RDPO Disaster Messaging Index

About the index

The Disaster Messaging Index is a monthly compilation of resources related to disaster messaging, including general risk communication, hazard-specific communication, language and disability access, emergency alert and warning systems, and more.

Contact

The index is compiled by the RDPO Disaster Messaging Work Group. Please contact Laura Hall (laura.hall@portlandoregon.gov) with questions, comments, or additions.

 AUGUST 2023

• The RDPO posted 400+ wildfire and smoke messages in 32 languages at PublicAlerts.org/messaging-tools. 

• The 2023 National Access and Functional Needs Symposium released the entire playlist of session recordings with American Sign Language (ASL) and closed caption (CC) in both English and Spanish.

• ShakeAlert has a new website design and a new messaging toolkit.

• Check out Lewis & Clark College’s Cascadia 9 Game and ongoing research to understand what motivates young adults to prepare for earthquakes and other natural disasters.

• Lincoln County Emergency Management and Lincoln County Fire Defense Board recently released three new Wildfire Public Service Announcements (PSAs) in both English and Spanish. These videos were created through a collaborative effort between emergency management and local fire agencies after the Echo Mountain Complex Fire. 

• Lincoln Alerts in English and Spanish.

• Wildfire - Be Ready, Be Set, Go Now Evacuation Levels in English and Spanish.

• Wildfire - General Preparedness in English and Spanish

• Oregon State University (OSU) Extension Service published Our Future in Our Hands, a booklet on wildfire preparedness for community members, in both Spanish and English. 

JUNE 2023

• Why Wildfire Smoke Might Lead to Headaches (NYT) 

• The Oregon Fire Marshal has launched oregondefensiblespace.org, in addition to the already existing site keeporegongreen.org. The state still lacks a comprehensive wildfire or emergency preparedness website. 

• There’s a new whiteboard video on ShakeAlert for the Pacific Northwest.

MAY 2023

ALERT & WARNING

• AccessWireless.org is a website designed to help people with disabilities, seniors, veterans and their families and caretakers to find a cell phone and accessible wireless devices and services. CTIA and the wireless industry created AccessWireless.org to be your “first stop” to learn about the ever-changing world of cell phones and wireless devices and services and discover those that meet your specific needs.

• We’ve heard that several counties in Colorado are using a company called Reach Well for translations. This is just info sharing - not an endorsement.

APRIL 2023

PREPAREDNESS

• California has an emergency preparedness program for 4th graders. It includes a family readiness guide that's translated in five languages.

WEATHER EMERGENCIES

• CDC & NCEH have a new Heat & Health Tracker Tool that provides heat effect predictions for up to a month in advance. 

• Relief and Recovery on the Frontlines of Disaster A rapid response toolkit for immigrant and refugee organizations responding to extreme weather (National Partnership for New Americans)

• NWS Climate Prediction Center has a 2-Week Global Probabilistic Extremes Forecast Tool 

• Portland nonprofits advocate for culturally-specific weather shelters (KOIN) 

• Portland officials discuss preparing for severe weather and disasters (KPTV) 

• Portland community groups, government prepare for next weather emergencies (KATU)

February 2023

ACCESS

• San Diego has developed some really wonderful emergency preparedness guides, including one for people with disabilities, access, and functional needs. And the materials are translated into 11 languages! The State of California also has a wonderful campaign called Listos California that has some excellent materials in many languages.  

• Metro recently adopted a Plain Language Resolution as well as an Inclusive Language Style guide. It was co-created by community members and communications professionals.

PREPARENDESS

• Heating safety flyers that allow you to add your own logo: usfa.fema.gov/prevention/outreach/heating.html 

• A quote from the great Rebecca Solnit: “Inequality of voice is one of the most powerful elements of inequality of all kinds. Children and elderly people are routinely treated as incompetent witnesses to their own lives and needs. Poor people, immigrants and people with disabilities are likewise treated as subordinates and incompetents.”

EARTHQUAKE

• Next month is the 12th anniversary of the March 11, 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami. I’d like to share a very well-made video of the first three days that was released last year by Japan’s public broadcasting station. It shows some really powerful footage of response and mass care. That said, it’s very difficult to watch and is definitely not for everyone. But it may be motivational in terms of renewing commitment to earthquake readiness.

• In October 2022, OPB interviewed Chris Goldfinger and others about what to do during an earthquake. The video presents the case that more complex messaging is needed. Here’s a Temblor opinion piece on the same topic that Chris published in March 2022. And here’s a USGS article by Sara Minson about how this all relates to Earthquake Early Warning. 

JANUARY 2023

LANGUAGE ACCESS

• Seattle/King County has a wonderful Translation Tips document. We’ll be creating a version of this for our region, but for now we can benefit from their great work. 

• Has anyone heard of CommunityLanguageCoop.com? It’s a translation and interpretation vendor in Colorado that comes highly recommended by Dr. Lori Peek. Looks like a fabulous organization with a strong language justice program.

