HIGH-TECH EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SYSTEMS
by Doug Henderson
The disastrous Japanese earthquake/tsunami of March 11 drowned thousands of people – but the toll would have been far higher without the nation ‘comprehensive emergency notification system. Thanks to radio broadcasts, text messages, sirens, firemen’s door-to-door calls, and just plain instinct honed by years of disaster drills at school, people from towns and villages along the coast - Japan’s population is concentrated in an often narrow coastal plain – saved themselves by fleeing immediately fled to higher ground.
This article will review some key factors to consider when selecting a system. I will also note key limitations of these systems – some of the points that the system vendors often don’t highlight.
Limitations of Low-Tech Systems
Low-tech emergency notification systems, such as alarms, sirens, intercom systems, telephone calling trees, etc. all have serious limitations. Although calling trees are valuable for mass communications, they’re slow, subject to message error, and even complete breakdown from “missing links” or the failure of general voice communication systems. Alarms and sirens (used to communicate a facility evacuation or an emergency lockdown) are fast and can alert everyone who’s in a dangerous area; however, they’re poor in providing detailed information and ineffective outside of their audible range. Intercom systems are reasonably fast and can communicate detailed information, but are generally limited when providing information to people in multiple buildings. Nearly all low-tech systems are used for outbound messages, with a limited or non-existent ability to receive inbound calls (“two-way communications”).
High-Tech Systems to the Rescue!
High-tech emergency notification systems are automated mass notification systems that can deliver detailed messages rapidly and accurately to a wide range of communication devices, including phones (landline, cell, and satellite), computers (e-mail and instant messaging), PDAs, Blackberries, and others.
These high-tech systems combine speed, coverage and detail to a greater level than any low-tech systems. During emergency events, individual communication infrastructures often fail. The ability of high-tech systems to use multiple communication infrastructures offers another important advantage over their low-tech counterparts.
High-tech systems can also target special messages to individual groups, such as first responders only. Some of them have the capability to receive inbound calls. This feature is important during an emergency to confirm that key initial responders have received the message.
High-Tech Systems Limitations
In spite of these advantages, high-tech emergency notification systems do not offer a panacea. One area of concern lies in the fact that cell phones (the most common method of notification) might be turned off. Although communication with cell phones is available by voice mail or text-messaging, the system is vulnerable to a breakdown of the general voice communication infrastructure. .Particularly for larger businesses, the “call capacity,” – essentially the overall speed of the system – might be a serious limitation. To be effective, emergency information must be communicated immediately. Some of the more basic systems utilize only voice communications. Other important factors include ease-of-use and system cost
Businesses often encompass a very wide variety of environments. No single system can possibly be best for every environment and the importance of communication redundancies requires the use of multiple systems. Although there’s no such thing as a “perfect system,” the “best system’ should blend high-tech and low-tech systems. A good high-tech system, combined with adequate alarms and sirens appears to provide effective communications for all types of emergency events.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt that businesses need effective mass emergency communications Although this brief analysis is by no means all encompassing, it should provide a good start on the process of evaluating and selecting the most appropriate system(s).
Douglas M. Henderson is president of Disaster Management, Inc., 1531 SE Sunshine Ave., Port St. Lucie, FL 34952; telephone (772) 337-2985; cell (954) 465-4373; fax (772) 337-2740; e-mail [email protected]; Web site www.disastermgt.com.