When news outlets assign silly names to serious winter storms—Snowpocalypse. Snowmaggeddon. Snowzilla, and the like—it diminishes the true dangers of weather-related events like this January’s storm Jonas. It’s easy to do. Unlike some of Mother Nature’s other natural disasters, snowstorms arrive gracefully, accumulate gently and paint their mayhem gradually. They’re perhaps the only weather-related incident to leave momentary beauty in its wake. The devastation that accompanies that beauty, however, is very real: Jonas killed more than 40 people, caused record coastal flooding, and caused multi-states of emergency. Fortunately, emergency response personnel and public service officials see right through snow’s beauty and understand its potential for devastation. With precipitation patterns similar to an extratropical storm, blizzards and nor’easters are often accompanied by flooding, hurricane-force winds, power outages, inclement road conditions, and more. Despite all of their dangers, snowstorms allow plenty of time for you to prepare your emergency response. However, things don’t always go as planned. Sometimes lessons aren’t learned and holes in emergency procedures aren’t found until after the storm is long gone – and it’s too late. The best time to prepare for the next storm is immediately after the most recent one ends. Reflecting back on how well your people, process, and technology worked post-incident is the best thing to do to be ready for the next one. It’s only then that you can evaluate what worked, and what can be improved. To make things easier for you, we’ve created this checklist of things that you can do now to make sure that you’re ready for the next winter-weather emergency: 1. Double-check your checklist Does everyone know how to log in to the notification system? Seems simple, right, but the devil is in these details. Oftentimes when users set up their emergency notification procedure and system, they set them…and then forget them. When a storm is ‘a brewing’ it’s imperative for you and your emergency response team to go over your processes. Double check your checklist: 1.) Does everyone know how to log in from their workstation and personal devices? 2.) If they know how, are they able to log in? 3.) Don’t forget to check your passwords. 4.) Send a test message. Here’s an easy tip: Have each Administrator bookmark their own secure log-in link. If issues still arise, contact your super administrator or primary contact within the IT department. Provided proper credentials are given, Omnilert is […]
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