The idea is to test the speed and widen the scope of responses to a major disaster, focusing on how social media sites like Facebook and Twitter can be used. ”Ultimately, the goal is to get there faster, respond more effectively to save lives, communities, businesses, etc.,” read a written release on the drill. Organizers said that all messages about the fictional disaster would be marked clearly as fake on the Web.

Shortly after 12:30 p.m. ET, organizers began sending fictional messages from an account on Twitter reporting the disaster.

“#X24 IS A TEST, NOT REAL [link] CNN.com Earthquake strikes coast of Southern and Baja California http://bit.ly/Exer24 1 …,” was the first mention.

Instead of a CNN story, the link went to a Web page explaining the drill and how users can participate. As time went on, details included reports of snapped bridges, severe flooding and a tsunami on the way.

“#X24 IS A TEST, NOT REAL TV said large wave headed toward coastline! Everyone get out! http://bit.ly/Exer24 3-9 …,” read a later post.

For more information and to participate in the ongoing exercise, check its Twitter and Facebook sites.

The surveys are actually part of academic research being done by City of Dallas Emergency Management Specialist Raymond Rivas, a 4th year student in the Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, MD. Part of the program requires that after each class you must write an Applied Research Paper pertaining to an issue that affects your jurisdiction.

The results will be interesting in large part, because the City of Dallas OEM’s social media presence is still in its infancy so officials are probably going to learn a lot. If you want to participate in the seven-question citizen survey (and it is open to anyone), click here (deadline is October 1).

According to the Washington EventBrite webpage:

Global CrisisCamp Day activities will include training new volunteers on open tools such as Ushahidi (including Crowdmap), OpenStreetMap, Sahana and CrisisWiki as well as inventorying existing resources and the development of training tools to build the first CrisisCamp-In-A-Box toolkit to be released in early January 2011.

The CrisisCamp community aims to provide new CrisisCamp organizers with mentorship, tools and tips on how to organize a CrisisCamp, training materials on open technology tools, lessons learned from past CrisisCamp events and a toolkit for the development of technology prototypes.

Also, on the CrisisCommons website, you can check the post, “What To Expect — CrisisCamp Day.”

CrisisCamp is a global network of hybrid barcamp/hackathon events which bring together people and communities who innovate crisis response and global development through technology tools, expertise and problem solving. Since 2009, CrisisCamp volunteers have created crisis response and learning events in over 10 countries with volunteers of all backgrounds who collaborate in an open environment to aggregate crisis data, develop prototype tools and train people on how to use technology tools and problem solving to aid in crisis response and global development.

I was lucky enough to attend the first CrisisCamp last year in Washington. It has already had enormous impact on disaster preparedness/response policy and practice. CrisisCamp communities have been active in the response to the Haiti and Chilean earthquakes and the Pakistan Floods. CrisisCamp events have provided surge capacity and training for existing organizations such as Ushahidi and OpenStreetMap as well as the development of new tools such as Tradui, a mobile Kreyol translation or problem solving such as a solution to extend of long distance Wi-Fi in Port au Prince to crisis response organizations operating on the ground.

If you are interested in becoming a CrisisCamp organizer or are interested in the development of a CrisisCamp in your area, contact Heather Leson at heatherleson (at) crisiscommons.org.

Tornadoes are clearly not typical here in the Big Apple — though we had a similar if less serious incident with them earlier in the summer. But it does raise the question how much new preparedness attention should this hazard receive from the government, public and media going forward. I think there are four things (below) that can be done, which will improve citizen awareness and readiness without making too much of a big deal out of what will likely continue to be the exception rather than the rule here.

On Thursday afternoon, I happened to be in the hospital when I received this text alert from NotifyNYC:

Alert issued 9/16/10 at 5:35 PM. The National Weather Service has issued a Tornado Warning until 6:00 PM in Staten Island and Brooklyn. Immediately go indoors and/or to the lowest floor of your building for shelter. Stay away from windows.

Similar to the previous incident earlier in the summer, there had not much media warning about the possibility of major weather though the forecast was inclement. As I wrote earlier (below), those emergency instructions in the text message may be familiar to those in the Midwest but not in New York. In fact, my guess is that most New Yorkers who received this notification followed instructions to move to their lowest floor or stay away from windows in large part because we’re not used to doing so.

Also, though the message was being sent out through text/e-mail only a minority of City residents (approximately 50,000) are subscribed to NotifyNYC, and not all traditional news outlets were distributing that same message. It’s a real challenge for the Office of Emergency Management: you don’t want spend too much time warning New Yorkers about a rare threat, and yet when it is dangerous when it does come (and you may not have much time to get the word out.)

So, from this situation and the previous incident, I would have four recommendations:

* put a little more public information/attention on tornado, twisters, strong winds without making too much of a big deal of it (integrate it into other related shelter-in-place/evacuation instructions);

* use this experience to emphasize to New Yorkers that to have the most up to date emergency information for you, your family and your workplace, sign up for e-mail/text warnings from NotifyNYC;

* government officials should work closer with the news media to make sure the communications messages are aligned and robust, particularly when surprise events occur; and

* maybe some limited practice or drilling — integrated into fire safety, shelter-in-place/evacuation — would be useful.

Tornado damage in Brooklyn (Photo: C. Voegel, The Gothamist)

Below is my case study/post from earlier in the summer, which comes to most of the same conclusions:

On Friday evening at 8:19 PM, I received the following notification (via both text and e-mail) from New York City’s NotifyNYC alert system:

“Alert issued 7/23/10 at 8:20 PM. The National Weather Service has issued a Tornado Warning until 9:00 PM for Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx. Immediately go indoors and/or to the lowest floor of your building for shelter. Stay away from windows.”

Though thunderstorms had been predicted, a tornado warning — along with the urgent and specific instructions — was a bit of a surprise. I am sure I was not the only New York apartment dweller receiving a NotifyNYC alert that was a little perplexed what to do. Should we all actually be going to the lobby of our buildings? Should we be warning our neighbors (who aren’t signed up for the City’s alerts) to do so as well?

I happened to be watching television — “Friday Night Lights,” appropriately it turned out, as thunder was flashing through the Gotham sky. The local affiliate, WNBC-TV, cut into the show to announce the tornado warning. The meteorologist did not recommend any of the preventive actions mentioned in the NotifyNYC alert, though a scroll on the screen was suggesting that the safest place to be in a tornado was a basement, closet or hallway.

