Everbridge Provides Safety and Preparedness Best Practices Checklist for Super Typhoon Haiyan

Glendale, Calif. – Nov. 7, 2013 – Everbridge, the leading provider of critical communication solutions, today announced a best practices checklist for Super Typhoon Haiyan safety and preparedness.

Typhoons and hurricanes threaten communities and organizations in both coastal and inland areas. Each year, these catastrophic events are responsible for hundreds of deaths, and billions of dollars in damages. With Super Typhoon Haiyan currently threatening the Philippines, Everbridge would like to offer severe weather best practices to help your organization prepare. Organizations should:

• Plan to manage the entire lifecycle of any critical event. Dr. Robert C. Chandler, crisis communication expert, suggests creating a crisis plan that addresses each of the six stages of a crisis: Warning, Risk Assessment, Response, Management, Resolution, and Recovery.

• Confirm that you have multiple contact paths for each individual to decrease reliance on any one device. Set delivery options to attempt email and SMS paths first, as cellular and landline infrastructures could be damaged by the storm.

• Focus on message construction. Dr. Chandler recommends that message maps consist of three short sentences that convey three key messages in 30 words. SMS messages should be no longer than 120 characters and audio/video needs to convey its message in the first nine seconds.

• Don’t forget social media. Use social media as an additional communications channel and be sure to monitor social media sites like Twitter to gain situational intelligence that can help emergency response teams.

• Ensure that regular system and staff testing and preparation procedures are followed, including system testing for effectiveness and data accuracy. Staff should be trained to operate the critical communications system from both computer and mobile devices.

“Because typhoons have the potential to be so costly, and so deadly, organizations need to make communication part of their preparedness efforts and not just part of their emergency management process,” said Imad Mouline, chief technology officer, Everbridge. “It is critical to plan for the likelihood of communication paths being unavailable during and after severe weather. Cell towers could be down, telcom central offices could be overloaded; no single path is completely reliable. A communication strategy that employs multiple delivery paths, along with confirmation, both maximizes your connection rates and reduces redundant messages.”

Related Resources:

5 Lessons From Hurricane Sandy For Emergency Preparedness

How to Communicate During the Six Stages of a Crisis: Crisis Management

Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) Manages Severe Weather with Everbridge

About Everbridge

Everbridge provides critical communication solutions to more than 30 million end users in all major industries and government sectors around the globe. The Everbridge solutions suite allows clients to manage emergencies, mass notifications, incident communications, and situational intelligence from a single system. Ultimately, these solutions help clients save lives, manage critical activities and improve the efficiency of daily operations. For more information about Everbridge, please see www.everbridge.com.