DARPA is holding a $40,000 dollar contest on the use of Social Media during a disaster. The purpose of the CLIQR Quest Challenge competition is to find critical resources that responders might need during a disaster. This is using Social Media as a crowd source rather than a powerful way to communicate with the public during times of disaster. Crowd Sourcing can not only be used to identify resources but to identify areas that need assistance rapidly. Social Media was used in Haiti and Chile after their devastating earthquakes to identify the areas with the most damage and where resources were needed, it was so accurate that the Marine Corp and the Coast Guard used it to identify where to deploy their assets. It was used before the earthquake in Japan to warn millions of people of the earthquake. The Japanese government used the fact that earthquakes produce P waves that travel faster than the quake itself and can give up to a minutes warning. Using the P wave of the earthquake the Japanese sent thousands of text messages to millions of people in the effected areas giving them up to thirty seconds warning to take cover. Then after the quake it was used to identify the areas where help was needed the most. Social Media has many uses in emergency management and is going to prove to be a vital one as it use becomes more widespread.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Sunday, March 4, 2012
The Future of Emergency Management
I have seen the future of emergency management and it is in Rio de Janeiro. There is a New York Times article today about an IBM project that lays out the blueprint for every emergency management office in the country. It is called Mission Control Built for Cities (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/business/ibm-takes-smarter-cities-concept-to-rio-de-janeiro.html?pagewanted=1.) Rio is a huge metropolis that covers hundreds of square miles. To run the city more efficiently each day they have brought all of the "data collection sensors, video cameras and GPS devices" of the various departments of the the city into a single Operations Center room. From this Center technicians and representatives of the various city departments monitor and direct the City's resources.
They created four categories of occurrences: events, incidents, emergencies and crises. An event might be a loud party report to law enforcement. People assaulting one another at the party would become an incident. If the fighting spread to the neighborhood the event would escalated to an emergency and finally if someone was killed during the riot then the incident would be classified as a crisis. Each of these levels would require different responses by the city's resources and the various departments would be coordinated through this Center. The center is able to receive Twitters with pictures from the public of incidents even before they are reported and it able to send out updates from their own Twitter account. Finally since all of the various agencies are in one place the center collates the data from the various departments uses it to begin to model City's activities and then use the City's resources more efficiently.
What does this have to do with emergency management? Everything! Emergency management needs to carve out an everyday role within the community. It must be seen as the coordinator not just during disasters but everyday by other departments as well as the public. The role of city wide coordinator is the ideal role. You are not "in charge" of the other departments you are simply doing what you would do during a disaster. You are helping to maximize the communities resources. Every technological tool in that Operations Center would be needed during a disaster. The more you use the technology the better you will become at using the technology. The more different departments work together the better they will work together during a disaster. The combination of daily use of the technology and the benefits of daily coordination of various departments with Emergency Management in the role of coordinator will create a community wide team that will work together efficiently day to day and during disaster. This is our future and it not only helps emergency management but it helps the entire city to run more efficiently.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Storm Spotter App
During the recent outbreak I used the Storm Spotter App for my iPad. It worked flawlessly constantly updates the Watches and Warnings. With single tap on a list of the Watches and Warning you are immediately taken to the geographic area of the notification. Even when there was as many as nineteen different Tornado Warnings I was able to keep up with the rapidly changing situation with little effort. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/storm-spotter/id329385154?mt=8
Essential Elements of Information during a Disaster
Milton Fire Rescue and Law Enforcement Agencies The link is an excellent learning/training tool. It is the radio traffic of the law enforcement and fire departments just before and after the tornado struck. The messages, their timing and the information that can be gleaned from there is an excellent example of the confusion and fragmentary nature of the information that an emergency manager will receive after such an event. How should you prepare to pull together the information? There will be other information sources in addition to the radio traffic you hear how do you sort it and begin to get a picture of your community and what has been done?
A list of Essential Elements of Information would be an ideal tool for your EOC. EEI's specific to each ESF and for the community as a whole would be a good first step. This list should be specific to your community and developed long before a disaster strikes. It should be a check list with a simple grading system to allow for a quick size up. It could be as simple as green, yellow and red. Green would mean the asset or facility was up and running and in service. A yellow would mean that it was damaged but still capable of performing most of it's duties. A red would mean it either destroyed and out of service. Everything should be considered a red until information proving otherwise was obtained. This simple system would go a long way to preparing a community for a sudden disaster.
