6D AGO

Inside the Tsunami Warning System: What Really Happened During the 2024 West Coast Alert—and How Emergency Alerts Must Evolve

In December 2024, millions of people across California, Oregon, and the San Francisco Bay Area received a sudden Wireless Emergency Alert warning of a possible tsunami—an alert that stopped daily life in its tracks and raised urgent questions about how tsunami warnings are issued, who receives them, and what the public is actually expected to do. In this in-depth episode, Jeannette Sutton and Eddie Bertola sit down with Dave Snider of the National Tsunami Warning Center to unpack exactly what happened during that historic alert—and what it revealed about the strengths, limitations, and future of tsunami warning and public alerting systems in the United States. Dave walks listeners through the real decision-making process behind tsunami warnings, explaining why these alerts are issued out of an abundance of caution, how earthquake magnitude thresholds are evaluated, and why tsunamis fundamentally differ from weather events that can be predicted days in advance. The conversation explores the critical distinction between tsunami warnings, advisories, and watches, and why terminology that works for hurricanes or tornadoes can create confusion when applied to earthquakes and ocean hazards. The episode also dives deep into the technology behind public alerts, including IPAWS, Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), Emergency Alert System (EAS), Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs), and county-level opt-in alerting systems. Dave explains why entire counties—sometimes stretching far inland—receive tsunami warnings, how overlapping geographic boundaries like forecast zones and FIPS codes contribute to over-alerting, and why alert fatigue is a growing concern for emergency communications. A major focus of the discussion is partnership: the indispensable role of state, county, and local alerting authorities in providing follow-up messaging, local context, and actionable guidance after the initial federal alert is issued. Listeners will gain a clear understanding of what the National Weather Service can and cannot do, and why coordinated, consistent messaging at every level is essential to public safety. Looking ahead, Dave shares his vision for the future of tsunami warnings, including improved geo-targeting with smaller polygons, better message consistency across platforms, redesigned tsunami.gov services, and a more complete end-to-end communication lifecycle—from the first alert to cancellation and post-event review. Whether you’re an emergency manager, public safety communicator, policy maker, or simply someone who received the 2024 alert and wondered “Why did I get this?”, this episode provides rare behind-the-scenes insight into a system we all depend on—often without realizing how complex it truly is. This episode is sponsored by HQE Systems — supporting smarter, more resilient emergency communications.

48 min

JAN 20

Saving Lives Under Pressure: Pete Gaynor on Alerts, Leadership, FEMA, and the Future of Disaster Recovery

In this episode of The Alerting Authority, hosts Jeannette Sutton and Eddie Bertola sit down with Pete Gaynor, former FEMA Administrator and current President of Bright Harbor, for an in-depth and candid conversation about what it truly takes to save lives through effective alerts and warnings. Drawing on his experience at the local, state, and federal levels, Pete shares powerful lessons from his career—including no-notice drills gone wrong, leadership under pressure, executive decision-making, and why alerting is one of the most consequential life-saving actions an emergency manager can take. He explains how fear, lack of practice, and false assumptions continue to create gaps in alerting nationwide—and what emergency managers can do now to close them. The discussion also explores: The realities of pressing the “send alert” buttonWhy executives must be trained—not shielded—from alerting decisionsHow FEMA, states, and locals can better balance responsibility and riskThe role of AI and data in improving early warning and decision supportWhy disasters are no longer linear—and how alerting must evolveThe long-term recovery challenges facing disaster survivors todayPete also introduces his current work as President of Bright Harbor, a mission-driven organization helping disaster survivors navigate FEMA, insurance, rebuilding, and long-term recovery so they can get back home faster. This episode is proudly sponsored by HQE Systems, a disabled veteran–owned company that specializes in alert origination software and life safety electronic security solutions. HQE Systems supports alerting authorities by simplifying workflows, integrating outdoor warning sirens and indoor notifications, and helping agencies overcome real-world operational pain points—all through a single, powerful platform. Learn more about Bright Harbor: https://www.brightharbor.co Learn more about HQE Systems: https://hqesystems.com

