Community Warning System Community Warning System A partnership of industry, media and the public to warn and inform our community in the event of an emergency
Dec 22, 2015
Community Warning SystemCommunity Warning System
A partnership of industry,
media and the public to warn
and inform our community
in the event of an emergency
Second EditionRev. July, 2006
An Integrated System for all Emergencies
LARGE FIRESIn the event of a large fire, emergency crews can use the Community Warning System to communicate with each other, with the public, with county officials, and with members of the media to keep everyone informed.
CHEMICAL ACCIDENTSDuring a chemical accident, the Community Warning System is used to notify emergency centers throughout the county. The system simultaneously notifies emergency crews, the media and local schools and hospitals. Safety sirens near the accident site are also activated to immediately warn local residents to “Shelter, Shut & Listen.”
EARTH QUAKESAfter an earthquake, the Community Warning System’s television, radio and media links can be used to provide residents with up-to-date local status reports regarding the availability of services, road conditions and resources throughout the county.
COMMUNITY WARNING SYSTEMTogether, these make up an all-hazard Community Warning System. Sirens are activated in the event of a chemical accident; the digital and radio communication links tie our county’s emergency services together to form one of the most sophisticated safety systems in the United States.
Second EditionRev. July, 2006
The following Shelter-In-Place procedures are recommended
as the best first response after the Safety Sirens are Sounded
Siren testing is scheduled for the first Wednesday of each month at 11:00 a.m. For more information about the “Shelter, shut & Listen” response, call (925) 313-9622
Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff
Program History1989 Non-profit Community Awareness Emergency
Response (CAER) organization studies sirens installed at Dow Chemical plant.
1991 CAER gets industry financial support for telephone notification system to augment sirens.
1993 Accident at General Chemical in Richmond raises interest in an integrated Community Warning System (CWS)
1995 CAER awards contract for CWS development
Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff
Program History1998 CAER begins donation of CWS to County
2001 CWS transfer to County complete; operation assigned to Health Services
2003 Contract issues for expanded telephone emergency notification system (TENS)
2003 Operation of CWS moved to Office of the Sheriff Emergency Services Division for all-hazard use, with Health Services funding from hazardous material fees
Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff
Current Capabilities•42 Sirens near major industrial facilities
•Countywide telephone notification system
•National Weather Radio
•Emergency Alert System
•Emergency Digital Information Service
•Travelers Information Radio
•Control terminals at key operations centers
•Staff notification system
Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff
Current Challenges•Telephone alerting system reliability
•Including business, wireless and network phones
•Streamlining control system
•Serving special-needs populations
•Improving warning message effectiveness
•Meeting all-hazard target capabilities
Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff
All-Hazard Alerting
DHS “Target Capabilities List” (per HSPD-8):
Members of the public receive prompt, accurate and useful information regarding threats to their health, safety and property…
Performance Objectives:
• Time from incident to public alert < 30 min
• 90 percent of affected notified within 15 minutes
Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff
Implications of All-Hazard Alerting• Challenge to hazard-specific semantics:
• E.g., what does a siren mean?
• Variety of public attitudes and experience
• Multiplicity of alert sources and alert targets
• Communicating uncertainty
• Heightened need for corroboration as messages become more unexpected…
Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff
The Common Alerting Protocol
• An international standard data format (XML) for coordinating multiple alerting systems
• Adopted by DHS, NOAA, USGS, California
• Consistent message across all systems
• Precise geographic targeting
• Basic text plus multilingual and “rich media”
Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff
CWS Target Architecture
CAP Server
Console
XMPP “Chat”
Server
Mapserver
Text To
Speech
TENS
ControllerTENS Engine
Wireless
Sirens
PPM
Cable TV
EAS
WeatherRadio
California
EDIS
NOAAHazCollect
ReportGenerator
CWS
Interface
Phones
Results
Geocoding
From 9-1-1 Data
Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff
Other Projects•Replacing telephone notification system
•Additional sirens using CAP, wireless technology
•Location-based alerting for wireless phones
•Improved telephone alerting capability
•New activation and coordination “console”
•Alert Translation Devices
•Contra Costa TV (cable) integration
Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff
Ongoing Activities•Technical system monitoring and
maintenance
•Operator training and duty-officer support
•9-1-1 database geocoding
•Public education and outreach
•Industry and media liaison
•Inter-agency coordination
•Research and technology partnerships
Contra Costa County Office of the Sheriff
Community Warning System
50 Glacier Drive
Martinez, California 94553
(925) 313-9622