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A Citizen’s Eye View of Public Preparedness

Military Plane Scare Over New York City Underscores Need To Use Communications Tools To Alert Public In Advance

April 27th, 2009 · 6 Comments

At 10:39am today I received a text message and email from the City of New York’s NotifyNYC alert program saying that: “Planes observed flying over Lower Manhattan were part of an approved federal activity.” I happened to be at a hospital clinic at that moment so I had no idea what that message meant. A little later, I heard that there had been a 747 aircraft flying with two fighter jets near downtown Manhattan as part of a Department of Defense photo shoot. City officials knew about it in advance. However, citizens in the area did not, and there were hundreds of calls to authorities from worried New Yorkers. Below is a WSJ.com video which shows the planes:

Though the City reacted quickly after hearing from the public, I think this is the type of instance where officials should warn citizens in advance both through the news media and utilizing the new text/e-mail alerts such as NotifyNYC.

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Tags: Preparedness 2.0

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