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Makes you wonder how any of us survived tornadoes 10 years ago, doesn't it? Something to consider is that some people in most, if not all, campus buildings received some kind of notification. Each building should have an emergency response plan, and every MSU employee should know what that plan is. Part of the plan will depend on individuals taking personal responsibility for ensuring that everyone in their vicinity is notified of the emergency. I found out about the warning right away because someone told me, face-to-face, what was happening. The electronic notification systems did contact some people at different times. But I was not left to fend for myself. Whether the number of people reached by the emergency warning systems was too small or not, I'm not the one to judge. There will not be an electronic system that will reach 100% of the people on campus within seconds of an emergency announcement, at an affordable price, in the near future. We will also need to depend on ourselves and more importantly, each other. Even if it means talking to that less-than-uber geek in the office down the hall. I do believe that sharing the facts of how this emergency was communicated will help DPPS and the Risk Management people to assess the effectiveness of current systems. Sirens, SMS, and social media have moved us a long way towards a safer campus. But I need to remind myself that while my livelihood depends upon technology, my life depends upon other people as well. Gene On 4/6/2010 6:18 PM, Laurence Bates wrote: > > Could we have a little focus here? Emergency warning systems are > intended to save lives. They are measured by the percentage of people > who are warned in time to avoid an imminent threat, whether that is a > tornado, a fire, a rampant nut with an AK47 or whatever the danger > is. In this case the percentage of people who were warned of a > possible danger appears to have been too small, which indicates that > there is still work to be done. There will be many next times that > are false alarms but there will eventually be a next time that costs > lives and that is why we need to take this seriously. > > > > Laurence Bates > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > *From:* John B. Johnston [mailto:[log in to unmask]] > *Sent:* Tuesday, April 06, 2010 5:01 PM > *To:* [log in to unmask] > *Subject:* Re: [MSUNAG] Emergency Warning Anecdote > > > > I don't think that overall people find the system to be without any > merit. If you'll recall, this thread started with the intent of > providing constructive feedback on the system's performance. > Sometimes one cannot assess how well a system works until it is > tested. In this case, perhaps some re-evaluation is warranted? Just > sayin'. > > John B. Johnston > 505 Biochemistry Building > East Lansing, MI 48824 > > Phone: (517) 432-7177 > Email: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> > > "By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man's, I mean." (Mark Twain) > > > On 4/6/2010 4:44 PM, John Gorentz wrote: > > At 02:44 PM 4/6/2010, Laurence Bates wrote: > > I don't believe that it is ever the user's fault that they were not > notified > in a timely manner. A warning system that has any value whatsoever should > be timely, organized and comprehensive. This warning is a useful > event only > if we recognize that it would have been inadequate for any disaster rated > more serious than a milk shortage. > > > Strenuously disagree. The system still has much value even if it > isn't perfect, or even if it isn't nearly as good as it could be for a > reasonable expenditure of money. I would never want to have complete > confidence in a disaster warning system. If people put their > confidence in such a thing, we do them a good public service by > eroding that confidence. I want there to be a warning system, but > even if we fire all of the MSU professors and employees and invest the > money in a better disaster warning system instead, it will never be > perfect, or even good enough for people not to complain about it. > Such is life in the real world, where one tries to manage risks but > cannot eliminate them. > > (When I saw the warning in my e-mail, I checked wunderground.com and > saw that most of the action had already passed to the north of those > of us at the Kellogg Biological Station. I wasn't completely > surprised by the warning, because I had been told that there was a > possibility of high winds.) > > John Gorentz > > > Frankly this is a serious issue that > needs to be addressed so that confidence in MSU's emergency management > system is not eroded. At least 40,000 paying customers depend on it. > > Laurence Bates > > -----Original Message----- > From: Kwiatkowski, Nicholas [mailto:[log in to unmask]] > Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2010 2:15 PM > To: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> > Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] Emergency Warning Anecdote > > As with any disaster, please do not rely on personal communications as > your > sole source of information. These systems often break down in the case of > emergency. They are great as supplemental sources of information, and are > great additions to the sirens, fire-alarm enunciators and announcement > systems. > > If you have the inkling or think there may be a disaster, please tune into > the mass-media of your choice. All of the local television and radio > stations were identifying the tornado's location within 2 minutes of its > identification by the Grand Rapids NOAA station. Weather.com, Weather > Underground and the rest also had prominent displays on their sites > for what > the issue was. Additionally, the MSU Cable Television system but a > scrolling banner on each channel, along with WKAR's messages on many > of the > radios and music-on-holds on campus. > > If you do hear emergency information from a reliable source (Mass-media, > etc.), please pass it on those near you. The only full-proof way that we > can all remain safe is if we work together. > > -Nick Kwiatkowski > MSU Telecom Systems > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Gene Willacker [mailto:[log in to unmask]] > Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2010 12:31 PM > To: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> > Subject: [MSUNAG] Emergency Warning Anecdote > > I just received my e-mail notice about the tornado warning. Based on > these headers, it looks as though it may have been in the msu.edu mail > queue for about 45 minutes. Anyone else have stories about the emergency > alert systems? This would be a good time for DPPS and others to collect > data. Co-workers here were getting phone and SMS alerts after the storm > had reached Webberville and the sirens were turned off. > > >From - Tue Apr 06 12:20:35 2010 > X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 > X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > Return-path: <[log in to unmask]> <mailto:[log in to unmask]> > Envelope-to: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> > Delivery-date: Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:20:07 -0400 > Received: from smtp.notification.com ([208.93.120.245]) > by mx12.mail.msu.edu with esmtp (Exim 4.69 #1) > id 1NzAp1-0008FL-Ac > for [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>; Tue, 06 Apr > 2010 11:36:14 -0400 > Received: by smtp.notification.com id hndaem0rirc7 for > <[log in to unmask]> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>; > Tue, 6 Apr 2010 08:33:19 -0700 (envelope-from <[log in to unmask]> > <mailto:[log in to unmask]>) > MIME-Version: 1.0 > From: "MSU Alert" <[log in to unmask]> <mailto:[log in to unmask]> > To: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> > X-Priority: 1 > Priority: urgent > Importance: high > Date: 6 Apr 2010 08:33:18 -0700 > Subject: Tornado Warning >