Emergency Mass Notification: Sirens / Tsunami Warning System Planning, engineering and implementation considerations for tone and voice warning sirens with a real case study of a mixed tone/voice tsunami warning system with satellite comm links. Presents community need and technical aspects of the story.  A pre-recorded, no cost, program is available now.     RATINGS: [CS] [CM] [TP] [EM] [PA]  Program Description Emergency Notification Systems (ENS) are a key tool for emergency management and public safety agencies and are being used in a number of different variations across the US and elsewhere. For example, when a Tornado Watch is issued by the National Weather Service, or a tornado is sighted nearby, the campus police at Agnes Scott College, near Atlanta, manually activate their tornado siren to warn students and local citizens of the possible disaster. More than 1.4 million automated telephone calls were made to citizens and businesses in the path of Hurricane Ike in September 2008 and continued to be made after the storm passed to alert them as to clean-up progress and status of critical infrastructure. In the wake of the April 16, 2007 campus shootings at Virginia Tech, Sacramento State University (CA) implemented an electronic Emergency Notification System which sends out text messages to cell phones and e-mail accounts of students, faculty and staff in the event of a significant incident on campus. The Tsunami Warning System (TWS) in the Pacific, comprised of 26 participating international Member States, has the functions of monitoring seismological and tidal stations throughout the Pacific Basin to evaluate potentially tsunamigenic earthquakes and disseminating tsunami warning information. The State of Washington has extended their warning capabilities to include an All Hazard Alert Broadcast warning siren system along its Pacific coastline to communicate with communities and citizens during tsunamis and other critical situations. Washington State’s emergency managers and first responders can now receive timely mission-critical information during a range of man-made and natural events, such as tsunamis, volcano eruptions, mudflows, floods, chemical spill emergencies and evacuation orders. A satellite-based communications backbone connects the public warning sirens directly with the Washington State Emergency Operations Center. State leaders now receive real-time data from remote monitoring stations and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). When an emergency occurs, the State can activate a single siren, a zone of sirens or all the state controlled sirens. Status monitoring capabilities help ensure that sirens will function when needed. This 30 minute LEAPS.TV program, a part of the Emergency Mass Notification series, will take a look at the public safety and engineering aspects of this system. [Recommend this LEAPS.TV program to a colleague.] Guest Bios John Schelling, Earthquake/Tsunami/Volcano Program Manager Washington Emergency Management Division John Schelling is the Earthquake/Tsunami Program Manager for the Washington State Emergency Management Division. He is responsible for managing seismic safety efforts in the state through the earthquake, tsunami, and volcano programs. He staffs the Seismic Safety Committee that is charged with providing policy recommendations to the Washington State Emergency Management Council on seismic risk reduction issues related to hazards presented by earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis. John also chairs the State/Local Tsunami Work Group, which is developing tsunami preparedness and mitigation efforts in tsunami hazard zones and is the Washington State Emergency Management Representative to the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program. John has an extensive background in local government with an emphasis on policy analysis, land use planning, and implementation of growth management strategies. He has served as the director of Planning and Community Development for the coastal community of Long Beach, Washington; senior planner for the City of SeaTac (Seattle/Tacoma), Washington; and principal planner for the City of Pinellas Park, Florida. John received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of West Florida and Master’s Degree from the University of South Florida. Kim Torp-Pedersen, Warning Systems Consultant Federal Signal Corporation Kim Torp-Pedersen is a warning systems consultant for the Alert & Notification Division of Federal Signal. Kim has partnered with the state of Washington to develop the AHAB Tsunami warning systems which provide early warning to the state’s coastal communities for a variety of hazards. He has also worked with the National Park Service to provide a warning and notification system for Mt. Rainier Park, especially for lahar events, which are mudslides high in water content and are a common after-effect of volcanoes. Downstream from Mt. Rainier, Pierce County has deployed additional lahar warning systems for local communities in the flow plain. Kim has worked with Federal Signal since 1996 provide alert and notification systems throughout Washington. These systems are installed in important locations such as school campuses and local community fire departments; and provide notification for floods, dam failures, high winds, hazmat events and more. Kim attended San Diego State University, where his emphasis was on cellular physiology; holds a General Class Amateur license; and serves on numerous emergency response organizations and technical committees. Moderator Bio Rick Cox, Consultant, Author, Table Top Exerciser Training Institute for Public Safety Rick Cox is a career veteran of the wireless industry with strong emphasis on cellular. Mr. Cox 's customer base has long included public sector agencies at the Federal, state, county and local levels with an emphasis on their communications in both normal and crisis situations, table top exercises and disaster recovery including fixed location communications and alternative/mobile communications. Rick is also a recognized expert in emergency notification technologies and is the co-author of Emergency Notification Systems: Technologies, Policies and Practices with George Molczan published in NENA 's Emergency Number Professional (ENP) Magazine. Rick is a member of the Citizen 's Emergency Response Team (CERT) where he applies skills acquired in the US Army for the benefit and enhanced safety of his community. Advisors   > Walter M. "Tommy" Thompson II, Technical Advisor         Special Projects Operations Officer, Memphis/Shelby County EMA   > Lloyd Moskowitz, Program Advisor         Director of 911 Communications, Gaston County Public Safety Background/Preparatory Reading Emergency Notification Systems: Technologies, Policies and Practices by George Molczan and Rick Cox. NENA Emergency Number Professional Magazine, January/February 2009. Emergency notification systems bring with them a host of issues regarding implementation, policies and procedures. As with other emergency and public safety systems, they should have built in redundancy, overflow and interoperability. http://leaps.tv/archive/ENPEmergencyNotification-Article.pdf Sponsored by This program is being made available at no charge to the law enforcement and public safety community thanks to the generous support of The Law Enforcement And Public Safety Channel.