Community Warning System

Transcript Community Warning System

A partnership of industry, media and the public to warn and inform our community in the event of an emergency

An Integrated System for all Emergencies

Rev. July, 2006 LARGE FIRES In the event of a large fire, emergency crews can use the Community Warning System to communicate with each other, with the public, with county officials, and with members of the media to keep everyone informed.

CHEMICAL ACCIDENTS During a chemical accident, the Community Warning System is used to notify emergency centers throughout the county. The system simultaneously notifies emergency crews, the media and local schools and hospitals. Safety sirens near the accident site are also activated to immediately warn local residents to “Shelter, Shut & Listen.” EARTH QUAKES After an earthquake, the Community Warning System’s television, radio and media links can be used to provide residents with up-to-date local status reports regarding the availability of services, road conditions and resources throughout the county.

COMMUNITY WARNING SYSTEM Together, these make up an all-hazard Community Warning System. Sirens are activated in the event of a chemical accident; the digital and radio communication links tie our county’s emergency services together to form one of the most sophisticated safety systems in the United States.

Second Edition

The following Shelter-In-Place procedures are recommended as the best first response after the Safety Sirens are Sounded

Siren testing is scheduled for the first Wednesday of each month at 11:00 a.m.

Rev. July, 2006 Second Edition

Program History

1989

Non-profit Community Awareness Emergency Response (CAER) organization studies sirens installed at Dow Chemical plant.

1991

CAER gets industry financial support for telephone notification system to augment sirens.

1993

Accident at General Chemical in Richmond raises interest in an integrated Community Warning System (CWS)

1995

CAER awards contract for CWS development Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff

Program History

1998

CAER begins donation of CWS to County

2001

CWS transfer to County complete; operation assigned to Health Services

2003

Contract issues for expanded telephone emergency notification system (TENS)

2003

Operation of CWS moved to Office of the Sheriff Emergency Services Division for all-hazard use, with Health Services funding from hazardous material fees Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff

Current Capabilities

• 42 Sirens near major industrial facilities • Countywide telephone notification system • National Weather Radio • Emergency Alert System • Emergency Digital Information Service • Travelers Information Radio • Control terminals at key operations centers • Staff notification system Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff

Current Challenges

• Telephone alerting system reliability • Including business, wireless and network phones • Streamlining control system • Serving special-needs populations • Improving warning message effectiveness • Meeting all-hazard target capabilities Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff

All-Hazard Alerting

DHS “Target Capabilities List” (per HSPD-8):

Members of the public receive prompt, accurate and useful information regarding threats to their health, safety and property…

Performance Objectives: • Time from incident to public alert < 30 min • 90 percent of affected notified within 15 minutes Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff

Implications of All-Hazard Alerting

• Challenge to hazard-specific semantics: • E.g., what does a siren mean?

• Variety of public attitudes and experience • Multiplicity of alert sources and alert targets • Communicating uncertainty • Heightened need for corroboration as Contra Costa County messages become more unexpected… Sheriff

The Common Alerting Protocol

• An international standard data format (XML) for coordinating multiple alerting systems • Adopted by DHS, NOAA, USGS, California • Consistent message across all systems • Precise geographic targeting • Basic text plus multilingual and “rich media” Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff

CWS Target Architecture

NOAA HazCollect California EDIS XMPP “Chat” Server Mapserver Console CAP Server Report Generator Text To Speech TENS Controller Phones Results Weather Radio EAS Cable TV PPM Sirens Wireless TENS Engine CWS Interface Geocoding From 9 -1 -1 Data Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff

Other Projects

• Replacing telephone notification system • Additional sirens using CAP, wireless technology • Location-based alerting for wireless phones • Improved telephone alerting capability • New activation and coordination “console” • Alert Translation Devices • Contra Costa TV (cable) integration

Ongoing Activities

• Technical system monitoring and maintenance • Operator training and duty-officer support • 9-1-1 database geocoding • Public education and outreach • Industry and media liaison • Inter-agency coordination • Research and technology partnerships Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff