Challenges of Diversity in Dealing with Emergency Response

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Emergency Notification Best Practices Lessons
Learned from Recent Disasters
Richard L. Knapp3n Global, Inc.
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About 3n

• Leader in mass notification systems since 2002
• Fast-growing global company with 800 customers
  in over 70 countries
• Serves corporate, healthcare, higher education,
  government markets
• True ACT-SaaSSM (Software-as-a-Service) solution
  with an active-active architecture no hardware
  or software required
• 100 focused on mass notification

www.3nonline.com
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Todays Agenda

• Part 1 (35 minutes)
• Best Practices for Emergency Communication
• Lessons Learned from Recent Events
• Virginia Tech
• Southern California Wildfires Malibu Canyon
  Fire
• Pandemic Flu Threats
• Role of Multi-Channel Notification in Emergency
  Communication
• Part 2 QA (10 minutes)

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Constant Reminders of Why We Prepare
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Emergency Communication Plan Essentials

• WHERE will you be when a crisis hits?
• WHO will you need to communicate with during and
  after the event?
• WHAT will you communicate?
• WHEN (and how often) will you communicate with
  them?
• HOW will you communicate with them?
• Will infrastructure be there?

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• Best Practices Understanding Levels of
  Emergencies

Level 1. Location-specific emergency handled
locally Level 2. Emergency affecting part of the
location and requiring outside assistance and
coordination Level 3. Widespread emergency
affecting the location and surrounding community
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
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Best Practices Decision-Making

• Decisions
• Is the incident an isolated situation?
• Should local assistance be called in?
• Who should be notified?
• Can people in transit be reached?
• Which forms of communication are sufficient?
  Which are optimal?

• Best Practices
• Decide how constituents can best be reached
• Bias towards action
• Be transparent
• Anticipate communication needs manage your
  scenarios
• Communicate in the clearest way for the recipient
• Use a multi-channel communication strategy
• Confirm receipt by constituents
• Stay in contact

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Best Practices Communication Planning

• Communication Planning
• Does our communication plan address what to say
  and how and when to say it?
• Who do we communicate with in what circumstances?
• Does our plan include provisions for how to
  communicate to audiences spread across geographic
  areas?
• Does our plan alert emergency responders?
• What are the triggering points?

• Best Practices
• Map messages for various emergency scenarios
• Pre-position messages
• Plan for a multi-channel communication approach,
  including broadcast capabilities to all phones,
  email addresses, text devices, instant messaging
  tools, and more

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Best Practices Communication Planning

• Crises evolve
• Communication plans must incorporate flexibility
• Need to change messages on the fly as situation
  changes
• Must deliver clear messages quickly to keep pace
  with the
  time-sensitive nature of a crisis
• Must maintain command and control of response
  personnel and the
  ability to call up additional resources quickly
• Communication plans must give recipient the
  ability to confirm receipt of a message
• Constituents must be reached, be able to
  comprehend the message,
  and be empowered to respond appropriately

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Best Practices Information Processing

• Best Practices
• Assume high stress levels for individuals and
  teams comprehension levels erode
• Keep messages simple and specific (3-3-30 rule)
• Word choice is critically important
• Speak in personal terms
• Be honest
• Do not underload or overload messages with
  information
• Plan for aggressive demands for information
• Expect critical analysis from the media and
  public

• Messaging
• What do we communicate? How do we say it?
• Are instructions clear and action-inspiring?
• Are instructions written from the perspective of
  the audience?

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Lessons Learned Virginia Tech
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Campus Emergencies Colleges and Universities

• Campus life cycles and commuter/resident aspect
  create specific communication challenges

Communicationlimitations
Size
Ability to blend in
Campus life cycles
Diversity
Open nature
Dedicated first-responders
Easyaccess
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Lessons Learned and Best Practices Virginia Tech

• Best Practices
• Orient towards action
• Anticipate communication needs
• Use a multi-channel communication strategy
• Contact people on multiple devices (voice and
  text), including those popular with students,
  such as text messaging
• Make sure communication mechanisms are fast,
  efficient, and easy to use in a crisis

• VT Decisions
• Assumption Incident was an isolated domestic
  situation, and the gunman was no longer on
  campus.
• There was no need to immediately notify everyone
  on campus as people were in transit and couldnt
  be reached.
• Students only notified via email
• Emergency messaging of faculty went to office
  phones
• Web server crashed in trying to send emails to
  36,000 students and staff
• Significant delays between first shooting and
  action

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Lessons Learned 2007 California Wildfires
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The 2007 Wildfires

• Overview
• 1,500 homes destroyed
• 500,000 acres burned
• 9 deaths
• 85 injuries including 61 firefighters

• Human Displacement
• 900,000 evacuees
• Temporary shelters created throughout Southern
  California
• Over 10,000 evacuees at Qualcomm Stadium alone
• Largest evacuation since the Civil War