53 min

JAN 13

Emergency Alerts Explained: Marin County’s Approach to Tsunami Warnings, WEA, and Public Safety Communication

In this episode of The Alerting Authority, hosts Jeannette Sutton and Eddie Bertola sit down with Steve Torrance, Director of Emergency Management for Marin County, California, to explore how one of the nation’s most complex communities handles emergency alerts and warnings. Marin County faces a unique mix of risks — including earthquakes, wildfires, floods, tsunamis, power outages, and infrastructure failures — while also serving a constantly changing population of commuters, tourists, and vacation renters. Steve Torrance explains how his team approaches wireless emergency alerts (WEA), mass notification systems, and multi-channel alerting strategies to ensure critical information reaches people who may not live in the county — or even speak the same language. A major focus of this conversation is Marin County’s real-world response to the December 2024 Northern California tsunami warning, where a countywide WEA was issued even though only a small portion of the area was at actual risk. Steve breaks down the challenges of public panic, geographic clarity, and rapid information sharing — and why local knowledge is irreplaceable when national alerts go out. You’ll also hear about: The importance of the “first mile” before an alert is ever sentTraining first responders and dispatchers to request effective alertsWhy templates matter (and how Marin developed 90+ alert templates)Reaching older adults, tourists, and non-English speakersUsing Nextdoor, social media, sirens, EAS, phone calls, and text alerts togetherThe future of alerts: multilingual messaging, smart devices, and alerting beyond phonesWhy emergency alerting should become a standalone professionThis episode is essential listening for emergency managers, public information officers (PIOs), alerting authorities, public safety professionals, researchers, and policymakers looking to improve how alerts are written, approved, and delivered. This episode is sponsored by HQE Systems, a disabled veteran-owned provider of cutting-edge alert origination software, mass notification systems, and outdoor warning solutions.

46 min

JAN 7

Clear Alerts Save Lives—Confusing Ones Create Chaos

What happens when an emergency alert is sent without enough information—or with the wrong information altogether? In this episode of The Alerting Authority, Jeannette Sutton and Eddie Bertola break down a real-world emergency alert involving a reported firearm and examine how incomplete messaging, vague locations, unclear protective actions, and inconsistent follow-up alerts can confuse the public and contribute to over-alerting and alert fatigue. Drawing from peer-reviewed research and real alerting experience, the conversation explores what over-alerting actually means, how relevancy and content shape public response, why jargon like “shelter in place” can fail, and how poor messaging can overwhelm 911 centers while increasing fear rather than safety. Listeners will learn practical, evidence-based strategies for writing clearer, more effective alerts—including what information must be included, how to structure messages, and why post-alert “all clear” notifications matter just as much as the initial warning. This episode is essential listening for emergency managers, law enforcement, public safety officials, and anyone responsible for issuing alerts to their community. Sponsored by HQE Systems, a disabled veteran-owned, full-service alert origination software provider specializing in cutting-edge life safety and mass notification solutions

37 min

JAN 1

Do Wireless Emergency Alerts Really Reach the Public? Inside the RAND Study on WEA Coverage, Opt-Outs, and Alert Fatigue

