Over the past 5 years, the Community Warning System has expanded its technical capabilities and engagement activities to reach more county residents during emergencies. These efforts include:
- Expanded capabilities of the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system has allowed for increased use, providing emergency alerts to residents, without requiring registration with CWS. In March of 2020, the CWS sent a countywide WEA alert for the first time – alerting residents throughout the county of the upcoming Stay at Home order due to COVID-19. Due to the extended time available to prepare this alert, the message was sent in both English and Spanish.
- Development of an agreement with the National Weather Service to activate certain emergency alerts on weather radios throughout the county during emergencies that cause communication system failures.
- Outreach and engagement efforts that have significantly increased registrations to receive emergency alerts directly from the Community Warning System throughout the county – approximately 35% of all county residents are registered with the CWS. The CWS has participated in an average of 60-70 presentations to schools, senior centers, community centers, etc. and 20 large scale outreach events per year between 2017 and 2019. Outreach was significantly slowed due to COVID but is our major focus for the 2nd half of 2021.
- Development of a Local Partner Outreach Program that engages local communities to engage with the CWS. This helps the CWS leverage existing relationships with community groups to increase registrations and understanding of public alert and warning best practices. This plan includes considerations for both non-English speaking and D/AFN outreach efforts and we have seen great success in jurisdictions that have participated.
- Multiple exercises that include live alerts to the public. These exercises increase awareness and engagement among residents and tests the system in communities during non-emergency situations. These tests have provided residents a glimpse of what to expect from real life emergency alerts.
The Community Warning System has issued emergency alerts for an increasing number of major emergencies over the past several years. On average, the CWS sends emergency alerts for approximately 20 emergency incidents every year. In the past, a majority of alerts were to alert residents of missing people or to avoid the area of a minor emergency, with an occasional shelter in place or evacuation. Since 2017, the number of evacuations and shelter in place/lockdown messages has increased exponentially. Major emergencies that included CWS activations in recent years include:
2017 – Morgan Territory Road Washout – Avoid the Area
2018 – Sims Recycling Fire – Shelter in Place
2018 – Concord Apartment Fire – Evacuation
2018 – Limeridge Fire in Concord – Evacuation
2018 – Marsh Creek Fire – Evacuation
2018 – Bay Point Pipeline Fire – Evacuation
2019 – NuStar Tank Explosion – Shelter in Place
2019 – October PSPS – Multiple evacuation orders and public health advisories due to smoke
2020 – COVID 19 – Issuance of the first Countywide emergency alert
2020 – Oakley Fire – Evacuation
2020 – SCU Fire in Clayton - Evacuation
2020 – Tanker fire on Hwy 80 in Pinole – Shelter in Place and Evacuation orders
Immediate translation of emergency alerts remains a significant gap within the field of public alert and warning. No reliable, automatic emergency translation capability has been developed and there are no indications that this issue will be resolved soon. Despite these ongoing challenges, the CWS has taken several steps to address this issue at a local level. Examples include:
- Emergency alerts are available in Spanish for major incidents at hazardous materials facilities with CWS Terminals for residents who register to receive alerts in Spanish.
- The CWS website has a Google Translate feature that residents can use to translate website content, including emergency alerts, into a variety of languages.
- The CWS has a full time Senior Emergency Planner who is fluent in Spanish and available to discuss the system with other Spanish speakers at outreach events, presentations, over the phone, etc.
- All outreach material including flyers, brochures, and other media is provided in English and Spanish to all of our partners.
- Partnership with the Contra Costa Crisis Center (211) to provide alert information in Spanish to residents who contact their organization looking for information.
- Partnership with the Listos organization throughout Contra Costa County to provide outreach information in multiple languages to community residents.
The Community Warning System also focuses outreach and engagement efforts with residents with disabilities and access and functional needs. Efforts made to engage and provide useful information with the D/AFN community include:
- Addition of the UserWay feature on the CWS website to increase accessibility by adjusting the website in a variety of ways including increased font size, text and line spacing, contrast adjustments, etc.
- Ability to send emergency alerts via a variety of tools including both audio and visual messages.
- Participation on the Disability/Access and Functional Needs Steering Committee, various subcommittees and planning committees and at the county’s annual Disabilities/Access and Functional Needs Forum for the public to learn about accessible services available to them.
- Development of low literacy pocket guides for evacuations, shelter-in-place, and emergency alerts.
Moving forward:
- The CWS will continue to expand the Local Partner Outreach Program throughout the County with a focus on non-English speaking residents, D/AFN community members, and culturally diverse communities. While this program has been very successful, its rollout has been hindered by limited staff and COVID-19. With the opening of the state and the anticipated hiring of another Emergency Planning Coordinator by the end of 2021, we expect this program to become more widespread throughout 2022.
- In 2020, the CWS began consistently using the Nextdoor platform to increase awareness and encourage registration for emergency alerts. As a county entity, our reach on this platform is close to 300,000 residents. We are preparing to start posting our messages in both English and Spanish, so more residents can engage with the system.
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