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Malibu Canyon Fire

• October 2007 - Pepperdine Threatened
• Fire engulfed surrounding hills including faculty
  residences
• Flames and smoke caused closure of all major
  roadways leading to campus
• Buildings damaged directly bordering campus
• Flames came within 100 feet of some Pepperdine
  facilities

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Pepperdines Response Timeline

• Sunday October 21, 2007
• 618AM First fire alert message sent to
  Pepperdines EOC to assemble team
• 721AM First community fire alert and relocation
  instructions message sent to the
  Malibu campus community
• 748AM Second alert to relocate to campus shelter
  sent to the Malibu campus community
• 1038AM Briefing meeting notice sent to
  Pepperdines EOC
• 1151AM Status update message re-confirming
  shelter instructions and cancelling campus
  events sent to the Malibu campus community
• 242 PM Message sent to the Pepperdine community
  advising them to return to dorms and
  cancelling classes

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Lessons Learned Southern California 2007
Wildfires

• Communication is key. There is no way to predict
  what will happen in every crisis situation, so
  proactive and continuous communication is
  critical.
• Communicate across all devices
• Communicate with all of your audiences Your EOC
  Team, Your Constituents, Fire, Police, other
  agencies

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Lessons Learned Preparing for Pandemic
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Lessons Learned Preparing for Pandemic

• Key personnel may be unavailable
• 40 of workforce may be out during a pandemic.
• Who makes decisions if the CEO or key executives
  are absent?
• Organizations need to communicate with different
  demographics
• Workforces differ in geographic locations and
  economic resources and speak different
  languages.
• Stress negatively affects comprehension
• During a crisis, average reading levels drop four
  grade levels.
• Negative dominance - In times of stress it takes
  4 positive statements to balance 1 negative
  statement.

• Determining what to say and how to say it during
  a crisis produces mixed or erroneous messages.
• Messages may be too long, too short, or not
  address relevant issues.
• The wrong message can contribute to panic and
  confusion.
• Business reputations may suffer
• Poorly articulated or worded answers can affect
  an organization's survival post-pandemic.
• The perception that an organization behaved
  competently during a pandemic is key to
  recovery.

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When Minutes Matter Lessons Learned featuring
former FEMA director, Michael Brownwww.3nonline.c
om/webinars

• Recorded Webinars
• Books have been written, and hearings held -
  everyone has an opinion on the Hurricane Katrina
  crisis. Hear Michael Brown speak firsthand in
  this webinar about the meetings behind closed
  doors, emergency preparedness, making things work
  in a disaster, and technology's impact on
  business continuity.View recording.

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Mass Notification Solves Common Challenges

• Deliver localized message to each audience group
  by language, speaker, etc.
• Notify employees, colleagues, and others in
  minutes, not hoursno matter where they are
• Reach your audience on any device, including
  popular newer technologies such as text
  messaging, instant messaging, and cell phones

• Convene immediate briefings with emergency
  response teams
• Reduce miscommunications with accurate,
  consistent messages
• Improve communication effectiveness by
  eliminating any single point of failure
• Make sure everyone receives the message with
  persistent message delivery and two-way
  communications

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Emergency Notification System Criteria

• Ease of use for non-technical users in crisis
  situations
• Ability to reach all contact paths, including
  voice, email, native SMS (over SMPP and SMTP),
  IM, and more
• Most robust and reliable infrastructure and
  delivery model (ACT-SaaS) to ensure constant
  availability, universal access, and quick and
  guaranteed message delivery
• Ease of integration with existing systems
• Quick time to deploy
• Experience serving your market
• Reference See the Disaster Resource Guides
  2007-2008 article, Guide for Selecting an
  Emergency Communications System
• www.Disaster-Resource.com

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Emergency Notification System Criteria
SaaS delivery model is the most affordable,
reliable, and robust available.

• Noticeably faster performance
• Lowest total cost of ownership
• Significantly more scalable (Pooling resources)
• Dramatically shorter implementation times

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Emergency Notification System Criteria
A secure, reliable global infrastructure is
critical.

• Geo-dispersed, top-tier carrier-class facilities
  and network
• 24 x 7 x 365 availability
• No single points of failure
• Active-active configuration (no failover delays)
• End-to-end Oracle infrastructure

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www.3nonline.com/webinars

• Live 3n System Demo
• July 22, 2008
• Attend a live demonstration of the 3n mass
  notification system for a full walk-through of
  the 3n systems features and functionality.
  Includes live QA.Register now.

Or contact me directly.
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• Contact Information
• Richard L. Knapp
• richard.knapp_at_3nonline.com
• [phone]
• [phone]
• www.3nonline.com
• Also reference
• www.3nonline.com/webinars