Do Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) actually reach the people they are intended to warn? And what happens after the alert hits a phone? In this in-depth episode, emergency management practitioners, researchers, and alerting authorities come together to break down a landmark RAND Corporation study examining the real-world performance of the Wireless Emergency Alert system following the October 4, 2023 nationwide test. Featuring insights from Rachel Steratore and Andy Parker of RAND, alongside hosts Jeannette Sutton and Eddie Bertola, this conversation dives into the often-overlooked “last mile” of public alerting—what happens between the cell tower and the person holding the phone. Unlike traditional text messages, WEA uses one-way broadcast technology, meaning there is no return signal to confirm whether an alert was received, noticed, or acted upon. That design choice improves speed and bandwidth efficiency, but it also creates a major data gap for emergency managers. To address this gap, RAND conducted one of the largest public alerting surveys ever fielded in the United States—over 80,000 respondents nationwide, collected within hours of the live national test. The study reveals that approximately 91% of adults with working cell phones received the alert, demonstrating extraordinary reach. But it also surfaces critical disparities related to geography, device type, age, carrier differences, and opt-out behavior. Key topics explored in this episode include: Why WEA performance cannot be measured through system logs aloneDifferences between broadcast alerts and SMS messagingRural vs. urban receipt rates and why they matterWhy Texas shows significantly higher WEA opt-out ratesHow phone design (Apple vs. Android) influences alert engagementThe role of alert fatigue, relevance, trust, and timingWhy a third of adults report never having heard of WEA beforeThe policy and training implications for alerting authoritiesThe conversation also explores future research questions, including how to empirically measure over-alerting, warning fatigue, and public trust—and how emergency managers might adopt feedback mechanisms similar to citizen science models used in weather and earthquake monitoring. If you are an alert originator, emergency manager, public safety official, researcher, or policymaker, this episode provides research-backed insights that can directly inform alerting strategies, public education efforts, and system design decisions. 🔗 Learn more about the RAND study and related research at: https://www.rand.org 🔗 This episode is proudly sponsored by HQE Systems: https://www.hqesystems.com

56 min

12/23/2025

Nick Crossley on Building an Effective Alert and Warning Program

In this episode of The Alerting Authority, hosts Jeannette Sutton and Eddie Bertola are joined by Nick Crossley, Director of Emergency Management and Homeland Security for Hamilton County, Ohio, to explore what it truly takes to build and sustain an effective, public-facing alert and warning program. Nick shares how Hamilton County manages emergency communications across 49 jurisdictions, including the City of Cincinnati, while navigating county borders, interstate coordination, and cross-river messaging challenges. He breaks down the philosophy behind treating alerting and warning as the most public responsibility of emergency management—and why constant training, prescripting, and evaluation are critical to public trust. The conversation dives deep into: Building and maintaining a robust alerting and warning strategyTraining duty officers to confidently send Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) under pressureUsing the FEMA Message Design Dashboard (MDD) to improve clarity and reduce confusionApplying EMAP accreditation standards to alerting, communications, and documentationManaging message bleed-over across county and state boundariesLessons learned from real-world hazmat incidents, flooding, and shelter-in-place ordersPractical advice for small agencies and one-person emergency management shops just getting startedNick also shares why collaboration, borrowing templates, and cross-jurisdictional MOUs are essential tools for modern emergency management—and why continuous improvement is non-negotiable when lives are at stake. Whether you’re an emergency manager, dispatcher, public information officer, or policy leader, this episode offers actionable insights into how to design alerts that inform, protect, and empower the public when it matters most. Thank you to our sponsor, TheWarnRoom.com, for supporting this episode and helping advance best practices in emergency alerting and public communication.

45 min

12/16/2025

Seconds Matter: Earthquake Early Warnings, False Alerts, and the Critical Need for Post-Alert Communication