A list of Essential Elements of Information would be an ideal tool for your EOC. EEI's specific to each ESF and for the community as a whole would be a good first step. This list should be specific to your community and developed long before a disaster strikes. It should be a check list with a simple grading system to allow for a quick size up. It could be as simple as green, yellow and red. Green would mean the asset or facility was up and running and in service. A yellow would mean that it was damaged but still capable of performing most of it's duties. A red would mean it either destroyed and out of service. Everything should be considered a red until information proving otherwise was obtained. This simple system would go a long way to preparing a community for a sudden disaster.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Hurricane Irene the Press and Social Media
I watched a discussion on MSNBC last night where three talking head debated the response to Hurricane Irene. Was it too aggressive? Was it really necessary? This was a political discussion show. They were people who made their living talking about politics. Yet they felt perfectly comfortable talking about the response in political terms. None of the participants were response experts. They did not discuss the repeated warnings by the National Weather Service and their own weather people that a catastrophic flood was likely a day or two after the storm. The focused on New York City and the "inconvenience" they and the other New Yorkers felt.
None of this is surprising. What was surprising was the hosts comments at the end. He said that it was up to the media to keep the elected officials informed so they could make the right decisions. It was as if the whole emergency management apparatus and National Weather Service did not exist. He drew a picture of the elected officials hanging on every word from the various TV weathermen and women for the information to make their decisions.
The political aspects of a disaster and the media's over emphasis of it's own importance is about to change if the emergency management community will take advantage of it. That tool is social media in all it forms from Facebook to Twitter. Emergency management now has a way to directly communicate with the public. The local elected officials and emergency managers no longer have to depend entirely on the media to get the word out. Local officials can be on top of and even ahead of the media in informing the public of needed information. Yet these new tools are going to take a paradigm shift in thinking for emergency managers and elected officials.
The ability to communicate directly with the public during disasters is a powerful and sophisticated tool. Who will be responsible for it's use? Who will decide what and when information is posted? Who will manage the technology necessary? Is the PIO the best person or should there be a others involved? Will the PIO need a bigger staff? These are just a few of the questions that will have to be answered if emergency management is to take full advantage of social media phenomenon. There has much discussion in blogs and professional sites but I think it is time we began to answer not if we are going to use it but the nuts and bolts of how.
None of this is surprising. What was surprising was the hosts comments at the end. He said that it was up to the media to keep the elected officials informed so they could make the right decisions. It was as if the whole emergency management apparatus and National Weather Service did not exist. He drew a picture of the elected officials hanging on every word from the various TV weathermen and women for the information to make their decisions.
The political aspects of a disaster and the media's over emphasis of it's own importance is about to change if the emergency management community will take advantage of it. That tool is social media in all it forms from Facebook to Twitter. Emergency management now has a way to directly communicate with the public. The local elected officials and emergency managers no longer have to depend entirely on the media to get the word out. Local officials can be on top of and even ahead of the media in informing the public of needed information. Yet these new tools are going to take a paradigm shift in thinking for emergency managers and elected officials.
The ability to communicate directly with the public during disasters is a powerful and sophisticated tool. Who will be responsible for it's use? Who will decide what and when information is posted? Who will manage the technology necessary? Is the PIO the best person or should there be a others involved? Will the PIO need a bigger staff? These are just a few of the questions that will have to be answered if emergency management is to take full advantage of social media phenomenon. There has much discussion in blogs and professional sites but I think it is time we began to answer not if we are going to use it but the nuts and bolts of how.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Social Media and Disasters
Seventy-two percent of Americans belong to some sort of social network. These numbers must drive emergency management organizations at every level to develop plans and to become involved in social networking sites and services. Craig Fugate the head of FEMA said recently that he was able to determine the severity of the Jopin Tornado because of pictures he received over Twitter of the hospital and the surrounding neighborhood. Yet there are some caveats to that statistic.
In a recent Sachs/Mason-Dixon Poll 45% of those questioned stated that they would use social media for both gathering and sharing critical information during and after a natural disaster. Those 18 to 34 were much more likely to use social networks during a disaster with 63% stating they would use them during a disaster. While these numbers are impressive more than 50% of those responding to the poll stated they would continue to rely on home and cell phones. And less than 50% of those over 60 are members of social networks.
