Informing the Public During Emergencies

1. Informing the Public During Emergencies Adam Woodlief Director of Engineering Services Fred Engel Senior Director of Technology Lillian McDonald Managing Director Emergency Response Systems Systems Image courtesy the North Carolina National Guard/Flickr: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

2. UNC-TV – a bit of history • UNC-TV began broadcasting in January of 1955 • 12 Full Power UHF transmitters and 24 translators • Broadcasts four digital channels: UNC-TV; UNC-EX; Rootle (UNC-TV’s kids channel) and the North Carolina Channel • Initiated public safety broadcasts in 2009

3. 2016 – a challenging year

4. 2016 events • Tropical Storm Julia – September 2016 • Civil unrest – Charlotte, September 2016 • Fuel distribution concerns – September 2016 • Hurricane Matthew – October 2016 • 26 storm related fatalities • Devastating agricultural losses • $2-3B in economic loss to North Carolina

5. Hurricane Matthew

6. Hurricane Matthew – UNC-TV preparation

7. Hurricane Matthew – UNC-TV preparation and relationships • North Carolina Department of Public Safety • North Carolina Emergency Operations Center • Governor’s office • North Carolina Broadcasters Association • FirstNET North Carolina • Commercial broadcast partners: • WRAL – Raleigh (NBC) • WTVD – Raleigh/Durham (ABC) • WBTV – Charlotte (CBS) • WLOS – Asheville (ABC) • Time Warner Cable

8. Emergency Briefings • Broadcast all of our broadcast services except UNC-TV’s “Rootle” kids channel • UNC-TV’s uplinks were made available as a pool field for local/national outlets • Created custom bug to increase our brand and show joint effort with Emergency Mgmt • Streamed on www.unctv.org • Stream embed code shared with: • Governor’s office • Department of Public Safety • Distributed along with press releases that included Sat coordinates • First event stream view total – 3 • At the end of UNC-TV’s Matthew briefings our stream was viewed over 10,000 times • Governor’s office requested and received HD copies of each briefing and distributed

9. State Emergency Operations Center Broadcast coverage via UNC-TV Uplink Truck also – Governor’s office, Raleigh, NC

10. Social Media

11. Remotes/Connectivity • State Emergency Operations Center • Governor’s office • Field shoots – in affected areas

12. Technologies employed • Broadcast • Via UNC-TV Sat Truck • Ericsson Encoders – MPEG 4 • Via IP • Immedia IP encoders – MPEG 4 • Web streaming • Elemental streaming encoder • Streams served by CDN provider • All events closed captioned for both broadcast and web streaming

13. Post -Matthew • UNC-TV on-air fundraiser • Broadcast of Parmalee benefit concert • Webpage/Social media with info links

14. Lessons Learned • Develop relationships • Assistance from State Highway Patrol to get Sat truck to sites • Prepare, prepare, prepare • Transmission sites – fuel concerns • Assistance from local municipalities to get fuel to transmission sites • Have the right technology in place • For UNC-TV – future fiber connections to more locations • Use commodity internet when needed • Cost effective encoding/decoding systems

15. Relevance

17. Hurricane Matthew Special Program

18. Lillian McDonald-Managing Director Emergency Response Systems (ERS) Twin Cities PBS “Alerting & Warning Beyond English” Multilingual Breakthroughs in Emergency Response

19. 2015 Merger of Two Missions To enrich lives and strengthen our community through the power of media Emergency, Community, Healthy, and Outreach (Health & Safety info for Cultural Communities)

20. TPT / ECHO = 10 Years Multi-Cultural Educational & Emergency North Minneapolis Tornado Avian Bird Flu H1N1 Flu Virus Stay Alert Using Weather Radios Community Resiliency

21. More Diversity + New Technology = Change

22. Language and Cultural Context I love information, searching for it, finding out about everything that is going on…But you know, absolutely, when you hear it in your own language, it absolutely makes a difference. It kind of changes the seriousness of the situation. … I hear it every day in English on TV, radio, or whatever, but hearing it in Somali I think would be even more serious. – Somali participant

