Frozen Iguanas, Winter Storm Alerts, WEA Messaging & Emergency Communication Best Practices

In this episode of the Alerting Authority Podcast, Jeannette Sutton and Eddie Bertola discuss winter storm alerts, Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), and real-world emergency communication examples from across the United States. From the 2022 Buffalo blizzard to recent extreme cold warnings, the hosts analyze how local emergency managers used alert origination software, warning templates, and public safety messaging to keep communities informed.

The episode highlights best practices for emergency alerts, the importance of layered communication, and how agencies can improve preparedness through message templates, training, and planning. Learn how alerting authorities can better serve vulnerable populations, provide shelter information, and use WEA, social media, and local partnerships to deliver life-saving information.

Sponsored by HQE Systems — providing next-generation outdoor warning sirens, indoor notification systems, and alert origination software controlled from one platform.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Hi, I'm Jeanette Sutton, and I'm Eddie Bertola. And we welcome you to another episode of the Alerting Authority. And as always, we encourage you to subscribe, follow, listen, and most importantly, participate in these podcasts. We want your questions, concerns, ideas, problems, pain points, and most importantly, your success stories so that we as alerting authorities can better do our jobs and make our communities safer.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

And we want to continue to thank HQE Systems as a great sponsor of this program. They are making it possible for us to be able to talk to you about all the different stories and ideas that you guys have or that we see. So if you have questions, if you have pain points about your own alert origination software, please reach out to HQE Systems. They have the latest generation of outdoor warning sirens, indoor notifications, electronic mass notifications, and you control it all from one app. So thank you, HQE. Okay. So Jeanette, we did winter 1.0.

SPEAKER_03 1:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

For those that are not aware or you have not been outside at one point over this winter, it's been cold. It's felt cold for me. How is it where you are?

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Oh well, let's see. This morning um at 5 a.m. when my spouse was outside, it was negative eight. And presently it is hang on, I think it's about four degrees. It's four degrees in Clifton Park, New York.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Okay, so yeah, um I've said before, I'm made for palm trees versus versus snow. Um, I do like it. I think it's beautiful, but wow, that is it can be pretty cold. And yeah, it's just cold. Uh I don't know how you guys survive up there. And for those that live up there, bravo. You are tough.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

You know, when we moved here um almost six years ago, and we moved from Kentucky, and that that it was cold in Kentucky too. Um, we had a couple of feet of snow um in the winter and it shut down the city in Lexington. Um, and when we moved here, we realized it was even colder. And um, we learned pretty quickly that having heated um gloves and vests and uh and jackets and such is a real uh it really saves you when you want to go outside. And um, you know, a lot of people will say it's not bad weather, it's bad clothes. And that's true, but it's it's it's um a real project to collect all of the clothes that are gonna keep you warm.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

So what you're saying is it's good to be prepared, essentially.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

It is, and you have to also remember to plug in all of your batteries before you go out, uh, because they do they do uh uh power down pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Yeah, I guess so. Now, on a side note, you were also in Florida recently, right?

SPEAKER_01 3:08

I was. Yeah, so we yeah, we went to Florida last weekend to escape the cold, and the cold followed us. It was so cold that um they they were gonna get down into the 30s and which is really, really cold for Florida. But I I recall uh when before we got there that I had seen messages that have gone out by broadcasters in Florida for this phenomenon that Florida experiences of frozen iguanas. And when I heard it was gonna be in the 30s in Miami, it was my goal to go out and find these frozen iguanas.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Well, because for those that don't know, Jeanette um uh is a bird. She likes going and looking at birds too, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:01

I do. I uh yeah, we love birds. Uh we look it this is a great place to see migrating birds because they come up through the north northern flyway over New York. Um, but I'd never seen flying iguanas before.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

