Summer fun at a state fair can get dangerous quickly when bad weather enters the area. In today's example, we see a series of messages; one issued to prevent injury and the second to return fair-goers to their fun at the midway. In early September, the Evergreen State Fair issued a geo-targeted warning to persons within the fairgrounds, alerting them to "go indoors now" and to "SHELTER IN PLACE until further notice." Lightning had been detected within 10 miles of the fairgr

All clear messages are an important part of the communication lifecycle for alerts and warnings. When an alert is issued, it opens up a "conversation" by telling people about a hazard, its impacts, the location of the impact, and what people should do to protect themselves. Ideally, if a person is at risk, they will engage in protective action and remain safe until they are instructed to do otherwise. This can come as an additional notification as the event is ongoing, or

For several years now, I've been pondering how to better name a hazard in a message that describes an active police incident. We know that not naming the hazard affects message understanding (a key outcome measured by scientists who study the effects of warning messages) and this relates directly to feelings of self-efficacy, that is, feeling like you can take the right action to protect yourself, leading to protective action. We studied this in response to a message for civ

A 360 character WEA about a missing person There's something really touching about this alert. It is missing almost all of the critical information that we know should be contained in any missing person alert. For instance, we don't know who issued the message, there is no description of the missing person, there is no license plate. We also don't know when she left Happy Camp and how long she had been gone. The entire message is written in CAPS and it contains no informatio

Wildfire alerts use jargon filled language. Use plain language to reach more people and communicate more effectively.

Have you heard of the acronym "FUBU?" It means "For Us By Us." It happens to be a brand name for clothing, but it also happens to represent the type of language that is commonly used within an organization to communicate complex ideas using shorthand. It's information created BY YOU for people LIKE YOU. You have to have insider knowledge to get the importance of the language and have education to understand the nuances of it's meaning. This reminds me of Gen Z language exp

Let's talk about AMBER Alerts. Again. It really is the alert type that pops up as one of the most problematic with public message receivers in terms of messaging and policy. The messages tend to lack actionable details and the timing at which they are sent is frequently questioned. In fact, these two issues, combined with the geographical scope of the alert itself, appear to contribute to the majority of people opting out of AMBER Alerts on their phones. Because the prob

Should we use a link in our emergency alerts? Will people click them? Are some more trustworthy than others? We have research to answer each of these questions. In 2019, WEA 2.0 made it possible for alerting authorities to include a URL to guide people to additional information. This was a huge win for the emergency management community! Until then, we were limited to shorter messages AND no way to offer additional information. Then, everything changed and it was suddenl

Coded language does not simplify a message, it makes it more complex. When it comes to communicating danger, we need to know what the danger is, why its a danger, and what we can do about it.

Are you prepared to issue a message for an unusual threat such as a dangerous animal? Every now and then we find a WEA that is sent for an unfamiliar hazard, such as a bear in a populated area, an aggressive moose, or a cat or skunk with rabies. They represent the kind of message that is urgent with potentially severe consequences, but they probably aren't part of most organizations' message libraries. Should they be? I don't think it's possible to have ALL threats in yo

During the month of March, states throughout the U.S. recognized severe weather awareness week by conducting tornado drills. These included Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan; in at least one state, the statewide tornado drill was cancelled (Missouri) and in other states these drills included local tests of the Wireless Emergency Alert system. We collected a bunch of the test messages and thought we’d go on a bit of a road show to see how they compare. Hop on board and l

Determining how to get a message to an evacuated population is a challenge; issuing a complete message can help to reduce message confusion.

A plain language missing person alert This is a really well-written alert. Let me show you have it conforms to the best guidance we have on how to write an actionable missing person alert. It begins with the source of the message: VBALERT. This is an acronym (it also appears like a branded alert name), however, at the end of the message we also see the organization clearly named. This is followed by the incident type (aka hazard from the Warning Response Model). The inci

An EBONY alert Recent research on effective Missing and Endangered Person (MEP) alerts has identified how to name the incident and how to structure a message to be most effective at helping message receivers to understand and respond to messages. When we consider MEP messages in relation to more general alerts and warnings, they follow the same structure as those warnings that are issued for all hazards. They should always contain the following CONTENTS: The name of the m

Required Weekly Test IPAWS users are required to regularly test their user proficiency by sending an alert that is issued to users who have opted in to receive them. This is also a great opportunity to demonstrate the type of test message that could be issued during a live test in a community - one that is announced ahead of time, organized with community members, and publicized by the media. These live tests have the added benefit, if done correctly, of growing system awar

Issuing alerts about warming centers should be easy to understand and accessible for all.

There are now more than 40 named alerts for missing and endangered persons across the United States. These messages are specific to individual states, and are commonly accompanied by state legislation to identify a vulnerable population that was not previously highlighted in missing persons messages. For instance, Arizona recently initiated the "Turquoise Alert" described this way : A Turquoise Alert program establishes a notification system that provides immediate informat

When we first began to study public responses to Wireless Emergency Alerts in 2012, we immediately saw significant issues with alerts that were limited to 90-characters. Study participants indicated that these messages could not contain enough information to act upon, so instead of leading them to protect themselves, it led to them to search for more information ( see Bean et al. 2016 ). Information search to confirm the message is trustworthy and requires action is commonl

Much of the time that I have written about language inconsistency and the use of jargon in messages, it has been focused on WILDFIRE. Many previous posts to the Warning Gallery have pointed to the use of operational and technical language (Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 or Ready status, Set status, Go status) that has more meaning to responders and commanders than to the public. In fact, we’ve published about the use of inconsistent language in the National Fire Protection A

Chemical fires are frightening. They represent a sort of "dread risk" that raises concerns about not only short term impacts but...