A quick and effective response to a developing urgent situation is the number one way to save lives and property. Disasters can strike like a tornado, fast and without warning. Even if there is plenty of warning ahead of time, such as an incoming hurricane or during a heightened security alert, communicating information effectively to the right people is still a challenging task.
Emergency notification systems form the cornerstone of saving lives during a crisis. Let's take a look at some real life examples of how communication can be performed to improve emergency management.
Case Studies In Emergency Management
Virginia Tech University took a proactive approach to emergency notification by implementing a multi-modal notification system, which includes the use of LED displays among other methods. The LED displays are a highly effective means to draw attention with audible alerts or color changes and can be seen from more than 100 feet away. Virginia Tech's decision to utilize LED notification displays was in part based on the fact that these displays were among the few functional communication devices in the Washington DC Metrorail system after the attacks of 9/11.
The city of Rochester upgraded their emergency notification system in order to better communicate with fire, police, EMT, and rescue personnel when calls were put in to 911. The old way of communicating was a paging system that required 167 separate phone calls to be made by hand. This required a good amount of manpower that could be employed to better use elsewhere while still having a relatively slow response rate.
The solution was to remove the need for staff to make all of these phone calls. An automated system was able to integrate voice, text message, and email capabilities to quickly send messages to personnel through multiple devices. In this way, response rates improved and busy signals were no longer a problem.
The Red Cross in Rochester used a similar approach to solve their problems. Their emergency notification system was programmed to send a recorded message to an entire database worth of contact numbers with the press of a single button. The recipient could even respond to the Red Cross with their availability right through their own keypad.
Keeping Tenants And Students Informed
When a disaster occurs, the first thing most people do is clog the airways and telephone lines with phone calls. When disaster response teams commandeer the use of telecommunications infrastructure, most people are left in the dark when it comes to getting information.
A skyscraper in Atlanta learned the hard way that they had a similar problem. During a disaster, the only method of mass communication was to ring the fire alarm. Hardly informative, a mass emergency notification system was put in place. This allowed emergency management personnel in the building to use a web portal to send messages in real time through text, email, web, and electronic placards. This effective system allowed all of the building's tenants to stay informed when a tornado unexpectedly struck Atlanta one March evening.
Campuses have used emergency notification systems to disseminate information about how to combat this year's H1N1 flu. Faculty, students, and staff were able to stay informed about potential outbreaks, dispel rumors and myths, offer tips to help prevent the spread of germs, and find out about a Mississippi university's vaccination options. A university will use the same multimedia approach by posting messages onto placards while sending them via text, email, and web alerts. When every minute counts in a crisis situation, effective emergency management saves lives.
Author Resource:
Author is a freelance writer. For more information on Emergency notification please visit http://www.inovasolutions.com/.Distributed by Content Crooner
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