The weather is creating news today. A powerful low pressure front is pushing through towards the Northeast from the Mississippi Valley, hitting the warm temperatures we’ve had this week, and creating some fierce thunderstorms and spawning tornadoes in Tennessee and Kentucky this morning. We’ve sent a weather alert to our staff reminding everyone of what our procedures are for responding to a tornado warning or sighting in our area:

• Tornado warning: announce the warning is in effect, ask staff and patrons to move away from windows and exterior doors
• Tornado sighted in the area: announce we are initiating Shelter-In-Place, and that everyone should take shelter on our basement level in the hallway. (Best shelter from a tornado: as low in the building as possible, as close to the center of the building as possible)

In addition to monitoring the weather via computers, we have an All-Hazards radio that will issue an alarm in the event of an official alert. So far, we have not had to use it, but today it may come in handy.

We hope our colleagues to the west of us have fared well today. Stay in touch!

The Google.org foundation is funding a new non-profit project called Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disaster (InSTEDD). Google.org’s executive director, epidemiologist Dr. Larry Brilliant, says the project hopes “to fulfill the much-needed role of an independent agent bringing the technological, medical, and organizational skills necessary to help the humanitarian aid community accomplish (early detection of public health threats and disasters), and ultimately help them to make the world a safer place.”

See: Twitter, Facebook called on for higher purpose

Last spring, the University of Texas at Austin implemented a siren system to alert their university community of a direct threat.  Click here for a description of the siren system from the UT Austin website.

The World Health Organization has created a six phase pandemic alert system for informing the world of the seriousness of a threat. Each alert phase triggers a series of activities to be undertaken by WHO. Click on the chart below to view the current phase of alert.

In September, the US Senate voted overwhelmingly to approve the Warning, Alerts and Response Network (WARN) Act. The WARN Act will create a national alert system by providing Americans with emergency information sent directly to their cell phones and other wireless devices.

“When disaster strikes, you may have only a short time to make what might be a life or death decision.”

The above quote is taken from a web page maintained by the Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency, Clarksville, Tennessee. The site explains the emergency alerting system for their area.

What alerting system exists for your area?

A county just north of Charlottesville just implemented reverse 911 for alerting residents of emergency situations. Here’s the article that appeared in our local newspaper.