It was an example of how e-mail/text alerts can effectively relay immediate information directly to citizens no matter where they are. (And that people should be signing up for these free notifications.) But only a relatively small percentage of New Yorkers are enrolled (approximately 50,000 subscribers) so Friday night there was an information gap between those who receive the alerts and those who get their emergency information from the news media.

‘Friday night lights’ over Manhattan but no tornado (photo by Richard Caplan/WNBC)

Friday evening when the National Weather Service issued the tornado alert, the City’s Office of Emergency Management (NYC-OEM) faced an interesting (and new) communications policy question: should it send out the information (and the safety instructions) in a limited alert format to subscribers, which were going to come as an out of the blue surprise to us? (Tornado response may be second nature in the Midwest but not in Manhattan.). It would also mean that subscribers were going to know more than about it than the rest of the public.

I think they made the right decision to distribute the alert. However, the City also needs to make sure that whatever emergency information it is sending out through the e-mail/text NotifyNYC system that the same message is being communicated through the news media, which is still the main information medium for most of the public. Friday night, the messaging was not totally aligned.

It turned out that a tornado did not end up touching down in the Big Apple Friday night. But I thought this was an interesting case study of how government is disseminatjng emergency news to the public with its new tools. In fact, I would recommend the City’s OEM highlight this example publicly as a reason why more people should sign up for these alerts so they have the most updated information in a potential crisis situation.

According to the Depiction website, the webinar will:

describe several discrete, concrete projects that volunteers can do using Depiction mapping, simulation and collaboration software to help their communities become more prepared, including: Building detailed maps of key neighborhood locations with an iPhone or other smartphone, creating YouTube videos to raise awareness of potential dangers to your community, building visual presentations about specific disaster scenarios to show to local government and other groups.

Volunteers who attend the webinar will also have the opportunity to receive a 50% discount on Depiction mapping software. There are other NPM Depiction webinars coming up and videos of previous ones listed here.

The Obama Administration has said that public readiness is a priority and has taken steps to strengthen the involvement of Americans in their own homeland security. However, officials acknowledge that there is still a ways to go. I present these proposals to help move forward citizen preparedness on a local, state and national level. I hope these suggestions can be a useful addition to the policy discussion and have submitted it to the Federal Preparedness Task Force. As always, I welcome your feedback:

1) CREATE CITIZEN PREPAREDNESS TASK FORCE — The lack of progress to date on public readiness and engagement underscores the need to develop new ways of approaching the issue. DHS Secretary Napolitano should create a Citizen Preparedness Outreach Task Force to assess the current state of public readiness and work on developing new approaches. At present, there is no clear social education analog to civilian emergency preparedness that can be easily pulled off the shelf so it will take some work to develop an effective program. In fact, the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism in its final report recommended the Administration make citizen engagement a priority. But Chairman Bob Graham told me that the ‘WMD Commission’ did not did not find anything suitable it could recommend, and that something new has to be developed.

2) BETTER DEFINE WHAT IT MEANS TO BE “PREPARED” “READY” AND/OR “RESILIENT” — An American Red Cross survey indicated that 93% of Americans are not prepared for disasters. The truth is that no one can be fully prepared, but there is a need to offer the public a clearer definition — including a minimum level — of preparedness. That might include creating a family communications plan and storing tangible supplies but also knowing more about potential threats that every American should know. That doesn’t mean overwhelming people with too much information, but making sure they are at least familiar with some basics. (For example, the first time citizens hear about a ‘dirty bomb’ from government officials should not be in the moments after one has been exploded.) In addition to the content questions, there is also a word meaning issue to deal with as well. The Obama Administration has been emphasizing the concept of societal resilience. Should emergency management officials be talking about citizen resilience in their communities rather than preparedness or readiness?

3) SUPPORT & REPORT ON STATE/LOCAL PREPAREDNESS EFFORTS — Provide adequate seed money for state and local government to bolster civilian preparedness programs and link the grants to performance. Encourage authorities to report publicly on their level of citizen preparedness and create metrics for better measuring civilian readiness. Find interested governors to take on leadership roles and create pilot models in their states. There is a need to employ both “bottom/up” and “top/down” approaches to disaster preparedness combining state, local and community leadership and citizen involvement with federal commitment and focus. Ensure that government authorities can competently respond to disasters but also more strongly emphasize the need for the public and local communities to be prepared and self-reliant, particularly in the first 72 hours after a disaster.

4) HIGHLIGHT & SPREAD MODELS FROM AROUND U.S. & OTHER COUNTRIES — There is a need to help promote and implement best practices from communities around the U.S. and draw, where applicable, particularly from British and Israeli experiences. One model may be the United Kingdom’s National Risk Register, which sets out publicly the government’s assessment of the likelihood and potential impact of a range of different public health, natural and terrorist risks. It is designed to increase awareness of the kinds of risks the UK faces, and encourage individuals and organizations to think about their own preparedness. The Register also includes details of what the Government and first responders are doing to prepare for those emergencies and the role of citizens in those plans

5) USE ‘CARROTS’ TO CHANGE PUBLIC BEHAVIOR – Provide a tax write-off for citizens to buy preparedness-related products as a way to promote participation and to signal governmental commitment. Encourage states to create tax-free periods as is being done in Virginia and Louisiana (and has been introduced in the New York legislature). Also, consider targeting assistance to citizens who cannot afford to prepare. The fact is that when we really want to change social behavior as a nation we do it through the carrot or the stick. The carrot is the preferable tool for this issue, but it needs to be used. And, thus far, incentives (and vegetables) have largely been missing from the preparedness effort, which helps explain the lack of progress. Similarly, preparedness disincentives in the law should be removed (ie. in some places, homeowners who retrofit their homes face higher tax assessments.)

6) BRING IN BUSINESS TO DEVELOP INTEGRATED ‘WIN-WIN-WIN-WIN’ PUBLIC PREPAREDNESS MARKETING CAMPAIGNS– Design and roll out a full service preparedness marketing campaign with help from the private and non-profit sectors. Galvanize business to take on disaster preparedness in the same way they have with disaster response, most notably in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (ie. big box stores, packaged goods manufacturers, bottled water companies, wireless industry). Work with companies in preparedness-related businesses to offer major discounts tied to citizens taking actual readiness steps recommended by Ready.Gov and local emergency management offices.