Okay. I saw reports on the news um from where I am, and I I thought, okay, that's I've interesting. I've never heard that, I've never seen that. Um, and then I think you texted me a picture while you were there of an iguana on the ground. And I'm like, no way. Uh this is real.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Yeah, we we went out for a walk on the path along the beach, and we found eight iguanas that were paralyzed by the cold, and they literally had fallen out of the trees, some onto the sidewalk, some onto softer surfaces, but some of them fell where they landed like a cat on their four legs, and others fell so they landed on their backs. Um, they're completely immobilized. Um, you know, they may be alert enough to recognize what's going on around them, but they cannot escape from you if you try to touch them or pick them up. And there were a lot of iguanas that were picked up, not by us, not interested in holding an iguana. But um, because they're an invasive species in Florida, um, the Florida wildlife people actually sent um the public out to help them to collect these iguanas and to remove them from public spaces and to um remove them from the planet.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Yes. Invasive species, so they were they were captured. I think I saw reports of up to 8,000 of them.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Yeah, yeah. I learned that there's a company that is that goes out and traps them also, just like what you would do for rodents and squirrels in your attic, and but they do this for iguanas in Florida. It's a business.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

And I I think I think it's important to note, um, we or at least I were not advocating for like a new iguana alert uh across the wireless emergency alert system or EAS. So we don't need any anything like that. Um I think they it was on social media, it was on the news, um, neighborhood stuff.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

So yeah. Yeah. It's it is just uh such an interesting regional phenomenon that uh you would find these giant lizardy things falling out of the trees. It's Florida. I mean Florida's got a lot of really unique characteristics, and uh frozen iguanas is one of them.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Absolutely. So yeah, Florida, and I mean if it hit any other parts of that, you know, southeastern area, um, I'll include you too. But interesting, just little tidbit, um, something that I had not learned, and you got to experience firsthand. So we have the birds, iguanas, and yeah, everything else, which it all leads to our winter weather part two. And um again, for me, some of the ones that I'm gonna bring to you and show you and talk to you about, um, this isn't to point fingers and say, hey, you shouldn't have. I say, if anything, I just want to highlight those that that did something. Because even where I was, and we had a podcast not too long ago where we talked about Judge Nutt out in Arkansas, and and there's always gonna be you know room for improvement, but I mean, there's just been it's fun to see effort, and it's fun to see that. I did a little more research on that, reached out to some community members. They were happy, they were good, they they enjoyed that level of communication. Um, and again, they saw some of the things that didn't go necessarily right, but overall, very happy.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Um Calhoun County residents were happy with Judge Floyd Nuts outreach through Weth. That's great to hear. Uh every community is a little bit different, and knowing what your community members want and need, uh, you know, that's the value of using a local, a local plan.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Um, and so to start it off, I'd love to highlight um, you know, years ago, and it's I say years ago, not too many years ago, um, I'd say the Northeast, you know, it gets cold anyway. But in 2022, I mean, there were there were some pretty significant winter storms that happened. And and there were people that lost their lives. It was, I mean, absolutely significant. And there weren't um any, you know, wireless emergency alerts specific to that area or those areas that went out. And I know it was a a huge, a tragedy uh learning or lesson, I guess, that people have learned. And I wanted to highlight one just to start off, if you're ready to go, um, from Buffalo that went out. And let me go ahead and share my screen and then I will read it to you, everybody.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Yeah, I remember that blizzard, the Buffalo blizzard um in 2022. It was it made the news across New York and across the US. It was really, really bad where the the snow came and it went for 24 hours. And it was lake effects snow, and it was really, really deep and really, really cold and like white out conditions. And there were people who were out in it and they lost their lives. And a lot of people asked, why wasn't there an alert? Why didn't a WIA go out? And would that have stopped people from being out on the roads walking to work? Um you know, there are a lot of questions that are unanswered, but now we see evidence that they are using the wireless emergency alert system and issuing messages. So that is a great thing.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

I think it's super good. Now, I'm not from the area and I don't live next to a lake. Um, so for lake effect, um, and you can correct me, I've I've tried to read up on this, and essentially it's cold air coming in that hits the the warmer air of the body of water of whatever it is, and that just creates more snow. Is that correct? Or it amplifies things.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Boy, I'm not a meteorologist, but I know we're gonna get comments, and that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Like if you want to explain, explain it. I've tried to Google it. Um but lake effects amplifies.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Uh yeah, I I believe that you are largely correct. This is why I always have meteorologists on my research team at the university because they help me to understand all these different weather phenomena. And yeah, um uh it's it is a a phenomenon that happens along the lake shore, dropping a lot of snow right in Buffalo. Um, in particular, it gets hit a lot. Um, and then the lake bands uh actually can continue across the state, which is another thing that you get alerts for lake bands or lake effect lake bands of lake effect snow uh moving across the state. It's just uh this it's a northeastern thing. Um and yeah, anyways, go ahead. Let's look at the message.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

