IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

OKStrong was put together efficiently, according to Oklahoma CIO Alex Pettit. "As with anything done in a crisis, you don't keep track of how much you're putting into it at the time because you're just doing what you need to get done," said Pettit. "All of the infrastructure was already available to us," he added, explaining that the website runs off the same framework as OK.gov, the state's main web portal.

According to the most recent Pew Internet Research survey, more than half of American adults own a smartphone. An American Red Cross survey published last summer showed that 25 percent of the public would download an emergency app in case of a bad weather event.

And the public sector has gotten the word. Many state and local and governments are developing mobile apps to connect residents with critical emergency-related information. While they take many forms, most try to customize information based on the risks inherent in their particular areas, and many also make key data available offline in the event that connectivity is jeopardized in an emergency situation.

At a recent conference, Henry, an epidemiologist with the Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department, had heard about Florida’s use of keywords in hospital emergency department (ED) reports. They were used to estimate the impacts of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti through Florida’s syndromic surveillance system, which collects data from various sources to detect disease trends by condition occurrence not just confirmed cases.

The company empowers citizens in various ways. Employees provide a forum for people to report issues like downed trees, blackouts and clogged storm drains, and they partner with local websites like the Huffington Post to embed reporting widgets in web pages, such as the one below.

Spencer, the former mayor of Denville, N.J., and now the digital and social media manager for Morris County, N.J., said she is pushing for more interaction between Web staff and emergency managers because they have a lot to learn from each other. It’s not enough to just throw up a Facebook page or create a Twitter account, she said. The disciplines of social media and emergency management need to cross-pollinate before disasters happen, not during those difficult periods.

"Our goal is to bring better information to firefighters," said Charlie Jacobson, a Princeton rising sophomore and volunteer firefighter who is part of the team. "And we need to provide this information quickly and intuitively."

Next-gen 911 networks expands upon traditional land line contact with law enforcement to provide an IP network for enhanced service, a technology that officials say will improve public safety. Tennessee officials believe the state is one of the first to begin the implementation phases for a statewide next-gen 911 network. Officials project the network will be complete in 2013.

The new computer-aided dispatch system, called the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP), eliminates the need for alarm monitoring companies to call the HEC about alarm notifications, according to HEC Director David Cutler.

When a security alarm in a home goes off, the alarm company is notified. At the company, a computer-aided dispatch event is created in the computer system, which directly transmits the alarm notification to police dispatchers. Previously when an alarm monitoring company’s call center received an alert of an alarm, a call taker at the center would call the HEC about the alarm, Cutler said.

Called Prepared.ly, the tool enables citizens to know the real-time risk of wildfire in their area and the steps they can take around the house to mitigate fire hazards. The application pulls data from the Texas Forest Service and National Weather Service specific to the location of a person’s home and allows users to share wildfire prevention tips.

Jones attended a recent two-day event, Awareness to Action: A Workshop on Motivating the Public
to Prepare, hosted by FEMA and the American Red Cross to discuss emergency preparedness messaging to citizens. We asked Jones about the workshop and preparedness in general duringa recent interview.

At the height of the storm, NYC’s 911 switchboard was receiving 20,000 calls an hour, many of which were not emergencies. The call volume led to slow response times and a lack of prioritization; there was no way to distinguish calls for downed tree branches from people in life-threatening situations. An important first step for future preparation is better educating citizens about what qualifies as a 911 call and what can be relegated to a non-emergency 311 call, an effort the city is undertaking now. NYC has been running a well-established 311 program for years now to provide a non-emergency line of communication to get faster responses from government agencies about smaller issues.

Within the next year or two, governors will need to decide if they want to join the federal government’s new nationwide public safety communications network. And although the decision may seem far away, now is the time to prepare.

The devastation and climbing death toll in the aftermath of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami last week is excruciating to comprehend. Entire communities and families were swept away by the floods. And while the scope of Japan's tragedy is extreme, it still gives reason for those in the U.S. and elsewhere to reassess disaster planning, including retrieving medical data.

The tsunami destroyed everything in its path, and while most Japanese healthcare providers still tend to keep medical information on paper, any health facility's computers would've been ruined last week, too.

Twitter is rolling out a new feature that will allow users to get emergency information directly from vetted, credible organizations. The system, called Twitter Alerts, will deliver tweets marked as an alert by approved organizations through the traditional timeline feed and via SMS to a user’s cellphone. In addition, users who have the Twitter app for iPhone or Android will receive a push notification with the alert information.

The new system was announced on Wednesday, Sept. 25, and mimics a similar feature that helps Japanese users find emergency Twitter accounts during times of crisis.

Called STORM -- System to Track, Organize, Record and Map -- the program was launched in 2011, and upgraded earlier this year to incorporate the city’s Department of Public Works’ damage assessment database, cutting down the time the department spends compiling an assessment report from three days to less than 24 hours.

There are over 11 million motor vehicle accidents on average in the United States per year, according to the most recent census data. In the unfortunate event you are involved in an accident and unable to communicate in an emergency situation, Utah.gov and the Utah Department of Public Safety Driver License Division have launched a new Emergency Contact Service. As part of Utah House Bill 21, passed in 2012 and sponsored by Representative Marie Poulson, the Emergency Contact Service allows citizens to indicate to law enforcement and emergency responders up to two designated persons to contact in case they are incapacitated on the scene.

“Keeping Utah citizens safe and protecting their needs is my top priority,” Utah Rep. Marie Poulson said, reported Business Wire. “Knowing who to contact in an emergency saves lives and provides comfort for loved ones. I was honored to sponsor such an important piece of legislation.”

The Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) launched the Ready Virginia mobile app earlier this month, featuring a variety of notification and planning amenities that can be used in the event of a flood, hurricane or other catastrophe.

"It allows a small number of doctors to triage a large number of patients," Will Jackson, medical director for Inova's Telemedicine Institute tells FierceMobileHealthcare.

That growth is reflected in the increasing number of higher education programs offering degrees or certificates in emergency management.

More than 180 emergency management programs dot the country’s higher education landscape, and approximately 100 more colleges and universities are investigating, proposing or developing some sort of hazard, disaster and emergency management program, according to background information provided for FEMA’s 13th Annual Emergency Management Higher Education Conference held in June.