For example, individuals and families come into ‘big box’ stores with emergency communications plans (or fill them out in the store) and in return they would receive a significant discount on supplies or free products (ie. if you purchase a case of bottled water, you would get your emergency supply thrown in for free). And if a customer signed up to volunteer for CERT or the Red Cross Disaster Services, they would get a bigger discount. Mobile phone retail stores would be excellent settings for preparedness events/trainings to help people register for government emergency text/e-mail alerts. I’d also like to see an event/photo-op with kids teaching their parents about texting and its role in an emergency. Here again, the companies would offer customers extra free text/phone minutes for completing the preparedness step.

7) DON’T BE AFRAID TO TELL THE CHILDREN — Put more emphasis on educating young people on preparedness by piggybacking on other related school-based social education efforts, most prominently fire safety. The challenge is the both the decentralization of the nation’s education system and the already high curricula demands on teachers. Yet, an effective fire education program was implemented in the schools beginning in the 1970’s, and there would seem to be a perfect fit to integrate a preparedness module into that existing program. The federal government should work with state and local officials as well as fire and education officials to determine how best to accomplish that objective.

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate recently suggested expanding the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program for young people. I believe that a decision to expand CERT-type training in the schools would be welcomed on a bipartisan basis.There should be more public briefings on how personal tech would be helpful in an emergency, before the emergency (including how Twitter, Facebook and one’s smart phone can be invaluable). Further, every governmental preparedness web site should add a cell phone and an extra battery (or other power source) to the basic components of their recommended disaster supply kit.  Many private companies are working on applications for citizen emergency communications. Those business efforts need to be integrated with official alerts (ie. the new iteration of the Emergency Alert System) and unofficial citizen-based social media (as well as the news media). Both the content and distribution channels of emergency communications are changing and new models need to be developed.

8 EMBRACE AND ACCELERATE PREPAREDNESS 2.0 – There is a need to better inform the public on the potential of 21st century personal technology to prepare for and respond to 21st century emergencies. We must make Americans more aware of the capabilities of the technology at their fingertips (ie. wireless devices, social media sites) in advance and integrate it into disaster planning and response. The public’s new ability to access and distribute information offers both an opportunity and a challenge to government authorities.

There should be more public briefings on how personal tech would be helpful in a crisis, before the crisis (including how Twitter, Facebook and one’s smart phone can be invaluable). Further, every governmental preparedness web site should add a cell phone and an extra battery (or other power source) to the basic components of their recommended disaster supply kit. Many private companies are working on content and distribution applications for citizen emergency communications. Those business efforts can complement official efforts (ie. the new iteration of the Emergency Alert System) and unofficial citizen-based social media (and well as the news media). One hugely promising initiative is CrisisCommons which over the past year has created groups of volunteers throughout the world to bring technology to bear on disaster response issues.

9) FIND POLITICAL, CELEBRITY PREPAREDNESS SPOKESPEOPLE – During the time that I have covered the topic of citizen emergency preparedness, one of the most surprising things I’ve found is that there is no major elected official who has taken the lead on the issue. It’s surprising for a number of reasons: natural disasters and terrorism dominate the headlines and will continue to for the foreseeable future; citizen preparedness is pretty much an unassailable, bipartisan, patriotic and community-building topic; and even the smallest interest in Washington has at least one political champion (but not public preparedness). And, with much to do, there is a great opportunity to have a positive policy and political impact. To some in the readiness community, the absence of star power on the issue has been one reason for the lack of public attention. Though celebrities have been eager to participate in fundraising efforts after catastrophes like the Haiti effort), there is no big star who is singularly identified as a spokesperson for emergency preparedness.

10) GIVE THE PUBLIC MORE INFO SO THEY CAN BETTER PREPARE & PARTICIPATE – There is a need to better inform the public when it comes to disaster preparedness so they can not only ready themselves and their families but also be part of the policy debate. Let me mention two areas briefly:

a) Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD): In its report, the WMD Commission argues that the incoming Administration should make an effort to inform and engage the public on the subject of WMD’s. I agree. And, I suggest officials consider starting that process by defining (or redefining) what a WMD actually is. At present, it is most common to define a WMD for the public as a chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (or “CBRN”) weapon.

The Commission report, however, focuses primarily on the dangers of biological and nuclear terrorism, both of which could be absolutely catastrophic. By contrast, a chemical or radiological (better known as a ‘dirty bomb’) weapon could be very serious but would likely not cause as much lasting damage. In fact, both a chemical and radiological attack would likely be a one-shot event seriously impacting those directly near the event, closer in result to a ‘traditional’ terrorist bombing. A nuclear bomb or biological incident, however, could have wide and long-lasting ‘mass destruction’ impact to humans, property and the society itself. We don’t want the public — and the nation as a whole — to overreact to some threats and underreact to others.

b) Risk: I think it may be one of the most important homeland security subjects for both the government and the public, because it highlights some of the tradeoffs involved in determining how to allocate the nation’s security resources and the role of risk management in making those decisions. This is a debate which should include the public. Right now, Americans aren’t engaged in the discussion over the security, financial, logistical and time tradeoffs involved in our own homeland security.

We need to introduce risk management into homeland security which would lead us to ask and answer important questions: What improves our security and resiliency? And what can be done at a reasonable social and financial cost? Those answers should come not only from policymakers but with the guidance of the public itself.

The public should be asked: How much risk do you want to pay for? How much inconvenience do you want to deal with? These are dilemmas we deal with everyday in our lives; we need to bring that same approach to homeland security and disaster preparedness. FEMA’s Fugate has since his days in Florida made the point that natural hazards turn into natural disasters because of man-made decisions on development, including ubiquitous golf courses: “You can tee off in Tallahassee and play through to Pensacola,” he likes to say.  ”Unless the public understands we need to change where we develop and live, it won’t matter.” It is up to elected officials to present those choices, including building codes, levies and insurance incentives.