We're gonna grab a meteorologist at some point to come and help us understand it because if it's language that is being used out there, I always love to learn more about it. Um and so we have okay, big storms that have happened. And now I'm not saying this was the level of 2022 at all, but it's still something that is cold and can impact communities. Buffalo sent out an alert. And and again, I am going on a limb here, but I'm gonna say I am pretty positive they also use their local media that they were putting out messages to social media. They may have done an opt-in type system, all of those things. And we talk about layers of alert, and that's wonderful. We want to get information out. Wireless emergency alert when they send it out. Um, I believe it's the FCC has said it can it reaches 98% of households, right? There's at least nine, there's 98% of households have a Wii A capable device in them. Um, and again, I'm I'm not saying it's in English, Spanish, or any other language, but just the message. So here's the message that went out. So this was January 24th. It's um there was a 90 and a 360, and kudos to them. They didn't use the 90 as the title, right? Which we've seen in different ones. The 90 is separate. The 90 says Buffalo EM, winter storm, all in caps, and hazardous travel through Monday. Void travel check media. Okay, so we have the 90, and then we'll go to the 360. And again, grateful they didn't just cut and paste, which we've seen uh many times. It says City of Buffalo Emergency Management. A severe winter storm, again, capitalized, is expected tomorrow a.m. through Monday in the city of Buffalo with heavy snow, bitter cold, and hazardous travel. And then those cool capitals, right? Avoid unnecessary travel, prepare emergency kits, charge devices, secure outdoor items, and monitor official alerts. What are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 14:00

I think the City of Buffalo Emergency Management did a really nice job with these messages. Um, and we're speaking only to the contents of the message and not to any uh, you know, how bad it ended up being, how the public might have experienced the storm, but purely based upon the messages themselves. I like that both of them include the message source and they've selected um a shortened source for the 90 character. They said Buffalo EM versus the City of Buffalo Emergency Management for the 360. That's an important decision to make as you're figuring out how are you going to write these shorter messages because you can't include the full name in a short message, otherwise, you've eaten up all your characters. I like that they are using capital letters to call attention to specific things. So severe winter storm for the 360 versus winter storm for the 90. I like that they've capitalized the key protective actions that they're most concerned about. Avoid travel for the 90 and avoid unnecessary travel for the 360. I like that they've given specifics about the timing. So from the time that the alert was issued through Monday, so people know that it's happening over a long period of time. And uh I yeah, it's it's good. There are some things that can be added and improved, but this is a good message that gets at um the key issues, the the primary contents that we would say are necessary from all of our research that's been um conducted using the warning response model, it hits the the key issues.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Yeah, and eye tracking. I know you guys worked on that. When I look at both of these messages, if I just was glancing and I only had the 90 character, I I love what they did where I look at it and I see winter storm avoid travel. Okay. Those are the big things. And in my mind, that makes sense. For the 360, if I get that, it's severe winter storm, avoid unnecessary travel. Um, I can read everything else, but that's kind of an immediate gist, okay, this is what's happening. Um But I mean, again, you guys used eye tracking research, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:35

We did. We we compared how people um look at messages that have caps and don't have caps. And for the messages that have capitalized words, what we find is that um the eyes, as you're looking at a message, um, it doesn't spend a lot of time on the all caps messages. In fact, it just kind of skims over it. But when you ask people afterwards, what do they recall, even though they didn't stop and look at those words, they were remembered, which is really showing this cool connection between this thing that stands out and our brains and our our ability to recall information really quickly that's that's important. And but also the use of caps as a as a user design helps to break up the text a bit and makes it easier to read. I have wondered, and I would love to talk to somebody who does the text-to-voice. How how does all caps translate into text-to-voice for people who have sight impairments? Um, so that would be a question that I have. But in terms of making it easier for people who are sighted and can read, this definitely improves things.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