In this episode of The Alerting Authority, hosts Jeannette Sutton and Eddie Bertola take a deep dive into earthquake early warning systems, focusing on a recent ShakeAlert activation in California and Nevada that ultimately turned out to be a false alert. Using this real-world example, they explore how earthquake early warnings work, why they are fundamentally different from prediction systems, and what happens when alerts fail to meet public expectations. Drawing on Jeannette’s extensive research funded by the U.S. Geological Survey, the conversation breaks down the ShakeAlert system itself—how ground motion is detected within fractions of a second, how models estimate magnitude and direction, and how alerts are automatically issued through Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), opt-in apps like MyShake, and Android-based systems. Eddie brings an operational and practitioner perspective, comparing alert delivery methods, opt-in versus opt-out systems, and the real-world limitations of geofencing and alert polygons. The episode also tackles one of the most challenging issues in public alerting: what to do after an alert is sent—especially when it’s wrong. Jeannette and Eddie examine why post-alert messaging is essential for maintaining public trust, reducing fear, and preventing confusion. They draw lessons from past high-profile incidents, including the Hawaii ballistic missile false alert and earlier earthquake alerting failures, to explain why reassurance must come from the same authoritative source and through the same channel as the original warning. Listeners will hear why delays in follow-up messaging can leave people frightened, displaced, and unsure whether it’s safe to resume normal activity—and why simply staying silent is not an option. The discussion introduces the Post-Alert Lexicon, a research-backed framework designed to help alerting authorities craft effective follow-up messages that clearly communicate safety, uncertainty, and next steps without over-alerting the public. This episode is essential listening for emergency managers, alert originators, public information officers, researchers, and anyone responsible for issuing—or evaluating—alerts. It reinforces a core principle of emergency communication: sending the alert is only the beginning. How you follow up can determine whether the public trusts you the next time seconds truly matter. This episode of The Alerting Authority is proudly sponsored by HQE Systems. HQE Systems is a disabled veteran–owned company specializing in full-service alert origination and life safety solutions. From cutting-edge outdoor warning sirens and indoor notification systems to electronic mass notification platforms, HQE Systems helps agencies address their real-world alerting challenges—all managed through a single, powerful software solution. We sincerely thank HQE Systems for their continued support and their commitment to advancing effective, reliable, and life-saving public alerting.

48 min

12/09/2025

Amber Alerts, Jargon, and Missed Opportunities: Lessons from Atlanta

During a family trip to Atlanta, Eddie’s phone — along with thousands of others — blared an Amber Alert inside the Coca-Cola Museum. But what should have been a clear, actionable notification turned into a case study in how alerts fail the public. In this episode of The Alerting Authority, Jeannette and Eddie break down the real-world Amber Alert issued in Georgia: what the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) said, what it didn’t say, and why the Emergency Alert System (EAS) version told a completely different story. From missing context to jargon overload, statewide over-alerting, and confusion around Levi’s Call vs. Amber Alert, they analyze how poor message design can reduce public engagement — and how research-based practices could have made this alert vastly more effective. They also discuss public reactions, messaging problems, the importance of templates, and why plain-language communication is essential when seconds matter.

42 min

12/02/2025

How Wireless Emergency Alerts Really Work | Dr. Michele Wood on The Alerting Authority

In this episode of The Alerting Authority, hosts Jeannette Sutton and Eddie Bertola speak with one of the most influential researchers in the field of public warning systems: Dr. Michele Wood. As a core member of the team that developed the original Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) — now known as WEA (Wireless Emergency Alerts) — Dr. Wood brings unparalleled insight into how alerts are created, delivered, interpreted, and acted upon by the public. Together, we explore the history of WEA, the evidence behind message length and content, how people understand alerts during crises, and the psychology behind protective action decision-making. Dr. Wood breaks down major findings from decades of research, including household preparedness studies, alert comprehension data, and lessons learned from disasters and national field tests. Whether you're an emergency manager, communicator, researcher, public health leader, or technology developer, this conversation offers essential insights into what makes alerts effective, what causes failure, and how agencies can improve safety outcomes through better message design and communication strategies. Stay tuned as we also discuss over-alerting, public trust, behavioral response, and the future of digital emergency communication. Sponsored by HQE Solutions — a leader in IPAWS alerting, public safety technology, and emergency messaging innovation. Learn more at: https://www.hqesolutions.com