11) ‘SEE AND SAY’ SOMETHING MORE – Build upon the initial success of ‘See Something, Say Something’ -type citizen information campaigns by providing the public with more specific guidance on how to assist law enforcement and, without giving away sources and methods, offering more feedback on the information they have provided. Law enforcement officials are concerned about societal complacency nine years since 9/11, but have not determined how to communicate to the public a more candid – yet calm and balanced – picture of the threat and how they can best help. The Department of Homeland Security is expanding “See Something, Say Something” nationally, which is a positive development. However, there is still a need to better explain to citizens their role, particularly at a local level. One important question is how much of what new information and training given to law enforcement about terrorism prevention should also be provided to the public.

12) MEDIA SHOULD COVER PREPAREDNESS AS WELL AS DISASTERS – While the press does wall-to-wall coverage on natural disasters and has covered practically every aspect of terrorism story closely, it has largely overlooked advance public preparedness. By contrast, during the Cold War, magazines ranging from Life to Modern Farmer dedicated entire issues to civilian readiness. Obviously, the press’ role is not to serve as a publicity arm of the government, but it is a topic that deserves more attention. And without more media coverage, it will be difficult to break through to the public. One great example of the press as a unique asset is the list of preparedness tips and lessons learned from the disaster survivors that was collected by the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

13) GOVERNMENT PREPAREDNESS OUTREACH NEEDS TO BE FAR MORE INTERACTIVE — Right now, if a member of the public has a question about the preparedness process, there is nowhere to go. And, as someone who does a lot of public outreach on street fairs, radio or in community meetings I hear a lot of questions from average citizens about emergency readiness — ie. Shouldn’t buildings have mandatory emergency drills? Shouldn’t everyone have a solar charger in your ‘go-bag’ to be able recharge a cellphone or radio? Shouldn’t you have an evacuation family meeting spot outside of the City in case there is major disaster? In case of an emergency, where should we go for information? The emergency management community on a national, state and local level must overhaul its public information operations to be able to address those questions directly and lead the public through what can be a challenging process to undertake.

14) ‘DO ASK, DO TELL’: MAKE “PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY” MORE CENTRAL TO PREPAREDNESS MESSAGING — Instead of telling people to prepare because it is a responsibility (you need to do this), government has used a softer ask when it comes to trying to get the public to prepare. To me, the it is time to try to do more “telling” and less “asking”. I don’t believe the government should be afraid to explicitly tell the public that each of us can either hinder or help relief efforts by what they decide to do before and during a disaster. And, that it’s up to each of us to choose.

If indeed preparing for disasters is a responsibility of citizenship (which I think it should be), then it should been positioned that way. PSA’s saying that people are imperiling the lives of first responders and their fellow citizens, particularly the vulnerable (ie. the elderly, disabled) not to mention your own family might be treated with a little more urgency. Another potentially useful messaging approach was suggested to me by former Miss Utah Jill Shepherd who used citizen preparedness as her pageant platform. It can (and should) be included in the preparedness pitch that readying yourself and your family for disaster at home is a way civilians can contribute to the nation’s resilience and complement the work and sacrifice of those serving in the military. Preparedness may be the most important contribution most citizens can make to their nation’s security. Not only will civilians likely be the first on the scene of a major emergency, but the nation’s response will only be as strong as the readiness of the weakest link. We have entered the ‘pro-am’ preparedness era where the government needs to hand off some responsibility and the public needs to take it.

15) INTEGRATE EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS INTO OTHER COMMUNITY ISSUES — Emergency preparedness is an important issue, particularly during crises. However, it has a better chance of becoming ingrained into American society if it is viewed as part of other preparedness topics that are a more central part of Americans daily life, including public health (immunization), security (Neighborhood Watch), infrastructure and climate change, part and parcel of just being ready for any situation.

For example, the global warming campaign can and should be a model for civilian emergency preparedness in a variety of ways. The two efforts are complementary and should be linked closer together in the public’s mind — and actions. In both, society is being asked to mobilize in order to avert or mitigate potential disasters, and both are part of strengthening the nation’s general national resilience. Yes, global warming has some skeptics, but so does emergency preparedness — ironically they are often not the same people which may conveniently add to its complementary synergy.

16) EXPAND EMERGENCY DRILLING OPPORTUNITIES TO PUBLIC –Increase chances for citizens to participate in disaster drills, which would help people focus on the issue and work through the key questions everyone should ask before a disaster (ie. How will you get information and communicate with your family? Do you know the emergency plan of your children’s school?). Most every top homeland security/emergency management official I have interviewed has told me that broader public disaster exercises would be helpful in a number of ways, but there has not been a concerted effort to expand drilling opportunities to the public.

17) DETERMINE BEST USE OF CIVILIAN DISASTER VOLUNTEERS – Craig Fugate said recently that FEMA would be reevaluating the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). I think that as part of that review government and non profit officials should be looking at how best to recruit and deploy disaster volunteers. Post-9/11 and Katrina — as well as with international incidents such as Haiti — there has been great interest among the public to be involved in crisis response. A key question is how that asset should be managed. Should it be the government? The Red Cross? Other non-profits and faith-based institutions? Business? Or a combination of the four? One hugely promising initiative is CrisisCommons which over the past year has created groups of volunteers throughout the world to bring technology to bear on disaster response issues.

Fugate said that FEMA is considering major changes in the CERT program, including creating a shorter training course which could be offered to more Americans and significantly expanding training for schools and other youth groups in order to better imbed preparedness into society for the long-term. I’ve always felt that CERT training is less about the skills you learn and more about awareness about the community and the various emergency authorities (and identifying citizen crisis organizers in advance). To me, CERT is just basic citizenship training for the 21st Century, which I think every American should get a chance to receive. I might suggest that the smaller reduced curriculum be called something along the lines of “Citizen Resilience Training”.

18) ESTABLISH AN OFFICIAL PREPAREDNESS DAY — Create a National Preparedness Day to focus public attention before disasters, including briefing citizens, conducting drills, and filling emergency kits. A helpful model is Japan’s Disaster Prevention Day held on September 1st, the anniversary of the catastrophic 1923 Tokyo earthquake. Earlier this month, 670,000 Japanese participated in emergency drills around the country. China, since its 8.0-magnitude 2008 Sichuan Province earthquake, has also held two national disaster prevention days with nationwide drills.

