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Read. Understand. Apply.
The Warn Room blogs apply 70 years of research to the practice of alerts and warnings. We show how evidence-based changes to message content, style, and structure can create more effective warnings.
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Thoughts on Cancelling the Missing Person Message
A few weeks ago, we wrote about "what makes a good missing person message?" and why an "all clear message" is so important. In this...

Jeannette Sutton
Feb 10


Evacuation Orders are used for Floods too
We like to highlight good messages and this Evacuation Order for flooding hits most of the marks. Issued by the Sonoma County Sheriff's...

Jeannette Sutton
Feb 7


Let's talk about Missing Person alerts
From my perspective as a scholar who studies alerts and warnings, the thing about missing person alerts that really stands out is that...

Jeannette Sutton
Jan 28


Message personalization - what does that mean for a WEA?
At the Warn Room, we frequently hear about the need to issue "targeted and personalized" messages. This is primarily in reference to...

Jeannette Sutton
Jan 16


Winter Weather Alerts: a comparison of 3 messages
Wireless Emergency Alerts for weather events generally fall into the domain of the National Weather Service (for a select set of hazards...

Jeannette Sutton
Jan 13


Improving Missing Person Messages
What makes a good missing person message? Should it be the same content as an alert? Should it follow the structure of warning message?...

Jeannette Sutton
Jan 7


A really good example of wildfire messaging for the #Franklin fire in CA
Whew, those Santa Ana winds that fall on Southern California can be brutal. When accompanied by fire weather and red flag conditions,...

Jeannette Sutton
Dec 19, 2024


All Clear Messaging...when it really matters
What is the significance of an "all clear" message? When is it right to send one? And what should it say? Academics have begun to do a...

Jeannette Sutton
Dec 16, 2024


Improving Missing Person Messages
UPDATE: In the case of this child, he was found dead in a body of water after the WEA was issued. Most of the Missing Person messages...

Jeannette Sutton
Nov 26, 2024


Flood Preparedness Messages
Some hazards have obvious early stages, where it is possible to issue messages that can help local residents and community members to...

Jeannette Sutton
Nov 11, 2024


Three missing persons, three inconsistent messages.
Messages for missing persons have the potential to motivate receivers to pay attention, look around, conduct a search, report known...

Jeannette Sutton
Nov 7, 2024


The Blue Alert that woke the entire state of Texas
This message got a LOT of unwanted attention on October 7, 2024 after it was issued to the entire state of Texas at 4:53am. Reading...

Jeannette Sutton
Nov 4, 2024


A tale of two CURFEW messages
Its time to talk a bit about jargon again... but this time in relation to CURFEW. Curfew is defined as: a regulation requiring people to...

Jeannette Sutton
Oct 31, 2024


BEES ATTACKING! Stay indoors until further notice.
For the past ten years, every time I have taught a class on crisis communication, I have asked my students to engage in an exercise where...

Jeannette Sutton
Oct 28, 2024


Incomplete messages put lives in danger
This past week, a catastrophic storm ripped through the Southeast US, leaving communities destroyed and more than 230 deaths (so far). ...

Jeannette Sutton
Oct 7, 2024


Why Jargon Is So Bad in a Warning Message
By most assessments, this would be considered a complete message. It includes the source, the hazard, the location, the guidance, and the...

Jeannette Sutton
Aug 14, 2024


Special event notifications
There are plenty of special events that occur every day, resulting in the need for specialized notifications for populations engaging in...

Jeannette Sutton
Aug 12, 2024


Improving an incomplete wildfire warning message
I write a lot about wildfire warnings; I do so because they honestly stand out as being some of the most frequently incomplete and...

Jeannette Sutton
Aug 9, 2024


What about those road closure messages...
Every once and a while, we take a peek at the types of messages that a state or jurisdiction is sending to the public and find something...

Jeannette Sutton
Aug 8, 2024


All Clear Messages and Active Shooters
All clear messages are designed to do one thing: let people know that the event has concluded and they are safe to return or resume...

Jeannette Sutton
Aug 6, 2024
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