I again, this is why the research exists, right? And I just want to be careful too. We're not advocating to use all caps all the time. It's a distinction, right? It's something that separates between the use of I would say normal and then all caps.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

Yeah, yeah. You know, something else that I really like about the 360 character message is the additional instructions about preparedness, prepare emergency kits, charge devices, secure outdoor items. And, you know, uh, we recently talked with um Vance Taylor, who is with Cal OES's Office of Um Access and Functional Needs. And the importance of charging up devices in the possibility that this the winter storm knocks out power, it cannot be understated. And importantly, I think when we think about charging devices, we're usually thinking about devices like our phones, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

But people who have durable medical equipment that power um and charging up devices or having additional external batteries for their devices, it is vital to life safety. So including that additional information is really important. I wish that they would have added a URL to link people to additional information. That's the one thing I think could have really helped. Um, monitoring official alerts, where do you go to find that information? You know, it doesn't give you the direct access to their official information.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

No, I think it's interesting you talk about powering devices. The the wheel, his wheelchair, as he talked about that, that stood in my uh it just I'm thinking about it more now because like you talked about chargers and absolutely agree. Um, a URL or some type of uh location people can go to gather more info would be great. But again, props to them, and this was done before the emergency happened.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:00

So really giving people and people are gonna say, hey, you know, well, it was done in the evening time the day before. Okay. You there's still time. Um you still have an opportunity. Um, so I I appreciate um this type of one anyway. So this is Buffalo. So that's great. Are you ready to see a different one?

SPEAKER_03 20:20

I am.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

Okay. Let me zoom in just to see. I don't know if you can see this. Let me keep going and going and zooming, and I guess I'm being a little sarcastic because the only one, and this is a picture of the northeastern United States for that same time period. And the time period, again, was for about seven days, where I essentially gathered all the alerts that went out. Um, and the only one that went out was the one that we just talked about.

SPEAKER_03 20:56

This is New York, uh-huh. New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and even Pennsylvania.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

And yeah, there's nothing else out there. We had some really cold days, and we had a lot of snow, and some places had a lot of ice that could have been really devastating for taking out power. In fact, it probably did. I can't even remember. It seems like we've had so many cold days now. But yeah, that is the only wireless emergency alert that went out in the northeast over that period of time that would be characterized, I think, as winter storm fern, if you were look listening to the weather channel, um, but as extreme cold temperatures for that uh seven day period um that hit us at the end of January.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

And again, whether states, because you know, this incorporates a lot of states, if if they have plans that they use or don't, or however it is, I just want to make sure that all the local entities and local governments understand that in conjunction with the National Weather Service, who puts out advisories and information, that you at the local level are such a key component. And I hope you would feel empowered to create specific messages, reach out to your local community with your local knowledge so that people in your community can have the information. And I would say, again, work with all the different partners at the different levels. But just remember, you as a local emergency manager, as a local alerting authority, you have a big responsibility as well.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

You know, it's funny, I think moving to the Northeast, being in upstate New York, well, some people might not say, might say I'm not upstate, upstate because I'm just north of Albany. But um for moving here, um Yeah, there's a there's a sense that some people in the Northeast think of themselves as being very hardy and weather resistant, and talk about winter weather as it's just part of winter. Similarly to those who live in the southwest and uh experience real really severe heat conditions in the summertime, and they say it's just summer. You know, just get used to it, get over it. But the winters and the summers are getting colder and hotter and more extreme. And honestly, I don't know that everyone who lives in upstate New York or across the Northeast understands what these conditions can really bring. I think about when we first moved to this area, um, and we were totally unfamiliar. We needed that additional information. You know, when we just started having this conversation about lake effect snow, I mean, how do you even understand it? How do you describe it if somebody doesn't share with you that information? Um, and we can say that we're relying on people to watch their local news, the broadcast meteorologists who do a great job explaining these weather phenomena. But we have so few people are actually paying attention to local news now. So relying on people to educate themselves about these weather conditions and weather impacts, um, you are asking the public to do a lot of additional um searching to understand. And of course, we should expect that people are going to take care of themselves. Of course, we expect and should expect that people um have some resiliency and can rely on themselves. Um, but if it if it means that people are at risk, that their lives are at risk, then it means that we need to go this a step beyond and give people that information that can help them to survive these extreme conditions. Um even when we think that they should already know. Yeah, I think we've had several people that we've interviewed for the podcast, um, you know, Pete Gaynor, Craig Fugate, who said that they would much rather be um criticized for giving too much information than for not giving enough. And in their words applied to these winter storms, I think that there's room for more messaging.