• Designing for Translation (2021) In this webinar, Laura Godfrey and Fedora Braverman share tips for translating content in the digital context. Covers: what is designing for translation, language choice, plain language, layout, and Imagery. References an article called Cultural Implications of Translation. 

  FEMA Fires Group for Nonsensical Alaska Native Translations - This story emphasizes the need for quality assurance checks by contractors and community review of translations. “Colonization used stripping Indigenous peoples of their languages as a tool of oppression and then punished them for speaking their languages. So when a government agency like FEMA makes mistakes like this, it reopens those wounds.” -Tatiana Elejalde  

• Weglot.com allows you to to translate, display, and manage a multilingual website with full editing control. (Thanks Pilar!) 

PREPAREDNESS

• Nurturely, a non-profit in Eugene, is working on a lactation/infant nutrition in disasters project. Their mission is to promote equity in perinatal wellness and strengthen cultures of support for infants and caregivers through preventative knowledge-sharing, collaborative exploration, and proactive community engagement.

• In a major emergency or disaster, lo​cal child welfare offices need to know where all children in care are located. ​Oregon resource (foster) parents must contact 211 within 24 hours of an emergency or disaster. Learn more. 

• Interview with Vance Taylor from California about staying safe during power outages.

ALERT & WARNING

• Risk Communication 101: Forecast and Warning from NOAA and the Institute for Public Policy Research & Analysis at the University of Oklahoma. It includes yearly data (from 2017-2022) on how different demographics receive info during disasters (TV, radio, web, etc.).

• Bomb Cyclone? Or Just Windy with a Chance of Hyperbole? When the barometer drops, the volume of ‘hyped words’ rises, and many meteorologists aren’t happy about it. (NYT) “The widespread use of colorful terms like “bomb cyclone” and “atmospheric river,” along with the proliferating categories, colors and names of storms and weather patterns, has struck meteorologists as a mixed blessing: good for public safety and climate-change awareness but potentially so amplified that it leaves the public numb to or unsure of the actual risk.”

DECEMBER 2022

ACCESSIBILITY

• The City of Portland has published a fantastic new Inclusive Writing Guide. They also now have information about PDX 311 in Spanish, Vietnamese, Romanian, Chinese, and Russian. 

• NYC has a great Disability, Access, and Functional Needs Internet Resource Guide. 

PREPAREDNESS

• The Portland Pearl District Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET) has done a lot of preparedness planning for “vertical neighborhoods” (tall apartment/condo buildings). 

• FEMA has released a summary of the 2022 National Household Survey. 

• It says, “Data was collected from respondents using a mix of telephone interviews and web surveys in English and Spanish. The NHS measures the preparedness of the American public across the whole community.” Laura’s commentary: This seems contradictory. If it’s only done by phone and web surveys and only in two languages, it cannot represent the whole community.

OCTOBER 2022

CLIMATE CHANGE

• Inclusive Climate Resilience Strategies in the US: Lessons from low- and middle-income countries (GSMA, July 2022)

• Interactive maps with county-level variation in disability prevalence and the risk of natural disasters (Mathmatica) 

• Instructions for making a Corsi-Rosenthal Box to filter wildfire smoke pollution indoors. 

• AQI Level Messaging Templates Multi-Lingual (Bay Area UASI)

• Wildfire & Smoke in 10 languages (OHA)

• Smoke Information in 9 Languages (WSDH)

• Smoke Chokes Portland and Air Quality Alerts Lack Multilingual Reach (Oregonian) 

Access and Functional Needs

• The Red Cross ASL Disaster Resource Hub includes videos for deaf or hard-of-hearing adults and children, as well as parents and caregivers. The collection also includes survivor stories, PSA-style videos, and resources to help American Red Cross volunteers, staff, and partners who do not know ASL improve interactions with those in the Deaf Community. Their Cultural Intelligence video provides a solid foundation for first responders, non-profits, and local, state, and federal partners to help improve service and interactions with the Deaf Community. 

Earthquakes

• Earthquake Early Warning Community Forum slides and meeting notes (ShakeAlert)

• The Cascadia Region Earthquake Workgroup (CREW) released several new preparedness videos:

  • Financial Preparedness video

  • Earthquake Insurance for Renters video

  • Earthquake Insurance for Homeowners video

  • Disaster Aid / Earthquake Insurance video

  • Know What’s In Your Insurance Policy video

  • A longer 3-minute financial preparedness video is also available — and you can access many other free preparedness education products on the Insure Against Earthquakes outreach hub

September 2022

Access AND Functional Needs

• The HERO Kids Registry will launch on October 1st. This voluntary, no-cost, secure registry lets families record critical details about their child's health. First responders and hospital emergency departments across Oregon can quickly and easily access that information in an emergency.