23. Language and Cultural Context There are some situations, weather or issues … that are not common in my home country, for example thunderstorm or blizzard, those are things that do not exist in my native country…. I have to use three or four words to explain what a blizzard is, there’s no equivalent word in my culture or language. – Somali participant

24. More Technology = More Alerting Emergency Alert System Integrated Public Alerts & Warning System (IPAWS) FUTURE: NOAA Weather Radio Wireless Emergency Alert Outdoor Warning Sirens Electronic Telephone Notification Alert Media Facebook/Tweet With IPAWS, you could trigger most of the solid lines in one action COG to COG Notify Other Jurisdictions Page/Call Key Staff

25. CPB Grant: “Multi-Lingual Warnings” • Engage: Cultural communities contribute to “what works” linguistically and contextually so messaging is relevant. • Test Technology: Pre-load recorded Emergency Alerts for broadcast delivery via EAS in English, Spanish, Hmong & Somali. • Develop: “Best Practices” to be replicated Nationwide

26. Importance of Engagement • Know the populations living locally and design strategies based on their characteristics, numbers, and needs • Build trust and use trusted messengers • Involve community members in planning • Tailor emergency messages to the full cultural context of the communities

27. Multi-Lingual DASDEC & MPTA Stations Minnesota Public Television EAS FSK Audio (English Only) Alerting Authorities IPAWS CAP Originator with Integrated EAS encoder IPAWS CAP (English Only)

28. Real Test - Real Time 9/10/15 • Full Scale Exercise • “Simulated Plane Crash” • Exercise: Airport Triage, F.A.C., Hospitals, EOC, and JIC/JIS • TEST IPAWS and Multi-lingual alerts • City, FEMA, FCC, DPS/HSEM, TPT/ECHO, KSMQ, KTTC, KROC

29. DASDEC DEMO in 4 Languages

30. NEW: Emergency Response Systems ERS Mission: Bridge communication gap so public safety officials can broadcast alerts for English Second Language (ESL) viewers.

31. Too Much Media! • Public Safety Problems: • Competing info sources • No centralized warning system • EAS “optional” for broadcasters • 80%+ Social media is false • Not everyone is mobile/internet • Cell towers crash in crisis • More than English needs

32. A Tradition of Service

33. Public Safety Potential Public Broadcast Television (PBS) will keep playing what the FCC and Homeland Security calls an “integral” role in WEA’s success. America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) set aside spectrum for emergency responders supporting the first nationwide, high-speed, broadband network dedicated to public safety. ATSC 3.0, the digital broadcast standard on track for adoption in 2017, will let broadcasters simultaneously deliver high-quality signals to mobile devices as well as television sets.

34. TPT “Weather Channel 2.5”

35. 2017 Grant Goals • Keep WX Channel on the air • Develop a procedure/plan for “emergency activation and scope of services” • Conduct 1-2 “activation tests” • Explore replacement radar data provider • Improve 4 language text/voice-over content for emergency broadcasting • Recommend future capabilities and costs for potential sustainable use by public safety supported by stakeholders

36. Stakeholders Questions • What are you doing now to warn and alert? • Routine • Emergency • Pre-During-Post “event” • What gaps do you have for warning & alerts? • Staffing / Time? • Funding? • Distribution? • Content? • Technology? • E-S-L? • What value does broadcast media bring you? • If I handed you a TV station, what content for Health, Safety, Emergency (or other) info would you distribute? • Based on above answers: If TPT dedicated a broadcast channel for “official use only”, would you pay for it?

37. Stakeholder Input So Far • Local, State, Nat’l Headlines • EAS Alerts • NWS Alerts • Multi-lingual

38. Future? • Channel 2.5 • Year 1: Data Driven Content • Year 2: Add digital shorts? • Year 3: Expand content? • Funding Strategy • Year 1: Grant + Match • Year 2: Government + Foundations? • Year 3: Legislative Ask? • FCC / FEMA Changes? • English Spanish WEA/EAS 2019? • Multi-Media Platform? • Public Safety use “key to PBS relevance & sustainability”

39. For More Info: Lillian McDonald-Managing Director, ERS (Emergency Response Systems) lmcdonald@tpt.org 651-229-1304 www.tpt.org