Laurence, You need to think of all of these methods of contacting you as the "system", not just one part. Again, mass-notifications are the way that you will notify you first -- in our case the sirens, CATV, Fire-System enunciators, TV and Radio. E-Mail, SMS and others (Twitter, etc), are supplemental, and are best for those who cannot be reached by these mass communication methods. Again, your building's emergency contact should have also relayed the notification to you. I think the entire 'system' worked pretty well. Luckily we were not in the immediate path of danger, as some of the supplementary systems did break down (or were delayed). The system as a whole will only get better as the University continues to tweak, test and deploy additional ways to have communication go out to the community. In an emergency, keep your eyes and ears open. Respond to any official communications you get, and relay that to those around you. Don't depend on personal communications like phone calls, emails, SMSs as your only source of information. It is YOUR responsibility to find out more. -Nick -----Original Message----- From: Laurence Bates [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2010 2:44 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] Emergency Warning Anecdote 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. 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] 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] 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]> Envelope-to: [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]; Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:36:14 -0400 Received: by smtp.notification.com id hndaem0rirc7 for <[log in to unmask]>; Tue, 6 Apr 2010 08:33:19 -0700 (envelope-from <[log in to unmask]>) MIME-Version: 1.0 From: "MSU Alert" <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] X-Priority: 1 Priority: urgent Importance: high Date: 6 Apr 2010 08:33:18 -0700 Subject: Tornado Warning