• The Publisher’s Notebook •

Emergency Communication

BY ANNE SOBLE

Even though we should now be at the point where we step back and assess the community’s strengths and weaknesses during the recent wildfire, politicization is starting to rear its head and people are becoming defensive about their performance or participation (and that of others) throughout the days that followed the Black Sunday of the Canyon Fire. That there are contradictions and other misstatements may just reflect human nature, but the tendency toward denial or avoidance has no place when hundreds or more lives could be involved. Of greatest importance, the City of Malibu and the surrounding unincorporated areas that are intertwined by dint of physical access and other services must be able to communicate with all residents. The city has to take the lead. Other fiscal wants and needs should take a back seat until Malibu has an emergency response system that can assure virtually instantaneous communication. Pepperdine’s campus alert program might be one place to start looking at alternatives. Admittedly, a campus is a more homogenous and regimented environment, but the success with which students were contacted and organized speaks to the ability of the appropriate system to make a difference during a crisis. There are much more sophisticated mass notification systems both in operation and on the drawing board that can serve whole municipalities.

Even with a damaged or destroyed power-based communications infrastructure, there are mass notification systems that can reach out via land lines, cell phones, satellite phones, e-mail, faxes, pagers, SMS/text messaging, PDAs or any other handheld device that can function without power. The system can be designed to canvass for all operable communication paths. Any system should have off-site hosting and enough redundancy to account for every contingency. Thousands of people could be reachable instantly with accurate information, reducing panic and the kinds of mistakes that can spell tragedy on a small and large scale. Message receipts can be documented for risk assessment planning. But even a state-of-the-art system will find the Malibu area to be a communications challenge. Some areas will require specialized attention. There are difficult communications pockets in places one might not expect them. My satellite phone passed muster calling from the rain forests of South America, but can be limited in local canyon areas where trees and topography block a direct path skyward. Even though Mother Nature trumps technology every time, Malibu has to use every tool at its disposal to try to even the odds.