48 min

11/25/2025

How People React to Alerts: Dr. John Sorensen Breaks Down Warning Behavior

In this episode of The Alerting Authority, hosts Jeannette Sutton and Eddie Bertola welcome one of the world’s leading experts in disaster communication and public warning behavior: Dr. John Sorensen. With decades of research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory—including studies on Three Mile Island, nuclear emergencies, chemical stockpile response, reverse 911 systems, and major wildfire evacuations—Dr. Sorensen has helped shape how emergency managers understand why people do and do not take protective action during crises. We dive deep into the Mileti Model, PADM (Protective Action Decision Model), and the factors that influence real-world behavior when an alert goes out. Dr. Sorensen shares firsthand insights from field deployments, national-level studies, and community-level evacuations—revealing what actually works (and what often fails) in public warning. Whether you work in emergency management, public safety, crisis communication, or disaster science, this conversation provides valuable lessons on message design, trust, human behavior, and the future of alerts and warnings. This episode is sponsored by HQE Solutions, a leader in IPAWS, alerting technology, and public warning innovation. Learn more at https://www.hqesolutions.com

56 min

11/18/2025

From Weak Alerts to Strong Warnings: The Message Design Dashboard in Action

In this compelling episode, hosts Jeannette Sutton and Eddie Bertola take listeners behind the scenes of real-world Wireless Emergency Alerts — including a recent missing teen case in Pea Ridge, Arkansas — to show how evidence-based message design can directly support effective public safety outcomes. Together, they break down: • The difference training makes in high-stakes alert messaging • Why many WEAs still lack critical information • How the Message Design Dashboard improves quality and consistency • A side-by-side comparison of a weak alert vs. a complete, research-based alert • How post-alert “closure messages” build trust and reduce strain on 911 centers • Real community outcomes when alerts are done right Plus: Eddie shares a firsthand account from a recent local search, including how the Pea Ridge Police Department used structured messaging to quickly locate a missing teen with help from the community. This is an essential episode for alerting authorities, emergency managers, public information officers, dispatch personnel, law enforcement, and anyone who communicates during critical events. 👉 Tune in, subscribe, and share — your participation helps make our communities safer. Special thanks to our sponsor, HQE Systems, a veteran-owned alert origination and life-safety technology provider.

45 min

11/17/2025

Craig Fugate on Why Emergency Managers Fail at Warning the Public | The Alerting Authority

In this premiere episode of The Alerting Authority, hosts Jeannette Sutton and Eddie Bertola welcome former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate for a powerful, no-nonsense conversation about the real challenges facing emergency alerting in the U.S. Fugate breaks down why alert failures usually come from people, not technology—and why emergency managers must be trained, confident, and ready to issue immediate warnings when minutes matter. The discussion dives into the difference between notifications, alerts, and true warnings, the risks of overusing opt-in systems, and why consistent practice is essential for saving lives. If you are an emergency manager, public safety leader, alert originator, or anyone involved in crisis communication, this episode delivers critical insights into building a more resilient and responsive warning system.

47 min

The Alerting Authority

Episodes

Inside the Tsunami Warning System: What Really Happened During the 2024 West Coast Alert—and How Emergency Alerts Must Evolve

Saving Lives Under Pressure: Pete Gaynor on Alerts, Leadership, FEMA, and the Future of Disaster Recovery

Emergency Alerts Explained: Marin County’s Approach to Tsunami Warnings, WEA, and Public Safety Communication

Clear Alerts Save Lives—Confusing Ones Create Chaos

Do Wireless Emergency Alerts Really Reach the Public? Inside the RAND Study on WEA Coverage, Opt-Outs, and Alert Fatigue

Nick Crossley on Building an Effective Alert and Warning Program

Seconds Matter: Earthquake Early Warnings, False Alerts, and the Critical Need for Post-Alert Communication

Amber Alerts, Jargon, and Missed Opportunities: Lessons from Atlanta

How Wireless Emergency Alerts Really Work | Dr. Michele Wood on The Alerting Authority

How People React to Alerts: Dr. John Sorensen Breaks Down Warning Behavior

From Weak Alerts to Strong Warnings: The Message Design Dashboard in Action

Craig Fugate on Why Emergency Managers Fail at Warning the Public | The Alerting Authority

Ratings & Reviews

About

Information