OASIS Emergency Management TC

Fwd: [iaem-list] The Asia Tsunami and Hazard-Specific WarningSystems

  • 1.  Fwd: [iaem-list] The Asia Tsunami and Hazard-Specific WarningSystems

    Posted 12-28-2004 18:23
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    Subject: Fwd: [iaem-list] The Asia Tsunami and Hazard-Specific WarningSystems


    [TC Members -  Just summarizing a thought on this... - Art]
    
    >Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 23:33:43 -0800
    >To: International Association of Emergency Managers list <iaem-list@iaem.com>
    >From: Art Botterell <acb@incident.com>
    >Subject: [iaem-list] The Asia Tsunami and Hazard-Specific Warning Systems
    >
    >IAEM Discussion Group:
    >
    >Friends -
    >
    >I know many of us are focused on the humanitarian relief effort in 
    >the Indian Ocean Basin... and I certainly don't want to divert 
    >attention from those crucial tactical activities... but on a more 
    >strategic level, I wonder whether the current global media attention 
    >to the lack of tsunami warning there might be missing the point just 
    >a bit.
    >
    >The conventional story-line seems to be that people died 
    >unnecessarily because there was no tsunami warning system in the 
    >area affected by Sunday's events.  While that much seems certain, it 
    >occurs to me that there must have been a wide variety of other 
    >warning capabilities in place around the region... weather warning 
    >systems, fire alarms, radio systems, PA systems, community alarm 
    >bells, community word-of-mouth and so on.
    >
    >So is it possible that the real problem isn't that there wasn't a 
    >dedicated tsunami warning system, but rather that the existing 
    >public warning capabilities had become "stovepiped" so they could 
    >only be used by particular agencies for particular hazards... so 
    >that when an exceptional situation arose, there was simply no way to 
    >take advantage of those existing assets?
    >
    >Building and maintaining single-purpose warning systems is both 
    >inefficient and inflexible.  But to the extent that public warning 
    >is perceived as a subsidiary activity of hazard-specific disciplines 
    >(fire, military, health, etc.) instead of as a comprehensive 
    >all-hazard societal function, it seems that the over-specialization 
    >of warning systems will be a natural, if unintended, consequence.
    >
    >So maybe, instead of yielding to the knee-jerk impulse to build 
    >another stovepipe system specifically for tsunamis, the global 
    >emergency management community ought to be channeling investment 
    >toward an integrated, all-hazard approach to public warning.  We 
    >have the necessary technologies, including the OASIS Common Alerting 
    >Protocol as a global open standard for interconnecting warning 
    >systems.  What seems to be lacking is clear guidance to policymakers 
    >as to how the limited resources available can be leveraged more 
    >effectively.
    >
    >(Two disclaimers: first off, I'm not saying that there shouldn't be 
    >investment in tsunami detection and analysis: only that in this case 
    >we had the information and still weren't able to use it effectively. 
    >And second, I'm most emphatically NOT calling for a single 
    >magic-bullet warning technology... we all know there's no such 
    >thing, for both technical and sociological reasons.  What I'm 
    >talking about is an all-hazards approach to using all our full, 
    >marvelous array of available warning methods, both high-tech and 
    >low-, in a coordinated and effective way.)
    >
    >Just a thought...
    >
    >- Art
    >
    >--
    >Art Botterell
    >Emergency Information Systems Consultant
    >phone 707 750-1006
    >fax 877 546-6890
    >email acb@incident.com
    >
    >---
    


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