Slides for Bay area conference

1. A CASE STUDY:
MASS NOTIFICATION &
INCIDENT COMMUNICATION
IN THE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION
Bay Area Mass Notification Seminar | May 2019

2. 2
Agenda & Introductions
• Background
• Recent Events & Exercises
• Use Cases
• Maximizing Reach
• Lessons Learned, Best
Practices and
Recommendations Assistant Coordinator
Office of Emergency Management
Fairfax County, Virginia
NCR Regional Alert Program Administrator
@SulaymanBrown

3. 3
BACKGROUND

4. 4
Background – National Capital Region’s Alert Program
• National Capital Region includes 18 cities, counties
and Washington, DC
• Alert and warning program funded by DHS Urban
Area Security Initiative (UASI)
• Alert system integrates with CAD and dam systems
• System used for internal comms & public alerting
• Approximately 5.5 million contacts are in the system,
and more people can be reached via Wireless
Emergency Alert and Emergency Alert System
integration
• 3,000+ users have access to send notifications and
manage their system

5. 5
Background – Fairfax County Alerts
• 1.2 million residents
• Largest jurisdiction in Virginia
• Home to CIA, NGA, several Fortune 500 companies,
Dulles Airport
• Sent 16,792 notifications in 2018
• 12,169 internal, 4,623 public
• OEM staff of 18

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Background - Regional Profile
• Terrorism
• Complex coordinated attacks, active shooters, bomb threats
• See: 9/11 (2001), DC Sniper (2002), anthrax (2001)
• Severe Weather
• Winter storms, hurricanes, tornados, wind storms
• See: Snowzilla (2016), Ice-capade (2016), Derecho (2012),
Carmagaddon (2011), Snowmaggadon (2010), Snowpocolypse
(2009)
• Special Events
• First Amendment demonstrations, marches, foreign dignitary visits,
marathons, 5Ks, and numerous National Special Security Events
(e.g., Presidential Inauguration)
• Others
• Cyber attacks, power outages, earthquakes (see 2010 earthquake),
fires and more

7. 7
4/19: Tornados
+ 2 Tornado Warnings issued by NWS just a
week apart
+ Both confirmed touchdowns with damage
reported
+ Automated alerts were sent to subscribers
via text message, emails, phone calls.
April 26, 2019 – Great FallsApril 19, 2019 – Great Falls

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4/1/19: Electrical Fire in Bailey’s Crossroad High Rise Condos
+ 26 story building fire
+ 1,000 displaced residents
+ Water and electricity outage
+ Notifications sent internally for
staffing and Situation Reports, and
public alerts sent regarding event
updates

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3/31/19: Boil Water Advisory/Water Main Break

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3/28/19: Overturned tanker causes 13 hr delays

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5/2018: Centreville Fire
+ 13 townhomes damaged
+ Dozens of people displaced
+ Language barriers
+ Elderly population

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2/2/2017: Covanta Tire Factory Fire
+ Fire Department & OEM Coordination
+ Residents concerned about health issues
+ Residents complained they didn’t get alerts
+ “When in doubt, send it out”
+ FAQs
• https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/publicworks/recycling-
trash/frequently-asked-questions-about-covanta-fire

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6/18: Stanley Cup Celebration

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1/17: Presidential Inauguration

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Special Events (cont.)
+ Sporting events cause HUGE
crowds
+ Inaugurations (sometimes) don’t

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Missing Persons
+ Numerous cases of alerts and found
persons as a result of public
notifications
+ Mass phone calls used, in addition to
email, text, social media, etc.
+ Sent for cases of “missing and
endangered” even outside of the
Amber Alert requirements

17. 17
3/19: Northern Virginia Active Violent Mutual Aid Exercise

18. 18
4/18: NCR WEA TEST

19. 19
4/18: NCR WEA TEST

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WEA Test Findings
• 13 alerting authorities sent WEAs to population of over 5.5 million
• 71% public survey respondents said they received WEA
• About 82% internal stakeholders said they received WEA
• Public education was greatly enhanced
• There remains unknown factors for why some people did not get the message or
got it late
• Carriers do not provide any information about how many people the alerts were
sent to or if there were any issues or delays
• WEA is very powerful, however, not a silver bullet!

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WEA Video

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USE CASES

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Use Cases - Public
Public Alerts
• Traffic Disruptions
• Severe Weather
• Missing Persons
• School & Gov Closings/Delays
• Crime/Law Enforcement Alerts
• Gas Leaks/Other HazMat
• Utility Issue (Water, Power, 9-1-1)
• Dam/Levee Alerts
• Shelter and Evacuation Notices
• Special Needs Registry
• Public Health Advisories
Public Information
• Special Events
• Community Newsletters
• City/County Council Meetings
• Sports & Rec Announcements
• Elections Updates
• Tax Info & Reminders
• Recycling and Trash Info
• Planning & Zoning Info
• Public Auction Announcements
• Mosquito Spraying Info

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Residents and visitors easily opt-in to
event-based alerts by texting a
keyword to 888-777
Residents can text their zip code for
location-based alerts
Use Cases – Public (Cont.)

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Use Cases – Internal
Employee Safety & Continuity
• Delays/Closures
• Evacuation
• Shelter in Place
• Workplace safety announcements
• COOP and Life Safety drills
• IT and utility outages
Team Coordination
• Incident Notifications (PD, FD, etc.)
• CAD Notifications (automated)
• Team Callouts (SRT, S&R, etc.)
• Cross-jurisdiction Mutual Aid, Bomb Squad and
IMT coordination
• Overtime Announcements
• Situation Reports
• Meeting Reminders
• Property Damage Reports
• LOD Injured/Sick Officer Reports
• Response Vehicle/Equip Availability
• Unit Availability/Shortage Notice
• Hospital Transport & Equip Status

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Use Cases – Internal: Mutual Aid

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Use Cases – Internal: Regional Event Notifications via EB Private Network

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Use Cases – Internal: Regional Event Notifications via WebEOC integration

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Internal Use Case – Secure Chat
• Secure video chat is used by health officials to
monitor patients requirement to take tuberculosis
medicine in Fairfax County
• Other jurisdictions have expressed interest in EMS
telemedicine and responder collaboration

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MAXIMIZING REACH

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Emergency and Non-Emergency Alert Subscriptions

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Posting Alerts to the Web – Web Posting to Various Websites

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34. 34
Posting Alerts to Social Media
+ Post your notifications to social media
• Twitter
• Facebooks
• And more

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Posting Alerts to the Member Portal

36. 36
Posting Alerts to mobile apps

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Automated Weather Alerts

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Lessons Learned, Best Practices and
Recommendations

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Lessons Learned, Best Practices and Recommendations
+ Program Administration
• Leadership buy-in is key
• Promote the program as “official alerts” to build credibility
• Define regional policies, procures and mutual aid
• Host regular meetings and exercises
• Setup groups and integrations to automate regional information sharing
• Pool together resources and support contract
+ There is no silver bullet – use all options and methods to maximize reach
• Share notifications in as many ways as possible
– Text, email, phone call, app, WEA, social media, websites, RSS, etc.
• Continuously review new capabilities
• When in doubt, send it out
+ Routinely perform tests and drills
• Identifies strengths and opportunities for improvement
• Opportunity to evaluate new capabilities

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If you would like a copy of the slides, text
SULAYMAN to 888-777 and you'll get my
slides and a video about the WEA test
QUESTIONS
?