So these numbers point to more involvement for emergency management in social media it also points to a more sophisticated public information and communication plan for a jurisdiction. There must be a mix of the use of social media and of the local news media to get any word out to the public. By using both social media and the local news outlets the likelihood of the word reaching all of the needed audience is dramatically increased. So any communication plan must address both social networking and news outlets.
The other side of the social networking coin though is the anecdote is used at the beginning of the blog. Properly used the public is a invaluable source of information in the first hours and days of a response. If the systems are in place to track the calls for assistance and to evaluate the photos coming from the public can be a huge help in the initial assessment and response. This type of capability requires planning, organization and a social media presence in the community.
So while you many not be able to depend on social media alone to keep your citizens informed is it a critical part of any communications plan for a disaster. More importantly it is turning into an invaluable resource of information for your response. If the head of FEMA can gain situational awareness from social media then the local emergency management can certainly use it as a part of his or her disaster response plan.
In a recent Sachs/Mason-Dixon Poll 45% of those questioned stated that they would use social media for both gathering and sharing critical information during and after a natural disaster. Those 18 to 34 were much more likely to use social networks during a disaster with 63% stating they would use them during a disaster. While these numbers are impressive more than 50% of those responding to the poll stated they would continue to rely on home and cell phones. And less than 50% of those over 60 are members of social networks.
So these numbers point to more involvement for emergency management in social media it also points to a more sophisticated public information and communication plan for a jurisdiction. There must be a mix of the use of social media and of the local news media to get any word out to the public. By using both social media and the local news outlets the likelihood of the word reaching all of the needed audience is dramatically increased. So any communication plan must address both social networking and news outlets.
The other side of the social networking coin though is the anecdote is used at the beginning of the blog. Properly used the public is a invaluable source of information in the first hours and days of a response. If the systems are in place to track the calls for assistance and to evaluate the photos coming from the public can be a huge help in the initial assessment and response. This type of capability requires planning, organization and a social media presence in the community.
So while you many not be able to depend on social media alone to keep your citizens informed is it a critical part of any communications plan for a disaster. More importantly it is turning into an invaluable resource of information for your response. If the head of FEMA can gain situational awareness from social media then the local emergency management can certainly use it as a part of his or her disaster response plan.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
The Reality of a Disaster
As we discuss the various ways to manage disasters I think we sometimes loose sight just how overwhelming and confusing one can be in it's initial stages. In an Emergency Operations Center your communication systems are your only direct line to the reality outside that building. So the radio traffic and other forms of communication are your only tool to begin to understand the scope and severity of what your community faces. To try and put together a coherent picture of that reality just from communications traffic is daunting but when it is the scope and size of the Joplin tornado it is overwhelming.
The link is a recording to the Emergency Services radio traffic as the tornado approaches and afterward. It is a unique learning tool for anyone who job is to man an EOC. It is not is real time but the myriad of different reports and messages gives a window into the confusion and at times the desperation of those men and women out on the streets.
This would be an excellent class for any EOC staff. Just play the recording and then discuss what they heard. The various disciplines would be hearing the radio traffic through their own filters and would have different and unique takes on the traffic. It is worth the 36:14 minutes to listen and get some idea of what a disaster sounds like.
The following are a few of the discussion points you could use for training that are heard on the recording. Some of the incidents mentioned, multiple hazardous materials incidents, multiple mass causality sites, multiple people trapped, own personnel trapped, multiple deaths at multiple sites, Joplin radio system down, hospital being evacuated, multiple mutual aid units responding, multiple requests for mutual aid and much more.
Joplin Emergency Service Radio Traffic 5/22/11
The link is a recording to the Emergency Services radio traffic as the tornado approaches and afterward. It is a unique learning tool for anyone who job is to man an EOC. It is not is real time but the myriad of different reports and messages gives a window into the confusion and at times the desperation of those men and women out on the streets.
This would be an excellent class for any EOC staff. Just play the recording and then discuss what they heard. The various disciplines would be hearing the radio traffic through their own filters and would have different and unique takes on the traffic. It is worth the 36:14 minutes to listen and get some idea of what a disaster sounds like.
The following are a few of the discussion points you could use for training that are heard on the recording. Some of the incidents mentioned, multiple hazardous materials incidents, multiple mass causality sites, multiple people trapped, own personnel trapped, multiple deaths at multiple sites, Joplin radio system down, hospital being evacuated, multiple mutual aid units responding, multiple requests for mutual aid and much more.
Joplin Emergency Service Radio Traffic 5/22/11
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