georgia and the State of Nebraska use TFCC for internal communications ranging from employee notification to volunteer and response mobilization.

Maintaining operations and keeping team members informed at all times has never been more critical to agencies and TFCC clients across all industry segments are increasingly focused on communication strategies that include a reliable and secure mass notification system.

Secure Your Emergency Notification System with Grant Funding

The increasing demands to enhance public safety officials include improved emergency notification systems, continuity of communication during crisis situations, and faster response time. Government agencies continue to pursue avenues and funds to support their efforts toward this end. Because grant funding largely fuels the public safety industry, it’s no wonder the competition for these resources is great.

Early this year Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made available 12 preparedness grant programs worth $2.1 billion. In addition to grants for emergency notification programs, these funds will assist efforts to prevent, protect and respond to, recover from, and alleviate terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies. States, cities, tribal and territorial governments, the private sector, and nonprofits are eligible.

These funds are to be distributed based on assessment of risks and vulnerabilities in highest-risk communities that face ongoing threats or have evidence of pre-operational actions and other crimes that might indicate terrorist activity.

Among the FY 2011 DHS preparedness grants:

1. Nonprofit Security Grant Program to support target-hardening activities to nonprofit organizations with a high risk for a terrorist attack and located within a high-risk community
2. Emergency Operations Center Grant Program to help construct or renovate emergency operations centers to improve overall emergency notification, management, and preparedness capabilities
3. Transit Security Grant Program for transit system owners and operators to protect critical surface transportation and to improve the resilience of transit infrastructure
4. Emergency Management Performance Grants to assist state and local governments to improve   and sustain all-hazards emergency management capabilities

Review the complete list of the DHS preparedness grants.

If you want to know how to apply for these funding opportunities, request a grant kit developed by Galain Solutions, LLC for TFCC. Together, we’ve identified four federal grant programs that are suited for the emergency notification system it provides. The grants deal with community preparedness, terrorism prevention, and response.  TFCC will help you determine the appropriate DHS preparedness grant for your organization, institution or agency and provide guidance in drafting the proposal. Request your grant kit today.

Managing Quality Contact Data

When you least expect them, emergencies happen.  Whether a city, county, business or university emergencies can occur and persons who are on site should be notified as quickly and as accurately as possible.  Notification systems and processes can vary greatly from handwritten lists to sophisticated software and database systems.  For colleges and universities in particular, there are hundreds or even thousands of contacts to be managed so that proper notification is given to the correct persons.  Keeping this contact data accurate and dependable is of the utmost importance.

To enhance and improve confidence in the contact data system, businesses and universities should implement alert systems that provide a process to review contact data and insure that the right people are alerted appropriately.

To maintain contact data, consider the process for clearing obsolete information.  In a recent article from Ohio State University, a system was implemented that cleaned out the older contact database.  OSU administrators then advised current students to register for the updated text alert management database.  Deleting contact information might be considered extreme, but OSU was running into an issue where very old contact data was actually delaying notification for the correct people.

For Middlesex County College in New Jersey, a slightly different approach was taken in order to clean out obsolete contact information.  A notification was sent via their alert system to everyone in the contact database.  The notification asked that if the person no longer wishes to receive notices to please email a removal request.  This resulted in a marked reduction in the contact information.

Additionally, the appropriate hierarchy and chain of command should be reflected as part of the contact data.  With the organizational structure clearly indicated those who are placed in authority roles can react according to their responsibilities. Keeping the contact information safeguarded is of the utmost importance.  Appropriate data security measures should be in place to keep the contacts and their families safe from misuse of contact information.   A careful plan should be in place to manage all contact listings so that a level of comfort is given to those on campus as well as off campus, while keeping the database free from unnecessary entries. Keeping an up to date, quality contact database is important for any alert system.  Review with your system provider the options that are available, and implement a plan to keep your contact data clean and accurate.

 

More Than Just Emergency Notifications

Your emergency notification system can be used for more than just emergencies. The system is designed to be a two-way communication tool used by multiple departments and agencies for a variety of notifications. Inbound calling capabilities, social media integration and survey response all make two-way communication possible.  Consider the following uses for your notification system.

Employee & Staff Applications

• Employee notifications
• Employee accountability
• Routine group notifications
• Office closings & modified business hours
• Meeting & training reminders
• Benefit enrollment information & deadlines
• Schedule changes
• System outages & computer virus threats
• Assemble & deploy emergency response teams
• Call in additional staff
• Announce events
• Issue important reminders

Municipality Applications

• Street closings
• Tax deadline reminders
• Past due traffic ticket reminders
• Court date reminders
• Town Hall/City Council meeting reminders
• Trash pick-up schedule change notices
• Snow removal notification

Utility Applications

• Storm warnings
• Tree trimming
• Payment/billing reminders
• Planned outages
• Curtailment notices
• Restoration updates
• Meter replacement notices
• Billing error notice
• Critical care customer calls
• Work crew call-in
• Collection calls

Health Applications

• Pandemic flu information
• Flu clinics
• Safe and well checks
• Emergency blood donation requests
• Boil water alerts
• Viral outbreaks
• Environmental threats & warnings
• Precautions during outbreaks
• Heat waves

Education Applications

• Class delays & cancellations
• Facility closures
• Safety alerts
• Tuition & registration reminders
• Parent notifications
• Weather advisories
• Announce events

Read the following blog posts to learn how some of our clients use their system.

• Using Your ENS for Internal Communications
• Emergency Notification System Used to Capture Murder Suspect
• Communicate Tips for Staying Cool Using Your Notification System
• Winter Use Suggestions for Your Emergency Notification System
• University Uses Notification System After Attempted Abduction

Have a use case others could benefit from?  Take a moment and share it with us below.   

 

Wondering About Using Social Media for Emergency Notification?