If we as a nation feel it is really important for the public to develop emergency plans, it would be far more effective if everyone was doing that at the same time — rather than asking individuals to do it on their own. This ‘preparedness day’ would also be the time that we all asked the questions about planning then practiced and updated those plans. It would be useful for both responders and the public. I might suggest September 11th be made the U.S.’s official Day. It would seem to be appropriate to honor the memories of those who died by action, particularly something aimed at making sure America is never as unprepared again.

19) CREATE CITIZEN PREPAREDNESS OFFICE – Establishing a national citizen preparedness/resilience office to highlight and help coordinate efforts around the U.S. and ensure citizen preparedness remains a priority. Right now, there is not an identifiable place in the federal government that has responsibility for coordinating the public’s role in preparedness. Work with American Red Cross to create an effective advocate for the general public on emergency preparedness in the same way disabled and pet groups have done for the disaster needs of their communities over the past several years.

20) BUNDLE CITIZEN PREPAREDNESS PROPOSALS TOGETHER INTO “CITIZEN PREPAREDNESS INITIATIVE” – For too long, well meaning public preparedness efforts have gotten lost or have been ignored by the public. That’s in large part because they have not been packaged and presented as being specifically directed to citizens. But if the government would assemble these small disparate proposals listed above into an overall citizen preparedness package it would have a better chance of getting attention and gaining some traction. Ultimately, making inroads on citizen preparedness is less a matter of money than it is of focus and attention.

In this post, “Twitter to the Rescue: Social Media’s Evolving Role in Disasters,” Oldham highlights the role of “dedicated and thoughtful ‘keynote’ Tweeters who have led the charge and demonstrated real leadership in getting a lot of accurate information out to the world quickly and consistently.”

In the Boulder fires, Oldham notes the work of @laurasrecipes (”foodie blogger” Laura Levy) and @fishnette (University of Colorado professor Sandra Fish) “curating” scanner traffic and disseminating valid, credible information. He also gives props to Project EPIC whose TweakTheTweet initiative has provided “automated timelines and mapping of tweeted information about structures burned, evacuations, evacuation centers and other data on the fires in Boulder.”

A fire truck drives past a home destroyed by the Fourmile Canyon fire (Associated Press photo).

In the San Bruno incident, Oldham also compliments the efforts of @firetracker2 who urged locals through Twitter to stay off their cell phones to keep the network available for public safety responders at the scene.

For those interested in Twitter and emergencies, I recommend reading the whole post which can be found here.

According to the press release:

Located on OEM’s Facebook page, the new interactive web mapping application allows New Yorkers to select a meeting place from thousands of locations in the metropolitan area in advance of an emergency. Users can search for meeting places closest to their home or office addresses, such as schools, museums, libraries, senior centers, courthouses, post offices, or police or fire stations.

Other options include choosing a meeting place between two addresses or choosing your own meeting place. After the meeting place is chosen, it can be shared via e-mail with those users who want to meet at the designated point in an emergency. Users will also be able to share their meeting place via text message in the coming months.

Screenshot of New York City Office of Emergency Management/Ad Council Facebook “My Meeting Place” Application.

I recommend checking the LAFD blog the rest of the month to read more tips and to follow the Department’s trailblazing social media efforts led by my friend and communications pioneer Brian Humphrey.

It turns out that in most cases the two services are being utilized in somewhat different ways by different types of external users. Twitter is being used mostly as an informational source with speed and news being paramount for more of an official audience, while Facebook pages tend to be more of a place for public discussion and community building with more depth (ie. multi-media) and emotional involvement often for average citizens. But in a crisis, the two platforms will be used similarly to distribute and solicit emergency information. Both, officials say, have been very helpful to their informational outreach to the public.

Here are the e-mail responses about Twitter and Facebook from some of the emergency management experts I contacted:

Jeremy J. Heidt, Tennessee Emergency Management Agency – ”We are seeing quite a difference in what TEMA’s social media followers and fans are looking for from our agency, but that may be due to how we are interacting on those platforms. We have 355 followers on Twitter, but a majority (>75%) of them are what I would call information gatherers, like yourself, looking for official information to share through their own distribution channels.

For example, our Twitter followers include the Associated Press and CNN Southeast Desk, as well as various federal, state and local agencies or officials. The general public makes up a small percentage of the direct audience, though they are welcome to receive the messages. TEMA primarily uses Twitter as an automatic distribution mechanism –using Google Feedburner and RSS feeds — for any information that has been updated, such as pictures or maps on Flickr, any official state news releases on TN.Gov or blog postings to TEMA’s website, as well as FEMA releases involving Tennessee and earthquake notices in the region from the U.S. Geological Service.

During the recent flooding, I repeatedly told media outlets that following TEMA on Twitter would ensure they received immediate notice of any new information that we had released. This cut down tremendously on the number of repeat phone calls from those media outlets looking for just routine updates to some previously released information. By utilizing the Twitter lists, I’m also able to get immediate feedback by watching what media outlets are saying about an event, as it is happening. We don’t have a lot of two-way conversations via Twitter though.

Tennessee Emergency Management Agency Twitter page.

The Facebook page, TNDisasterInfo, has 2,483 fans, but the daily impressions are 9,755. This site has much more grassroots appeal to its users. They are able to comment and give direct feedback via Facebook. Sixty-five percent of the fans are female, and most reside in Tennessee. I definitely think that how TEMA uses and interact through social media will continue to change.

In the future, I think emergency organizations will have to monitor social media, like Twitter or others, for ’emergency’ communications from our citizens. We need to adapt to how the public chooses to communicate, or we will lose a piece of situational awareness that is vital to any successful emergency operation.”

Gloria Huang, American Red Cross — “Yes, we definitely have a different community on Twitter versus Facebook. Our Facebook following [202,687] consists of a lot of Red Cross volunteers, donors, workers – people with some personal tie to the organization. As a result, they are incredibly interactive and love sharing and chatting with each other on our Facebook page. Because of that, we try to tailor our content on Facebook to encourage community building and we try to give them interesting topics to talk about. In contrast, our Twitter following [177,206] love to see more disaster-focused tweets. They are interested in hard facts and timely information that they can pass on. That is most of the reason why our Twitter account is so disaster-focused.

