'Set' Status means what?

I have a question for alerting authorities. This includes every person or organization that is responsible for communicating with the people in their community when things start to go bad.

Here's my question: are you absolutely certain that the people who receive your messages know exactly what you mean when you say something like 'Set' Status for evacuation?

What level of confidence do you have that you've adequately prepared your community to understand that there are three status levels (ready, set, go) and that each status level is associated with a specific protective action?

If I gave you a scale, say 1-5, where 1 is "meh, maybe" and 5 is "hell yeah, we're ready to rock and roll," where would you fall?

And would others in your organization agree with your assessment?

If you have ANY doubt at all as you asked yourself these questions, I'd like to try to convince you to take a chance and use plain language in your messages.

We have done enough research on the use of plain language for warnings to know that you have to be exceedingly clear in order to reduce the delays people will take before acting. In a fast moving event, taking the time to look up unfamiliar words and what they mean can equal a late departure and increased risk.

Today's warnig gallery message was issued for a community that was at risk for a wildfire event. As you can see, there's a lot of information missing: the source (we have no idea who sent this message), the time (when were people told they're in 'set' status), and even the hazard (we know its for a wildfire, but only because we saw information that was not contained in this WEA). The only thing that is clearly present is the location.

The trickiest part, in my opinion, is the use of 'Set' status for evacuation.

If you are unfamiliar with this language of "ready, set, go" - it was designed in 2009 in California to help communities prepare for wildfire events. It later expanded nationally when the International Association of Fire Chiefs and federal agencies launched it as a nationwide model for preparedness. To get ready means to prepare your property to survive a wildfire event. To get set means to create a wildfire action plan by organizing and packing in advance of an alert to leave. Being ready to go means exiting your property in a timely manner.

When ready, set, go was adapted to a set of statuses, 'ready status,' 'set status,' and 'go status,' the preparedness program was turned into operational language linked to risk levels and actions. The plain language approach that is familiar to most people who have ever run a race was turned into a set of thresholds that means something, well, similar but not exactly the same. And that's a problem for anyone who isn't familiar with this operational jargon.

Now here's a kicker on this particular WEA that was issued: it actually included more information than what was visible in that 360-character message. But it would only be seen by a subset of the population: those with iPhones. The instructions field can contain up to 600 characters of additional information. And while some estimate that about 60% of U.S. phones are iPhones, the other 40% are not.

Here's what that instructions field contained for that message:

Instructions: The area south of Franklin Canyon to Icy Springs/Wohali Way is in SET status for possible evacuation from the Rocky Canyon Fire. Be prepared to leave at a moment's notice. This is NOT an evacuation order. Load your vehicle with your go bag and essentials. Please do not call 911 for updates. Continue to monitor for official information available at www.dsummitcounty.info/emergency and Utah Fire Info.

It's a lot of additional information that would be pretty useful to anyone who got that 'set' status message. It it's possible to include quite a bit of that detail in the remaining characters of the original message.

What should be done instead? Use plain language. Write a complete message. Add a URL. Include a link to additional information. Don't rely on people remembering your public education campaign or your jargon when there is a highly uncertain situation. Give them clear information that helps them to make a decision. Show them that you can be relied upon to provide that information, without using insider jargon. Your community will appreciate it.

For more information on how to write good messages, be sure to get the Warning Lexicon. And if you want to hear more about what shows up on a phone screen when you send a message, watch or listen to this latest podcast by the Alerting Authority.