SPEAKER_00 25:53

Well, and and I think when we message, we're messaging for everybody, but we're really trying to message for those that aren't prepared. It's trying to give them that warning. Um and like you you talked about, you know, power outages, things that can happen. And that's why, you know, we advocate, you know, have a weather radio, um, have multiple ways to get information. You know, when your cell phone dies, if you are out of power for multiple days, um, things can go from, hey, we're okay to we really need some help and look for, you know, get some direction from your local area. Um, so a hundred percent just I I would hope that you guys at the local level, state level, whichever level you're at, um feel that responsibility, but empowered to start communicating with your um communities in in many different ways. And this is obviously just one way.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

Yeah, using all the channels, not just wireless and regency alerts.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

Um, yeah. And you know, if if you weren't prepared to send a message and that's the reason nothing went out, we would love to help you with that. In fact, um I wanted to make sure that people are aware that the Warren Room has created a new service for alerting authorities called the Warning Boot Camp. And the task and the objective of this one-week boot camp, two hours a day, virtually in a small group online, um, is to get those messages written, where you will be given the tools and the templates and additional exercises to help you to be to create standardized approaches to your messages and get your templates written. Um, it is an opportunity to uh put aside the time, your very valuable, very limited time, in a setting where you get immediate feedback from me and from your peers and get your templates written so that you are prepared to send them when you need to. I'm really excited. Our first cohort will be March 9th through the 13th. And if you are interested in signing up for the warning bootcamp, please go to thewarnroom.com and um check it out.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

And from the practitioner level, that is incredibly important because you do not want to have to try and create that alert in the moment that you need it. Right. Even you could be like, hey, I understand, I've read this, I've been to the training. That's all great. But there's something just extra, I don't know, assuring or or that just helps you be prepared if you have those templates that are approved, that you know, leadership at multiple levels has looked at, that they are like, yes, we feel confident with this. If you have that base structure, it is going to make your efforts that much more effective. You are going to be faster. And again, that level of confidence that everybody has in what's happening is, in my opinion, going to go up. Um, you don't want that extra stress.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

Yeah, I'm really excited about it. And when people get to see the learning management software that we have had built for the purpose of this class and the software that allows them to help to generate messages and the exercises that we're building, um, it is going to be a fantastic, fantastic course that people will be really happy that they've taken.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

Agreed. And so I just have two more quick ones, and we don't have to go that in depth in them, but we we talked about Buffalo, shared a lot of the other states, um, didn't send one. And again, I just want to highlight a couple's a couple counties in different parts of the country that did. So first let's go to Okay, we're going back to Missouri.

SPEAKER_03 29:52

Great.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

And pronounce this county. Anyone, I know I'm gonna say it wrong and people are gonna comment. So I hope you do let me know how to say it. Um is it Gasconade? Gasconade.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

It looks like Gasconade, kind of like lemonade, but gasconade, but I don't know. I it's probably wrong.

SPEAKER_00 30:15

So we'll say that county, right?

SPEAKER_01 30:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

And please let us know. Um, because it was the emergency managers who who sent this and we're we're glad they did. Their 90 character message was um Gasconade County winter weather warning for extreme cold over the next days. Your 360 is Gasconade County Winter Weather Warning for Extreme Cold and Snowfall. Shelter in place, daytime warming shelters are, and this is where we talk about local, right? Because if you are outside this area, you may not know where these places are, but local. So um, daytime warning shelters are Rosebud 911, um, Owensville and Herman Libraries, First Baptist Church, Walmart and Senior Centers, Herman City Hall was because there was a period. Herman City Hall provides shelter for your pets. Police and fire departments have been provided blankets and cots, shelter in place.