The nature of a Facebook Page is very community-oriented; our fans/followers are very happy to declare that they donated blood, or that their mother and grandmothers also volunteered, or that they recently got certified in CPR. On the flip side, the Twitter community is much more public and vast in size – if the information we tweet is current and relevant to what people are talking about (like the Haiti earthquake), it will get spread far and wide.”

Comments on the American Red Cross’ Facebook page.

Christina Stephens, Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management — “Our Twitter followers [2,636]  are interested in news. They expect to get information everyday. Facebook users [1,672] are more likely to want to engage with us and others in a discussion. Those on Facebook tend to be more emotionally connected and Twitter users more informationally connected. But in an emergency we would use them similarly getting information out and receiving feedback. And we would be instructing people to use each to alert their family and friends about their situations.”

Adam Crowe, Johnson County (Kansas) Emergency Management & Homeland Security – “There is significant overlap in the information that we post to Facebook [440] and Twitter [808]. The most significant minor differences are based around the use of multi-media. We typically post videos and pictures to facebook and merely post to Twitter a link back to the Facebook or YouTube page. The on except to this is our automated twitter feed (@jocoalert) that receives automated emergency information such as weather alerts or advisories. Our hope is that people will select to follow this account and be notified vis SMS text – thus creating a community-wide text notification system.”

Johnson County Office of Emergency Management’s Twitter feed.

Rachel Racusen, Federal Emergency Management Administration — “Our Twitter followers [16,492] tend to be interested in news and information. The Facebook page [15,409] offers more opportunity for discussion among and feedback from the public. And, we receive helpful comments on FEMA policies.”

Chi Kong Lui, American Red Cross of Greater New York –”We do see a difference between people who use Facebook versus Twitter under normal circumstances. Twitter is a bit faster paced and noisier. We don’t subject our Facebook fans to the real-time daily disaster updates that appear in our Twitter. That being said, when a major disaster or emergency strikes, the users want useful and relevant information as quickly as possible and in whatever format they can get it. So during a disaster, I think we would look to provide as much updates to both platforms as quickly as possible.”

It was little less cheeky than his reminder tweet from the day before:

Usually, preparedness messaging — particularly as a threat approaches — is Boy Scout earnest (and Fugate uses that approach as well — see below).

But Twitter has allowed the Administrator to also offer some more refreshingly more casual, irreverent messages — that use humor and even a little sarcasm to try to get through to Americans to prepare. The character limits, the volume of Tweets and the targeted nature of social media makes it a good medium for experimentation, particularly when (like Fugate) you have a gregarious, infectious personality with a nice sense of humor — and you have heard of every excuse for not preparing from the public during a long emergency management career. The fact is that the straight forward approach has largely not worked.

Fugate’s Twitter feed should embolden emergency managers to try some more direct and conversational approaches that officials might not feel comfortable saying during a news conference or in a press release.

Brian and his fellow LAFD public information officers manage an unparalleled social media operation in the government emergency field, including a blog about to hit three million visits and a Flickr site with seven million views. The Department recently split its Twitter account in two: @LAFD, which is reserved for fire and accident reports, and @LAFDTalk, which people can use to ask questions about fire extinguishers or whatever else fire-related is on their minds. Brian gave a terrific presentation at the Red Cross event about his work that can be found on C-SPAN’s website.

In the two-and-a-half minute video below, I asked Humphrey what he would tell other emergency responder agencies, which have not yet embraced social media in their work, ”I encourage agencies and people to jump in the water. That doesn’t mean enter head first. But get in the pool.” He urges a patient approach in which officials listen, absorb information initially. But he points out social media is a “force multiplier” for emergency agencies in distributing and gathering information. And he notes: “If it works in Los Angeles, it can work in your town too.”

Humphrey cites an example of social media’s usefulness in the wake of the stampede at Germany’s Love Parade at which 18 people died. He says that in similar types of events, LAFD uses social media to monitor the situation before it gets out of hand. He also urges the public to sign up for their local government text/email alerts, which offer an opportunity to get emergency information even before its delivered by the traditional media.

LAFD Public Information Officer Brian Humphrey discusses the use of social media and personal technology in the emergency services.

In the brief video (below), Fugate says FEMA wanted to make the site more focused on helping the public in answer the following questions: “How do I prepare? What do I do when a disaster strikes? And how do I recover?” So, that information is now front and center on the top of the front page of the website.

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate explains why the agency overhauled its website.

We shot the video in a kitchen of the American Red Cross’ Hall of Service across from the White House just after he had spoken to the Emergency Crisis Data Summit about how FEMA was integrating new technology tools, such as the new website, to help the public access and provide disaster information. I apologize for the quality of the video, though it is less shaky than the other one I shot and posted of Fugate that same day. I had not used the Flip camera in seven months and am out of practice.

A screenshot of the new FEMA.Gov website (Credit: TechPresident)

TechPresident also has a link of the previous FEMA.Gov site here if you want to compare.

NPM, sponsored by the Ready Campaign in partnership with Citizen Corps and the Ad Council, “is designed to encourage Americans to take simple steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses, and communities.”

So far, there are 2,807 Coalition Members, who will be organizing preparedness activities during the month, which surpasses last year’s 2,700 (though is still short of 2008’s 3,200).

According to Madden. there will be a couple areas of special emphasis this year.

First, there will be a special effort during the Month to get Americans to create an emergency communications plan for their family. In fact, FEMA head Craig Fugate told me in an interview last week that if citizens are going “to do one thing” this National Preparedness Month it is to develop a family plan — described on most emergency management websites. In order to help Americans do the emergency planning, Ready.Gov and the Ad Council are offering some online tools to create a printable comprehensive Family Emergency Plan and an email/text containing basic information that can be shared with others.

Madden said he also hopes the Americans will — if they have not already — check in with their workplaces and kids’ schools about their emergency plans. I mentioned to him that I thought the language in this area on Ready.Gov “Make A Plan” section was not strong enough:

You may [my italics] also want to inquire about emergency plans at places where your family spends time: work, daycare and school. If no plans exist, consider volunteering to help create one.

To me, if the government believes it is important for people to create an emergency plan both to help themselves and to make the job of first responders easier during a disaster then the web site should be willing to say something stronger than they “may also want to inquire.” (”should” would be preferable.) Madden said he agreed.

