Developing and Testing an Emergency Notification System for a County Emergency Management Agency
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David A Edwards
This study briefly reviews literature, news and reports dealing with emergency notification and then discusses lessons learned by way of observation during development and testing of an emergency notification system (ENS) for Maricopa County, Arizona prior to and during a county-wide, multi-agency functional exercise. This exercise, dealing with flood response, took place under the auspices of the Maricopa County Department of Emergency Management (MCDEM). MCDEM assumed responsibility during this exercise to test the functionality of a newly purchased commercial automated ENS, Communicator! NXT, made by Dialogic Communications Corporation, now PlantCML, and test its associated implementation. The exercise was designed to involve many different local agencies and as many as several dozen contacts per notification message tested. The study focuses on what can be learned outside of existing published literature about the development and testing of the ENS for activating emergency management personnel and achieving a common operating picture for all stakeholders. The study discusses a number of problems identified during the pre-exercise preparation period and during the exercise, as well as the resolution of these problems.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
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- Experimenting with GIS in Doing Damage Assessments: A Trial Run at Disaster City
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Articles in the same Issue
- Research Article
- Detection of Dangerous Materials and Illicit Objects in Cargoes and Baggage: Current Tools, Existing Problems and Possible Solutions
- Trust in Public Safety Answering Points: A Swedish National Survey in the Late Modern Network Society
- Crossing Paths: Trend Analysis and Policy Review of Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Safety
- Accidental Releases of Hazardous Materials and Relevance to Terrorist Threats at Industrial Facilities
- Importance of Uniformity in Local Emergency Management Agency Web Sites
- Centralization and Decentralization of Policy: The National Interest of Homeland Security
- Text Analysis of After Action Reports to Support Improved Emergency Response Planning
- A Social Vulnerability Index for Disaster Management
- The Role of Modeling in the Resilience of Cyberinfrastructure Systems and Preparedness for Cyber Intrusions
- From the McDonald Report to the Kelly Committees: The Government Research and Policy Making Process Connected to Oppositional Political Terrorism in Canada
- The Private Sector and the Role of Risk and Responsibility in Securing the Nation's Infrastructure
- Volunteer Fire Department Perceptions of ICS and NIMS
- Optimal Blends of History and Intelligence for Robust Antiterrorism Policy
- Is Better Nuclear Weapon Detection Capability Justified?
- Request and Response Processes for Department of Defense Support during Domestic Disasters
- Coping through a Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina
- The Current NIMS Implementation Behavior of United States Counties
- Public Support for the Department of Homeland Security
- Experimenting with GIS in Doing Damage Assessments: A Trial Run at Disaster City
- Delayed-Bang Approach Towards More Sustainable Critical Infrastructure Risk Management
- Mobilizing for International Disaster Relief: Comparing U.S. and EU Approaches to the 2010 Haiti Earthquake
- Committed to Protection? Partnerships in Critical Infrastructure Protection
- Mitigating Terror and Avoidance Behavior through the Risk Perception Matrix to Augment Resilience
- Cost-Benefit Analysis of Advanced Imaging Technology Full Body Scanners for Airline Passenger Security Screening
- Using Systemigrams in Problem Definition: A Case Study in Maritime Resilience for Homeland Security
- Understanding User Needs for Map Symbol Standards in Emergency Management
- Decisions in Disaster Recovery Operations: A Game Theoretic Perspective on Organization Cooperation
- Terrorism Preparedness and Exposure Reduction since 9/11: The Status of Public Readiness in the United States
- Social Media Analytics for Radical Opinion Mining in Hate Group Web Forums
- Bioterrorism and U.S. Domestic Preparedness: Bureaucratic Fragmentation and American Vulnerability
- Improved Situational Awareness in Emergency Management through Automated Data Analysis and Modeling
- Active Shooter on Campus: Evaluating Text and E-mail Warning Message Effectiveness
- Engineering the Incident Command and Multiagency Coordination Systems
- Developing and Testing an Emergency Notification System for a County Emergency Management Agency
- Use of an Emergency Notification System in a Multi-Agency Functional Emergency Exercise: Feedback from Participants
- Minimizing Safety and Health Impacts at Disaster Sites: the Need for Comprehensive Worker Safety and Health Training Based on an Analysis of National Disasters in the U.S.
- Book Review
- Review of The Feeling of Risk: New Perspectives on Risk Perception
- Review of Changing Climate, Changing Economy
- Review of Comparative Emergency Management: Examining Global and Regional Responses to Disasters
- Review of Science and Technology of Terrorism and Counterterrorism
- Review of The Shock of the News: Media Coverage and the Making of 9/11
- Review of Enhancing Disaster and Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Recovery through Evaluation
- Review of Establishing a Healthcare Emergency Response Coalition
- Review of Designing Resilience: Preparing for Extreme Events
- Review of Disaster Law
- Review of The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Civilization's Northern Future
- Review of Homeland Security: Best Practices for Local Government
- Review of Security and Emergency Planning for Water and Wastewater Utilities
- Review of Implementing the Incident Command System at the Institutional Level: A Handbook for Libraries, Archives, Museums, and Other Cultural Institutions
- Communication/News
- BioWatch and the Brown Cap
- A Continuity of Operations Planning Template: Translating Public Policy into an Effective Plan
- Shelter-in-Place and Evacuation Training for a Large Midwestern County
- New Report on Resilience
- Role of Pastors in Disasters Curriculum Development Project: Preparing Faith-Based Leaders to be Agents of Safety
- Opinion
- Interdiction Models and Homeland Security Risks
- Ethical Questions Surrounding Health Care Resource Allocations for the Strategic National Stockpile
- Food for Thought Approaching the 10th Anniversary of 9/11: A Conversation with John Odermatt