SPEAKER_03 31:19

I this is a really useful localized message.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

Um, you know, for those who need to know where to go. Um this is great information. Uh, you know, that and I also like that they're partnering with so many different kinds of organizations in this. So Gasconade, gosh, I hope that's the right way to say it. Um, they have they've done their outreach and their partnering beforehand so that they know that they can send people to a 911 call center, to the libraries, to a church, even working with Walmart, local Walmart and senior centers in City Hall. Um, you know, that's it's it's great to see this variety, and there's a lot of places that people could go to get warm. Um, and I also like seeing that the police and fire departments have blankets and cots for people. Um, it's kind of a feel-good message in a time that's very, very cold in so many ways, um, and really useful for people at the local level.

SPEAKER_00 32:26

Yeah, I get that. Like, hey, guys, we're gonna get through this. We know it's cold. Um, for those that aren't are not familiar with the area, we started with Buffalo, New York. High, I mean, dense population, you know, big city, great city, right? And and we come here, this is a very rural part of the country. I mean, you have a population density that is nothing like Buffalo. And so you you have all these locations that you can let your communities know, hey, go here. And as Jeanette said, great example of a local type of alert. Now we can go into all the little things of, hey, they could have done, you know, X, Y, and Z. But again, what separates them from a lot of the other places in Missouri, in the Midwest, and others, is they actually sent out an alert. So I'd say kudos to them. Um again, we're not touching on all the different ways that communication's going out, because we we do know that there was communication sent to again the news network, social media, and and jurisdictions were using those methods and layers, which is wonderful. This was just an example of a local area that used a federal tool to make sure that again, 98% of the homes in their jurisdiction at least saw the basics here.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

So I just have one more for you.

SPEAKER_03 33:57

That's great.

SPEAKER_02 33:59

Okay, and this one we're going to South Carolina.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

What do you say?

SPEAKER_01 34:06

I said South Carolina. I tried to pretend that I had an accent.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

Oh. Well, again, you lived in Kentucky. I think. And as a it's it could be literally a whole other podcast, folks, of Jeanette trying to tell me how to pronounce Louisville.

SPEAKER_03 34:24

Louisville.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

Okay. We have online when we have just talked or we've we've met in person. She has tried. Um, and then when I got there, I realized there are so many ways to say it, but you say it correctly. It's okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

It's like you have a marshmallow in your mouth. Um anyone anyone who went to IAEM saw that sign in the convention center about the five different ways to pronounce Louisville. However, you want to pronounce it, Eddie.

SPEAKER_00 34:58

So I apologize to everybody that I have offended on the call for not saying that one correctly or your area. Please let me know and I will try to go back and fix it. That one was just one where I I I swear Jeanette took, I don't know how much time and she's like, no, it's this. No, I I practiced. And I I still totally messed it up. Um, so we're back, we're in South Carolina. Again, beautiful, beautiful part of the country. Um and this is again, two messages went out. I highlighted this one because they did something that I don't see very often. Um, and I would say this could be the first time I've seen it in a Wii A they used a URL, right? Like a lot of other people, but they used two URLs. Um, they used one in the 90, which um the 90 has shelter info, then it has a URL, and then it says urgent needs line opens at 4 p.m. So then they give a separate phone number. So if there's an urgent need. Now it doesn't necessarily name what's happening or anything else, um, but at least they're they're putting out some communication lines. The 360, again, it doesn't list, hey, this is for a winter storm or a tornado, or it doesn't necessarily say, but the thing that it does that I just wanted to chat about in the way they give information is it says six shelters are now open in Spartanburg County, shelter locations and information, and then it gives a link of where you can find all those things. Then it says vulnerable person point of distribution begins today at 4 p.m. And then it gives a here and then it gives another URL. Must, this one was interesting. I know we've talked about this, and it this has to be a very local thing, but it says must display handicapped designation to receive food or water. An unmet needs hotline, and then it gives a phone number. Opens at 4 p.m. for non-emergent storm-related issues. Um, so obviously there there has to be more, right, in the local community that than I'm assuming, right? And people will say, well, don't assume. I have about I presume that the locals understand. But what are your thoughts when you see elements of this?