• FEMA has a new Community Resilience Index (CRI), which is displayed within the Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (RAPT) as an index, as well as layers per individual indicator. 

  • RAPT Overview

  • RAPT Tool 

  • RAPT Resource Center 

  • How the CRI was developed 

Earthquakes

• Recent research provides more evidence to support “Drop Cover Hold” as Response to Earthquake Early Warning as a response to Earthquake Early Warning. (FEMA)

  • “Evidence suggests that most injuries occur from movement just after shaking begins…In one of the few studies about injuries in the Pacific Northwest, Kano (2005) showed that during the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, the main reason for reported injuries was falls (1 death, 400 injuries).”

  • “Additional injuries occurred from bricks falling just outside of buildings…In California earthquakes, such as the 1987 Whittier Narrows, 1989 Loma Prieta, and 1994 Northridge earthquakes, studies found that injuries sustained while exiting a building and from falls accounted for the majority of injuries…”

  • “According to Shoaf and others (1998), who studied a decade of earthquakes in California, people who moved during shaking were twice as likely to be injured as those who did not.” 

  • “Although more evidence is required for the Pacific Northwest, existing research suggests that staying stationary is one of the most constructive protective actions. Because most injuries occur when people try to move during earthquake shaking, drop, cover, and hold on…has been adopted as the preferred method to reduce injuries in the United States.”

August 2022

Alert & warning

• PublicAlerts.org has an updated About Alerts page that includes a chart and new content explaining the differences between PublicAlerts/OR-ALERT, WEA, and EAS. A 1-page handout will be available soon.

General Risk Communication

• Oregon Health Authority has a new “Equitable and Inclusive Messaging” section on their Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication page. 

• Risk Communication Planning Learning From Lived Experiences of Homelessness (Natural Hazards Center)

• Weather Safety for Deaf and Hard of Hearing (NOAA/NWS)

• Weather Safety for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (NOAA/NWS)

• Weather Ready Ambassador Program (NOAA/NWS)  

Wildfire

• Wildfire Stories from Deaf Evacuees (and other similar videos)

Extreme heat

• Sustainable and Accessible Ways to Stay Cool (The Lancet)

• ‘Getting harder and hotter’: Phoenix fire crews race to save lives in America’s hottest city (The Guardian)

Other

• The Red Cross Safe & Well program has been discontinued.

• Upcoming focus groups will help Multnomah and Clackamas counties develop their plans for children in disasters. Please share.

  • Service Provider Focus Group Monday, September 19, 10-12

  • Emergency Manager Focus Group Monday, September 26, 10-12

JUNE 2022 

Alert & warning

• GoCC4All is a free app to deliver emergency alerts and TV captions in an accessible way to individuals with disabilities, especially those who are blind, have low vision, are deaf, or are hard of hearing. Find it on the App Store and Google Play Store.

• AMBER Alerts are Coming Soon to Your Instagram Feed.

• IPAWS has released new WEA Best Practices.

• Hurricane Laura & Evacuation Decision-Making Under Uncertainty (Natural Hazards Center)

• Effective Communications for People with Disabilities: Before, During, and After Emergencies (National Council on Disability, May 2014)

Wildfire

• Oregon Emergency Management has updated its Evacuation Graphics with improved color contrast.

• OSU and UO have released a new report called Oregon Wildfire Smoke Communication and Impacts: An Evaluation of the 2020 Wildfire Season. And the workgroup is developing a number of new smoke-related communication materials.

• A new study from the Natural Hazards Center’s Weather-Ready Research project looks at the use of 360-degree videos in wildfire preparedness messaging.  

Extreme Weather

• A new study from the Natural Hazards Center’s Weather-Ready Research project looks at Communicating Weather Risk with Those Experiencing Homelessness.

Access and functional needs

• The first ever National Access and Functional Needs Symposium is happening on July 19 and 20.

• Disability Impacts All of Us (CDC infographic) 

• Emergency Management & Disability Publications (National Council on Disability)

• The HHS emPOWER Map shows Medicare electricity-dependent populations by geography.

May 2022

Language access

• A new map helps visualize language access needs in the State of Washington.

• Translation management/memory software helps with standardization, consistency, cost savings, efficiency, and the subjectivity of language translation. Make edits to the English version and it automatically tags the translated versions so you can easily update. It embeds styles in documents, tags items for translators, and tags “fuzzy matches” so you can see other similar instances. Brands we know of (but do not endorse) include Smarling and One2Edit.

• Plain language tools help ensure risk communication can be understood by those with low literacy and lead to more accurate automated translations. Brands we know of (but do not endorse) include StyleWriter and Grammarly. These are much better than Flesch-Kincaid and other tools in Microsoft Word. They are not a substitute for PIOs and others getting quality plain language training (plainlanguage.gov/training).

Extreme heat

• This PBS documentary looks at who was most impacted by the 1995 Chicago heat wave - and why. Cooked: Survival by Zip Code.