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Failure to Warn Is a Common Issue

Sri Lanka and other warning failures expose a lack of readiness to warn.

I've written about this issue many times before and the people of Sri Lanka have suffered the consequences of their government not taking action on issuing a warning. For them it was not a mechanical issue, but a judgment issue. Much like the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 when a governmental minister failed to issue a warning because it would be bad for tourism. Really? How about it would be bad for tourists?!

Then there is the judgment and mechanical issue of issuing warnings here in the United States. California is called out for repeated failures concerning wildfires, in this article, California’s emergency alert system has been a disaster. A statewide fix is planned

There are multiple issues at play concerning the warning issue. Unfortunately, most of them center around the emergency manager or other persons with the responsibility for issuing warnings.

  • Reluctance to issue a warning
  • Fear of making a mistake
  • Unfamiliarity with the warning system(s) available to them
  • Lack of procedures and authorities to issue warnings
  • Ineptitude on the part of people
  • Communication systems failures
  • Overloaded systems 
  • Reliance on single warning systems
The list can go on ...

California, which has suffered multiple failures, has developed an Alert and Warning Guidelines publication for local emergency managers (I still need to review this — but anything is better than nothing.) There are no FEMA courses on warnings. 

If you want to get fired, the first place to start is to screw up a warning. You should have this part of your job down cold, so you can do it in your sleep!

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.