Y2K and Emergency Public Information
Depending on your point of view, the Y2K effort was either a colossal
waste of time and resources, or mankind's first and singularly most
successful worldwide effort to protect us from cyber destruction. To
emergency planners in Los Angeles County, it was something else. It
became an opportunity to test new ways to keep the private sector informed
during major emergencies. The concern was not about a local Y2K failure.
Emergency managers looked at the "what ifs" of a glitch happening
up to 18 hours before Y2K hit Los Angeles and what the public might
do when that information became widely known. The hoped-for "non-story"
of Y2K broke the ice on the importance of EPI in the overall scale of
things. The extra effort to tell the ongoing story of the event did
help to allay some fears, made rumor mongering much less possible, and
in general helped to manage the event to a better outcome.
Premise
The premise behind EPI is simple. The speed of modern information
delivery can now affect the outcome of events. If King George could
have watched the Revolutionary War on CNN, he might have well changed
the tactics and the uniform color of his Red Coat troops. Closer to
modern day, we can all think of information during emergencies that:
- Did not get out
to all the media in time, or at all
- Contained outdated
information
- Only told part of
the story
- Was not cleared
with those in charge prior to release
- Was in conflict
with information released before (or after)
The County Y2K response
plan took on the challenge of inventing an effective EPI resource
through several projects and initiatives:
- Setting up a Video/Audio
link directly to television broadcast facilities
- Creating a partnership
with the LAUSD TV station, KLCS/Channel 58
- Making it possible
for radio and TV broadcasters to originate programming from the
County Emergency
- Operations Center
(EOC)
- Hiring a professional
PR firm to oversee the effort
- Press recording the
exercise during EPI
- Conducting orientations
for County public information officers
- Conducting special
media orientations
- Educating emergency
managers on the importance of EPI as a resource
- Establishing links
to State and Federal Y2K Information Initiatives
The Video/Audio Link
After discussions with the Radio and Television News Association (RTNA),
a Pacific Bell fiber video/audio link was installed between the LA
County EOC and the Pacific Bell Hollywood video center. All the major
television and cable entities maintain full-time circuits to this
Pacific Bell facility for their day-to-day needs. This fiber link
made it easy for stations to originate programming using their own
reporters from the media room within the EOC. Many did just that before
and during the Y2K weekend.
LAUSD Partnership
The County met with the management of Channel 58, the UHF television
station licensed to the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).
The station agreed to do hourly two-minute updates and other special
programming throughout the event. A separate video link was installed
using Pacific Bell facilities for this purpose. Many interviews with
subject specialists were aired. Since Channel 58 can be monitored
off air and via Cable by all broadcasters, Channel 58 authorized blanket
rebroadcast for the event.
Facilities Availability
at the EOC
KFWB and other Los Angeles radio and TV stations were allowed to set
up mobile transmission facilities next to the EOC. In KFWB's case,
we established a special microwave radio link direct to the KFWB transmitter.
If Y2K had grown to emergency proportions, KFWB would have used this
mobile studio and the direct link to our transmitter for emergency
programming. Many television stations were prepared to do the same.
Professional PR Firm
The firm of Stoorza, Ziegus and Metzger was retained by LA County
to manage the EPI effort. They supplied excellent planning, liaison
and on-site support before and during the event. Their key personnel
invested much time and effort before the event learning about key
aspects of emergency management that would be critical to the EPI
effort.
County PIO Orientation
This important effort brought public information officers onto the
same page regarding how the story of this event would be told, and
how they could get information out should they need to. Even though
this need was minimal because the event passed quietly, this investment
in PIO EPI training has and will pay off.
Media Orientation
A highly successful media open house literally played to a standing-room-only
audience. The coverage of the County EOC was evident throughout the
day both on TV and radio.
Many Los Angeles media outlets became aware of the County EOC and
its role during major emergencies. This effort paid off by bringing
in many outlets that had never been to the EOC before to cover the
event weekend. Y2K finally put the County EOC on the media map.
Educating Emergency
Managers
Education ranged from briefings for government and private sector
Public Information Officers at the EOC to detailed orientation sessions
for all personnel who staffed the EOC during the November exercise
and the media open house.
Comments/Conclusions
No ordinary tabletop exercise could have begun to test preparedness
for this event, and the new resource component of EPI. The Y2K effort
marks a major advance toward making EPI a resource in its own right.
Observers agree that enough was learned to state positively that the
inclusion of EPI as a key response resource did help. It allayed some
fears, made rumor mongering much less possible, and did help manage
the event to a positive outcome. The event did not fully exercise
the potential of EPI integration into overall emergency management.
However, enough enthusiastic media response and resultant on-air coverage
proved to the satisfaction of observers that the experiment was worth
the effort and warrants further study.
Credit for this experiment
goes to the Emergency Preparedness Commission, the County of Los Angeles,
and the City of Los Angeles. They recognized in time the importance
of treating information to the public as a true resource during the
Y2K event. While most people agree that government should not actively
manage public opinion, no one wants to have the consequences of unrestrained
public opinion make an emergency worse. The Los Angeles County Y2K
EPI effort proved that there could be a balance that protects a free
press yet assures that government can get information to residents
via the media rapidly and accurately. This information model and the
lessons learned during the Y2K event will save lives and property
if EPI can be fully integrated into emergency management. Plans are
already underway to explore doing just that.
Richard Rudman
In addetion to his duties as KFWB's Director of Engineering since
1975, Richard has worked closely with both the County and City of
Los Angeles on emergency preparedness events and issues. In 1995,
he authored a special report on how government emergency public information
dissemination was handled during the Northridge earthquake.He serves
on the Executive Board of Directors of BICEPP as Treasurer. He has
served as a program coordinator for several BICEPP workshops on emergency
planning and emergency public information.
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