Communicating in the First Hours
First Hours: Purpose
The messages were written to be used by federal public health officials and to be adapted for the use of state and local public health officials during a terrorist attack or suspected attack. Use these messages as follows:
- To communicate with the public during a terrorist attack or a suspected attack
- To adapt for a specific event (These messages were written for fictitious situations, so assumptions were made about an event.)
- To provide information during the first hours of an event
- To save precious moments during the initial response time and to buy the time necessary for public health leaders to develop more specific messages
In addition to this federal resource, public health departments in several states and some cities and local governments have developed similar messages. With the permission of the public health departments, state and locally developed messages will be shared on this site so that public health officials throughout the nation can benefit from each other’s work.
- Page last updated May 14, 2007
- Content source: CDC Emergency Communication System (ECS), Division of Health Communication and Marketing (DHCM), National Center for Health Marketing (NCHM)