2012 - 2017 Bay Area Emergency Public Information and Warning Strategic Plan Bay Area UASI 711 Van Ness Avenue Suite 420 San Francisco, CA 94102 For Official Use Only Bay Area Emergency Public Information and Warning Strategic Plan ABSTRACT Establishing effective, fully integrated, and interoperable Emergency Public Information and Warning (EPI&W) systems involving organizational structures, personnel, plans, technology, training, and exercises that can unify multiple jurisdictions to address common hazards remains a challenge for the twelve Operational Areas (OAs) and three major cities in the Bay Area Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) region.1 The purpose of the Bay Area Emergency Public Information and Warning Strategic Plan (Strategy) is to outline the means by which the region’s twelve OAs and three major cities can come together and develop a comprehensive five-year regional plan to strengthen regional EPI&W capabilities. In doing so, each jurisdiction will maintain control over its own warning and emergency public information system while integrating that system into a larger regional “system of systems” to better manage multi-jurisdictional threats and hazards. The Strategy is based upon the results of a capability self-assessment and gap analysis. The assessment was premised on a series of questions divided among the five elements of the EPI&W capability: Plans, organization, equipment, training, and exercises. Each of the twelve counties and three major cities participated in the self-assessment through several half-day workshops led by an expert team of consultants, with local subject matter experts answering the questions. Each jurisdiction answered the questions individually, and this information was then rolled–up to form a regional gap analysis. The gap analysis shows that there is currently little formal or consistent regional coordination of EPI&W policy development and planning activities. The current patchwork of public warning systems among the OAs and other regional stakeholders causes great inconsistency in the type, content, and format of warnings received by the public. Almost all of the OAs’ warning tools must be activated one-by-one and do not support simultaneous activation using the OASIS Common Alerting Protocol (CAP). This inhibits integration of OA technology systems and creates otherwise avoidable delay, additional workload, and opportunities for error for warning originators. In the event of a regional incident, OAs and regional stakeholders face a variety of obstacles that, if not overcome, could delay or inhibit the formation of a joint information center (JIC) to provide coordinated emergency public information. Many OAs lack access to properly trained and qualified public information officers (PIOs) for surge or sustainment of JIC operations. Most OAs see the value of providing emergency public information via social media and make use of Twitter and Facebook accounts, among other social media tools. However, few OAs have a social media policy, and several are not using their social media 1 The 12 Operational Areas (OAs) in the Bay Area are Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, and Sonoma Counties. This assessment also included, as OAs, the major cities of San Jose and Oakland. San Francisco is both an OA and a city. ii For Official Use Only Abstract Bay Area Emergency Public Information and Warning Strategic Plan accounts or monitoring social media to determine whether information is being used by the public as intended by the issuer. Finally, public education on warning systems is limited across the region. While there are preparedness campaigns focused on being “ready” for an incident, there is little in the way of explaining the warning methods used in an OA, what those methods mean, and what protective actions should be taken when a warning is issued. To close these and other identified gaps, the region has developed four goals and nineteen objectives to be implemented over the next five years: Goal 1: Establish Consistent Practices and Organizational Structures For Emergency Public Information and Warning Objective 1.1 Establish a Bay Area emergency public information and warning framework as a baseline agreement for inter-agency and regional cooperation and coordination. Objective 1.2 Develop regional policy and program structures and assign a regional program manager for emergency public information and warning initiatives, and programs. Objective 1.3 Develop a process for joint regional procurement of future emergency public information and warning tools, and effective methods for sustaining current public information and warning capabilities. Objective 1.4 Increase the capability to work with partner organizations in order to reach people with access and functional needs, and limited English proficiency. Goal 2: Strengthen Regional Planning and Operational Coordination For Emergency Public Information and Warning Objective 2.1 Enhance local and regional plans for joint information center (JIC) operations, and develop network-based “virtual” JIC support. Objective 2.2 Develop policy and guidance for social media use in EPI&W and formally integrate social media activities into response plans, including the establishment of community partnerships. Objective 2.3 Adopt protective actions for all potential Bay Area hazards and develop science-based warning message templates to communicate effective protective actions to the public. Objective 2.4 Provide timely and effective warning information to isolated populations in the Bay Area. Objective 2.5 Establish a regional operational support cell for effective public warning. Goal 3 Acquire Tools and Technology Necessary to Provide Emergency Public Information and Warnings Before, During, and After an Incident Objective 3.1 Integrate existing and future warning tools in the Bay Area. iii For Official Use Only Abstract Bay Area Emergency Public Information and Warning Strategic Plan Objective 3.2 Implement the Federal Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). Objective 3.3 Implement the Commercial Mobile Alerting System (CMAS). Goal 4 Develop and Provide Emergency Public Information and Warning Training, Education, and Exercise Programs Objective 4.1 Fully integrate public information and warning into regional training programs. Objective 4.2 Fully integrate public information and warning into regional exercise programs. Objective 4.3 Include representatives of the access and functional needs community in exercise planning and execution at the OA and regional levels. Objective 4.4 Increase training opportunities in social media use, and establish a regional platform to exchange best practices and develop regional awareness around existing social media capabilities. Objective 4.5 Train and educate elected and senior officials on advances in emergency public information and warning practice. Objective 4.6 Share and coordinate public warning system testing schedules. Objective 4.7 Develop regional public education for warning and protective actions. The regional EPI&W Program Manager called for in Goal 1, Objective 1.2, will have overall responsibility for managing and tracking execution and implementation of the Strategy. Each objective in the Strategy will serve as a project along with several implementing steps or tasks. The total estimated cost for implementing the Strategy over five years is approximately $2.5 million. The projects and implementing steps are based on a sequence of: 1. Getting properly organized as a region; 2. Having the appropriate plans and procedures in place; 3. Acquiring the appropriate technology and tools; and, 4. Testing and evaluating the plans, organization, and equipment through training and exercises. iv For Official Use Only Abstract Bay Area Emergency Public Information and Warning Strategic Plan TABLE OF CONTENTS Strategic Plan Summary ................................................................................................................................ 1 Section 1: Introduction and Background .................................................................................................... 20 1.1 Defining Emergency Public Information and Warning ...................................................................... 20 1.2 Bay Area Overview ............................................................................................................................. 22 1.3 Operational Areas .............................................................................................................................. 23 1.4 Bay Area UASI Management .............................................................................................................. 23 1.5 Bay Area Risk Profile .......................................................................................................................... 23 1.6 The Standardized Emergency Management System ......................................................................... 24 1.7 Emergency Public Information and Warning Standards and Tools ................................................... 26 Section 2: Purpose ...................................................................................................................................... 32 2.1 The Whole Community Approach ..................................................................................................... 32 2.2 Strategy Development Process .........................................................................................................