Still wondering why you should consider using social media and how it can work together with your current emergency notification system?  Below we dig into a few more considerations.

Popularity of Twitter and Facebook

The number of Twitter and Facebook users has increased dramatically in just 1 year.

 

 

 

(Source: econsultancy.com)

Many Government Agencies Have Adopted Social Media

Many government agencies have started using Twitter and Facebook with good results.

Here are a few representative samples:

Facebook

• San Diego, CA

• Collierville, TN Police Department

• West Memphis Fire Department

• Frankfort, KY

Twitter

• Santa Clara, CA

• San Diego, CA

• Ohio State University

FEMA Uses Social Media – FEMA maintains an active presence on Twitter, as does its administrator, Craig Fugate, and both have been pumping out messages since deadly tornadoes ripped through Tuscaloosa, Ala., and Joplin, Mo., in recent weeks. According to OhMyGov Media Monitoring, FEMA's main Twitter feed is currently the tenth most popular account among large federal agencies, with nearly 48,000 followers as of today.

Facebook Distributes Amber Alerts – The AMBER (America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) Alert System was created in 2003, in Amber Hagerman’s name, to quickly distribute information and galvanize community assistance in the search and safe recovery of a recently abducted child. Originally, the AMBER Alert System’s broadcast mechanism was the Emergency Alert System, which is used for weather and other public emergency announcements. Then, AMBER Alerts were also disseminated by transportation agencies and wireless providers. Now, Facebook, arguably the most popular communication network in the world, will also distribute AMBER Alerts. In his article, “Facebook to Broadcast AMBER Alerts for Abducted Children”, Jim Puzzanghera’s quotes president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Ernie Allen, “With more than 500 million Facebook users, this bold initiative will help us mobilize many more people and bring more missing children home.”

It is important to understand that social media is simply another messaging channel to reach the public. And, that the public consists of citizens of all ages, young and old; urban and remote; wired and unplugged. Therefore messaging to the public still requires the use of traditional notification channels such as telephones, cell phones, text messaging, email, digital signs, sirens, fax and TTY.

It is essential that agencies still have all the resources at hand to deliver information about events as they unfold. It is not to say that today’s environment will never change but until it is assured that messages will reach everyone, the more traditional methods still need to be retained.

Be sure to ask your current or potential emergency notification vendor if social media messaging can be included with emergency alerts. The flexibility to establish messaging across multiple channels from the same source helps the public to receive reliable and consistent messaging from the emergency management agencies.

To learn more about using social media for emergency notifications download our whitepaper.

Is Social Media Effective and Reliable?

Last week we looked at the impact of social media on emergency notifications. In this second part of our blog series on social media we’ll take a look at social media in terms of effectiveness and reliability. 

Q. Is social media effective?

A. As social media continues to evolve and reach more and more of the population, evidence has shown social media to be a very effective and powerful method to reach the public about urgent warnings and emergencies. Instantaneous posts to Facebook and Twitter can be read, responded to and shared with others, all within seconds. No special skills are required to use these systems. And, there is no cost whatsoever to use these tools.

On April 3, 2011, unusually strong straight-line winds pummeled Collierville, Tennessee.

Tamara Springfield was sitting in her Amelia Cove kitchen when she received a severe weather notification from AlertCollierville, Collierville’s emergency notification system.

Tamara and her family quickly moved to a safe part of their home. Fifteen minutes later a tree came through their roof, inches from where Tamara had been sitting when she received the alert. Thrilled with AlertCollierville, Tamara posted a message on the Collierville Police Department Facebook page saying “Thank you for your reverse 911 system. We had a tree come down on our house this morning but because of the 911 call, everyone, including our animals, was in the center of the house away from windows and none of us were hurt. I have no words for how thankful I am.” (Read more about this story.)

Recent natural disasters include Hurricane Irene, the floods in Memphis, Tennessee; the swath of tornadoes in the southern U.S.; the tsunami in Japan; and the earthquake in Haiti. Social media used during these events demonstrated dramatic and positive results when both the public and emergency agencies quickly facilitated efforts to communicate with and to help each other throughout the crises. With its real-time messaging, dynamic reporting about events by the public and agencies alike, it demonstrated to the world, a collaborative and dynamic way of communicating, never seen before in the past.

Q. Is social media reliable?

A. The use of social media proved to be dramatically effective during the recent natural disasters described above. Social media permitted both emergency managers and the public to share and collaborate in real-time during events resulting in a true social network able to help those in need.

However, there are some caveats that emergency managers need to be aware of when considering social media for crisis notifications.

Pros

• Real-time and interactive
• Easy to use
• Reach large masses of people through proactive sharing of information
• Large adoption worldwide
• Cost-effective

Cons

• Social media requires a small time commitment in order to keep the content fresh and to stay current. It’s very important that an agency appoint someone to closely monitor the agency’s social media pages – answer questions, squash rumors, monitor what is being said and by whom.
• Not everyone is following your agency nor aware of your social media presence.
• Messages, once posted, can be hard to control. Unverified messages and control and could cause the public to panic.
• Invalid messages could seriously impact the credibility of the emergency agency. The public may not know they are reading fake messages that are not from your agency thus seriously affecting your agency’s credibility. The loss of authority could put the public at danger.
• Performance can be compromised. There is potential for downtime in the case of extremely high volume. Getting back online may take hours or even days. This could seriously impact the safety of the public.
• Cannot reach everyone. Not all areas have Internet availability. Demographics show that the majority of Facebook users in the U.S. are between the ages of 24 and 35, and that the majority of Twitter users are between the ages of 18 and 49.

What are your thoughts on the effectiveness and reliability of social media?

In our next post we'll take a look at why emergency managers should consider social media and what happens with your current emergency notification system.