Chief
07-15-2008, 01:31 PM
The Virginia Tech Massacre which occurred on April 16, 2007, identified a significant change in how public communication now affects emergency response. YouTube Videos and text messages were captured real-time and downloaded to the internet faster than police and emergency response vehicles could arrive to the scene.
Similarly, in the Columbia County, Oregon, flood of December 2007, the general public began operating a public blog to communicate with citizens in advance of public information being issued through more formal channels like press releases. Whether we like it or not, the rapid pace of public information with the presence of the internet is changing how we consider doing business in an emergency response arena.
The Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency (CRESA) is taking note of these changes and working to rapidly evaluate communication trends to determine how best to take advantage of low-cost and available technology.
We are pleased to announce that we have established a “blog” on the internet to facilitate better communication with the public about emergency events. This will provide people in Clark County the opportunity to receive information about how we are preparing and responding to emergency threats and hazards in our local community.
You may subscribe to the blog so that each time we update it, you can receive a direct email which provides the information which has changed.
We will seek to update the blog at least once weekly with information about relevant upcoming community events, volunteer opportunities for training and as an outlet for information on specific incidents within Clark County.
Please note that because this is an open-source, public blog, you may encounter some advertising. CRESA evaluated the cost of eliminating advertising which became increasingly costly based on the number of subscribers. Since it is our hope that many local citizens will take advantage of this blog for information, we simply provide a disclaimer that we have not selected, nor do we endorse any of the appearing advertisers.
Visit www.cresa911.org or www.cresa911.blogspot.com to stay up to speed with the latest news in local emergency management.
Similarly, in the Columbia County, Oregon, flood of December 2007, the general public began operating a public blog to communicate with citizens in advance of public information being issued through more formal channels like press releases. Whether we like it or not, the rapid pace of public information with the presence of the internet is changing how we consider doing business in an emergency response arena.
The Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency (CRESA) is taking note of these changes and working to rapidly evaluate communication trends to determine how best to take advantage of low-cost and available technology.
We are pleased to announce that we have established a “blog” on the internet to facilitate better communication with the public about emergency events. This will provide people in Clark County the opportunity to receive information about how we are preparing and responding to emergency threats and hazards in our local community.
You may subscribe to the blog so that each time we update it, you can receive a direct email which provides the information which has changed.
We will seek to update the blog at least once weekly with information about relevant upcoming community events, volunteer opportunities for training and as an outlet for information on specific incidents within Clark County.
Please note that because this is an open-source, public blog, you may encounter some advertising. CRESA evaluated the cost of eliminating advertising which became increasingly costly based on the number of subscribers. Since it is our hope that many local citizens will take advantage of this blog for information, we simply provide a disclaimer that we have not selected, nor do we endorse any of the appearing advertisers.
Visit www.cresa911.org or www.cresa911.blogspot.com to stay up to speed with the latest news in local emergency management.