Another area of focus during the Month is to highlight the growing number of ways that Americans can access(and provide disaster preparedness, response and recovery information, particularly using new technologies such as the new mobile FEMA site, m.FEMA.gov. Madden says that going beyond National Preparedness Month, the Ready Campaign will be continuing to better “tailor” FEMA’s resources to the public’s needs with more platforms and interactivity.

For more information on NPM, click here. To check the NPM activity calendar or add your event, click here. For a NPM widget, click here.  To sign up as a NPM partner, click here.

National Weather Service has issued a Sever Thunder Storm warning for the District Of Columbia and Metropolitan area. Scattered showers & Thunderstorms will affect the Washington area until 745AM Thunderstorms will contain cloud to ground lighting along with Locally heavy rain hail size of quarters with damaging winds in excess of 60MPH Storm moving southwest at 25MPH

Though the participants do not need any more motivation, the weather will only underscore the need for this summit. You can follow and participate in the conference remotely. More information on doing so and the conference can be found in yesterday’s post. I will be writing about the event later in the day.

The Pakistan Crisis Wiki was created in 2005 by Pakistani native Sabahat Ashraf, a technical writer living in Silicon Valley, in response to an earthquake in the northern part of the country. He, along with a group of Pakistani bloggers (or “blaagers” as they call themselves) have kept the wiki up posting specific pages for other social issues (including human rights).

They recently created the Floods 2010 page with information on what is needed from the public in the relief effort. Ashraf also said that the Wiki can help local aid organizations inside Pakistan which do not always have significant web presences.

The Pakistan Crisis Wiki is a terrific example of the kind of technology application that is set up and ready in preparation for a disaster so people know where to go for information. It is very much along the lines of the CrisisWiki that NPR’s Andy Carvin and CrisisCommons have set up (I recommended to Ashraf he get in touch with Andy). And, I encourage you to check out the Floods 2010 Wiki page here.

A screenshot of a part of the Pakistan Crisis Wiki’s “Floods 2010″ page.

The article explains how a Twitter tweet led to the arrest of a man accused of exposing himself on the subway. The transit police chief said a passenger posted a picture on Twitter that led to the suspect. But it got to the authorities somewhat indirectly: yesterday, the Boston Herald reported they alerted the transit police — which is not yet on Twitter — to the tweets about the incident.

The transit police now plan to set up a Twitter account within a month. General manager Richard A. Davey said that although it is not a cure-all, technology can help law enforcement keep passengers safe and secure. “It is not in place of 911,’’ Davey said, “but if there are crimes and people report them, that helps us keep passengers safer.’’

Thanks to David Stephenson (@data4all) for bringing this story to my attention.

The post notes that Americans have been donating to Pakistan relief from their cell phones, by texting the word “SWAT” to the number 50555 as they did after the Haiti earthquake. The blog’s “Question of the Week” is what other new initiatives how the international community can help there and in future disasters.

It’s unclear whether this request will come up with any new “innovative” ideas that the State Department has not received through other channels, but it is good to see it reaching out directly to the public using the blog. If you would like to send in an idea to State, click here.

This afternoon, Ellis gave me an update on the effort:

“The response to #ThankACopThur was immediate and continues today. I sincerely have lost track of how many times #ThankACopThur has been RTd and shared with others in the Twitterverse. In addition to numerous tweets from tweeps in the United States, my friend @lawscomm told me that she has seen #ThankACopThur tweets from the Netherlands, Canada and the UK.”

Today, just after drill testing its 177 outdoor warning sirens, officials requested through Facebook and Twitter that residents tell them if they had heard or not heard it. On Facebook (below) they received a “fail” from one resident.

Below is the Twitter tweet:

They received two positive confirmations (below).

I think this a terrific use of Facebook and Twitter by emergency managers to get instant public feedback. Johnson County Assistant Director Adam Crowe told me by e-mail that it has also has helped improve the relationship between the office and the community:

“In the past we have always struggled with getting feedback from the community-at-large in a constructive format. Typically, we only heard from citizens who were extremely upset about the timing or location of our siren testing, while now it has become more of a partnership with the community to know when, why, and how our emergency preparedness program works.”

According to the Red Cross news release:

Safe and Well is a secure and easy-to-use online tool that allows people inside a disaster-affected area to list themselves as “safe and well” and for loved ones to search for these messages. Launched in 2006, the redesigned site now allows people to customize messages for loved ones and update their Facebook and Twitter statuses right from the site. In addition, a new mobile version of the site will make it easy for people to register or search from a smart phone.

Linking Safe and Well to Facebook and Twitter is an important step for the site and those who use it. In a recent Red Cross online survey, nearly half of all respondents said they would use social media sites to let their loved ones know they are safe in an emergency. Facebook was the most popular choice, named by 86 percent of those who would use social media to reassure their loved ones. Now, the Red Cross makes it easy to register on Safe and Well, and at the same time, participate in social media.

There are several ways to register on or search the Safe and Well site. From a computer, visit www.redcross.org and click on the “List Yourself or Search Registrants” link under “How to Get Help.” From a smart phone, visit www.redcross.org/safeandwell and click on the “List Yourself as Safe and Well” or “Search for friends and family” link. From any phone, call 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767) and one of our operators can help you register.

A video on Safe and Well can be found here.

The Red Cross’ “Find Shelter” is a new tool that pulls information from the National Shelter System and allows people to view a Google map of open Red Cross shelter locations and search for shelters closest to their location.

To access shelter information, visit www.redcross.org and click on the “Find Shelter” link. Shelters that are currently open will be displayed on the map or in the search results. The National Shelter System is owned and operated by the Red Cross and used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), state and local governments, and other community agencies to track and report shelter information.

So, it’s not surprising that the agencies are developing a special social media response team comprised of teenagers to assist the state’s efforts in dealing with disasters. Tentatively called the Colorado Social Media All-Hazards Response Team (COSmart), it will aim to create a cadre of high school and college age citizens to assist the state in better integrating social networking and other new personal technologies into disaster preparedness and response.

It is part of Colorado’s aggressive effort to involve youths in preparedness activities, including training programs and internships. The state sees the response team as a way to provide a platform for young people to offer their ideas on emergency readiness and tap their technological expertise, according to READYColorado’s Brandon Williams.

Williams told me that he hopes the team members will serve as “eyes and ears” in the community on disaster preparedness before and during emergency situations, helping to collect and disseminate information between citizens and the authorities and creating situational awareness with social media and other communications tools.

He says the program is still in the developmental phase. But what I like about this idea is that it addresses an aspect of the emergency management community’s challenge in figuring out how best to take advantage of the potential of new personal technology in disasters. A major question is how to institutionalize a relationship in advance with citizen users that can be tapped during emergency situations. One way to do so is to reach out to the civilians beforehand — similar to pre-positioning supplies before an emergency — and this Colorado initiative could be an important model of how do so.

Plus, it utilizes the unique knowledge of young people in social media and engages them in preparedness on their own terms. I look forward to following the initiative as it develops. Thanks to Eric Holdeman (via Garry Briese) where I first heard about this idea.

That’s because the Service is now soliciting public input on its draft Strategic Plan using an online system along the lines of the last year’s National Dialogue on the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review (QHSR). At the online NWS Strategic Plan feedback webpage, users can submit ideas, discuss and vote on others’ suggestions, and “the best ideas bubble up to the top.

The strategic plan will provide the framework for guiding NWS activities over the next ten years. In an introductory letter, NWS Assistant Administrator Jack Hayes writes:

…population growth, vulnerable infrastructure, and an increasingly interdependent economy are creating new challenges for the Nation – including increased vulnerabilities to weather and climate. At the same time, science and technology are rapidly advancing and providing potential solutions that will enable the National Weather Service to better meet our country’s needs. This strategic plan is our best effort to anticipate service needs in the 2020 time frame, project what science and technology will allow, and establish meaningful outcome-oriented goals and objectives for NWS 2020.

To participate, click here. The public comment period ends on September 7th.

“Alert issued 7/23/10 at 8:20 PM. The National Weather Service has issued a Tornado Warning until 9:00 PM for Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the Bronx. Immediately go indoors and/or to the lowest floor of your building for shelter. Stay away from windows.”

Though thunderstorms had been predicted, a tornado warning — along with the urgent and specific instructions — was a bit of a surprise. I am sure I was not the only New York apartment dweller receiving a NotifyNYC alert that was a little perplexed what to do. Should we all actually be going to the lobby of our buildings? Should we be warning our neighbors (who aren’t signed up for the City’s alerts) to do so as well?

I happened to be watching television — “Friday Night Lights,” appropriately it turned out, as thunder was flashing through the Gotham sky. The local affiliate, WNBC-TV, cut into the show to announce the tornado warning. The meteorologist did not recommend any of the preventive actions mentioned in the NotifyNYC alert, though a scroll on the screen was suggesting that the safest place to be in a tornado was a basement, closet or hallway.

It was an example of how e-mail/text alerts can effectively relay immediate information directly to citizens no matter where they are. (And that people should be signing up for these free notifications.) But only a relatively small percentage of New Yorkers are enrolled (approximately 45,000 subscribers) so Friday night there was an information gap between those who receive the alerts and those who get their emergency information from the news media.

‘Friday night lights’ over Manhattan but no tornado (photo by Richard Caplan/WNBC)

Friday evening when the National Weather Service issued the tornado alert, the City’s Office of Emergency Management (NYC-OEM) faced an interesting (and new) communications policy question: should it send out the information (and the safety instructions) in a limited alert format to subscribers, which were going to come as an out of the blue surprise to us? (Tornado response may be second nature in the Midwest but not in Manhattan.). It would also mean that subscribers were going to know more than about it than the rest of the public.

I think they made the right decision to distribute the alert. However, the City also needs to make sure that whatever emergency information it is sending out through the e-mail/text NotifyNYC system that the same message is being communicated through the news media, which is still the main information medium for most of the public. Friday night, the messaging was not totally aligned.

It turned out that a tornado did not end up touching down in the Big Apple Friday night. But I thought this was an interesting case study of how government is disseminatjng emergency news to the public with its new tools. In fact, I would recommend the City’s OEM highlight this example publicly as a reason why more people should sign up for these alerts so they have the most updated information in a potential crisis situation.

The article, “How CrisisCommons Is Helping The Tech Community Help Others,” by Geoff Livingston offers an excellent review of the work thus far and analysis of why it has been so successful so quickly:

The CrisisCongress took place last week in Washington, DC. The event, a convening of more than 80 tech-savvy leaders from five countries, aimed to create social media-based solutions to help communities facing disasters like the recent Haiti and Chile earthquakes…

CrisisCommons has inspired a huge swath of people from various global communities to come together to help. Whether it’s a hardcore coder building the Oil Reporter mobile app, a member of the Ushahidi team, or a social media communicator, people with different skill sets connect and work without any personal agenda to achieve solutions that make a difference…

Within a year, CrisisCommons launched and built a dedicated community spanning 10 countries. Almost all of the original networking began online via social media tools, migrated to CrisisCamps, and eventually the Congress itself. According to Gael Musquet, charge d etudes, Departement Amenagement du Territoire in France, the reason the Camps were able to enjoy so much far-reaching success so quickly was that they were structured in a way where everyone could emulate everyone else, and learn from each other’s successes.

“It is based on the power of the Internet to show what we are doing, and how we are doing that,” he said. “That helps people to reproduce the methods of groups who have succeeded, and realize the same things in different cultures with the different languages. For me, things like wikis and Twitter represent the power of the Internet.”

The challenge now is continuing to sustain and expand on the early success:

CrisisCommons is also looking to learn from past mistakes and experiences. “In many ways we’re preparing for the next Haiti simply by learning how to organize these events and hosting them again and again,” said [Andy] Carvin. “Meanwhile, some of our projects have disaster preparedness in mind as well as disaster response. For example, our CrisisWiki.org project is designed so that anyone can add disaster-related resources to the wiki at any time … Then, if there’s a disaster nearby, it’s easy to pull together the resources, because many of them have already been curated there.”

However, the future holds some challenges for CrisisCommons. The hardest part is moving from survival to sustainability, said Berrent: “CrisisCommons will have to look beyond the next crisis and into their own three to five year future. [The] structure around building community chapters, working with international governments, and creating sustainable revenue models are serious endeavors…”

The full Mashable article can be found here.