Legacy sirens cannot provide information about the nature of an emergency and are incapable of delivering and updating messages containing the actions people should take to protect their lives. If the power and communication infrastructure fail, almost all siren systems will cease to operate. Maintenance also becomes a limiting issue and a barrier to reliability.
In areas where sirens are frequently tested, many people may either ignore the warning or stick to a one-size-fits-all emergency plan that could be equally dangerous or more hazardous than no plan at all.
In a recent report, the California State Auditor found that three key counties “…did not have complete, updated plans for alerting, evacuating and sheltering their residents before recent wildfires.” The audit also found that none of the counties had completed an assessment of their populations to determine community needs in an emergency.
Advances in public safety mass notification technology now enable emergency management officials to provide at-risk populations with geographically specific, audible voice warnings, notifications and actionable information. These systems are solar powered with battery backup and feature satellite connectivity to provide greater system effectiveness and reliability. Software applications are also available to issue geographically targeted alerts to cellphones.
These modern public safety mass notification systems are cloud-based, secure and can be remotely activated and controlled by authorized users via cellphones, tablets, desktops or laptops. Using integrated voice/siren installations, community leaders and emergency management officials can alert and deliver potentially lifesaving information to people in at-risk areas. Location-based mobile mass messaging to the cellphones of populations in imminent danger is also a critical capability of these advanced community safety solutions. This unified, multi-channel approach to emergency warning and public safety mass notification substantially increases the number of people who receive critical information before, during and after crisis situations.
Sophisticated acoustic modeling software allows today’s design engineers to predict and assess each community environment, identify potential problems and recommend integration and equipment choices tailored to a city’s or region’s unique needs and topography.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) found that warning message content is essential to successfully protecting the public. NIST determined that the most effective warning messages had the following elements:
- Name of the agency delivering the warning;
- Information on the hazard and danger;
- Description of the location and the risk of hazard;
- Instructions to evacuate or shelter in place;
- Updated guidance on what at-risk populations should do and when.
With disasters and other deadly events becoming increasingly frequent and endangering more communities, the necessity of delivering critical communications containing clear, concise warnings and actionable information over multiple channels simultaneously is more important than ever. Government officials tasked with keeping the public safe should forgo the risks of relying on decades-old systems given the vastly superior capabilities of today’s modern public safety emergency warning systems.
David Schnell is vice president of Genasys, a leading company for critical communications systems serving communities in the U.S. and abroad.