SPEAKER_01 37:28

It's a lot of information. My first I have a couple of questions. Um from friends who have received wireless emergency alerts. I think one of the challenges that they have is that the alerts in some cases do not remain visible on the screen for very long. If it swipes away, it's gone or it's hard to find. So um the use of a in this case for both for all three of the URLs, they are tiny URLs, which means that it's not easily remembered. Um, and would you it would be very difficult to find that if you swiped away the message. Um so that would be actually a question for you, Eddie, or for those who are aware of the ways that Wii as now show up on the phones. Do they stay? Can you find them?

SPEAKER_00 38:28

Yes, you can. And I will say it, it it there's some differences in how to do that. I know for me, I do have an iPhone. Um, and I know if I am in my lock screen, or if I am just if I'm not in a particular app, and I have a swipe feature enabled where I just swipe down from the top, and it will show me all of my notifications and messages, and I can actually go through and find that again. Now, do I think everybody knows that? No, I don't. Um, and I I think to your point, um when you let's say you click on a link there and you're like, wow, I have that information. Now I want to find something else. Um again, it says for let's go distribution points for the vulnerable person. Right? Well, you've already clicked on the first one. Do you know how to get the second one? I I guess to your point. And could it would it be better potentially to just have one location that has a landing point that can be easily remembered or understood that that then can take you to different places?

SPEAKER_01 39:35

Um Yeah, I it's it's a reason for organizations to have some sort of a a web page that can be updated, a branded web page, um, where as an event is unfolding, people can be directed to that location to get all of the updated information as it's coming out. I think it's also one of the reasons that organizations frequently point people back to X, Twitter, or their Facebook page, even though it's not the best strategy for getting critical information out there. It is easily updated by your PIO or social media monitoring person. Um, and because the account name is attached to that social media account, people can find it if they know how to navigate through the social media platforms. This is a real challenge when you're when you want to direct people to information to give them more than what's contained in a WIA, knowing how to do that so that people trust the link. Tiny URLs are not frequently trusted. Um but also in terms of the capability of the organization and the resources they have, creating those landing pages and keeping information updated. I know it's a it's a real strain on resources when you already have so many things that you're trying to do in the middle of a big event like this. It's a challenge.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

Yeah. And and again, there are things that obviously can improve on this, but just thank you and good job for trying and getting something out there. Um and I think again, like I just wanted to highlight those ones for our podcast today. Um, for those that um didn't let fear win, right? Um, and you're like, hey, I need to get something out to my community during those storms, thank you. Um if you're thinking to yourself, well, I didn't do a perfect message, okay, that's fine. Just build off of what you did. And then, you know, it again, please go to the war room, um, check out, you know, the alerting authority. It's whatever you can do to get better and just make it a continual progression. But don't stop like sending alerts or don't uh prevent yourself from sending alert because you're trying to get perfect the first time. Just get something out there.

SPEAKER_01 42:09

Yeah, for Spartanburg, you know, knowing that those centers were created and distribution points were available, and that would be really quite relieving, especially if you were in had unmet needs or urgent needs and you needed help. Knowing that they're looking out for you would be really um helpful and useful. So Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

And I guess today we after Vance's talk, and again, if if you hear Vance Taylor, this was one that we saw that I haven't seen very many of where it really had a focus on the vulnerable population, right? On those with access and functional needs. And so I appreciated that that call out and the focus from that community to help them.

SPEAKER_01 42:52

Yeah, I did too. I think it's it's really useful information. And one of the few messages that we saw during these winter storms. So, you know, there are things that we at the Alerting Authority are really interested in helping other alerting authorities to do more successfully. Um, we provide training. Uh, we can uh conduct audits of your existing messages, the messages that you've sent out, and give you some pointers on how to improve so that it meets the evidence-based um recommendations. We can help you to look across your templates and identify points where you can develop messaging that's more specific, more concrete, less jargon-filled, and address those concerns that your populations might have. Um, and we have um we can assist with policies and thinking through what channels to use, when, and how to utilize them in sequence or um in combination with one another, and thinking across all of the different policy issues that you might have. Um so please reach out to us. Uh, we are happy. To help, and that is what we're here for.

SPEAKER_00 44:02

100%. Thank you for listening today. Keep watching out for any iguanas in Florida if they ever fall in that cold weather. Um, but we're happy to be a partner with you in this. Um, this is the Alerting Authority, where every second has a story, and we're happy to help you share your story. So thank you for listening.